Red Sonja Reading Order:Ĭoncerning Red Sonja’s continuity after the Marvel Years, meaning at Dynamite, each new series seems to do a soft reboot (some push a bit harder than that on the reset button). Multiple series followed and, like Vampirella, Sonja took part in multiple Dynamite crossover events and got more than one spin-off. After that, Marguerite Bennett became the series’ writer for a short period of time, and artist Nicola Scott redesigned Red Sonja for the occasion. In 2013, Gail Simone relaunched the series and introduced her take on the character’s beginnings. Then the series went through a soft reboot 15 issues later. Nevertheless, she died in #34 and was replaced by a character described as a reincarnation. In 2005, Red Sonja joined the line-up of Dynamite Comics with a series that was a continuation of the first Marvel series. As she cried for revenge, she got a response from the red goddess Scáthach who gifted her with her incredible fighting skills, on the condition that she never lie with a man unless he defeats her in fair combat.Īfter that, she fought hard for a long time at Marvel Comics, until 1986. She was raped by the leader of the group.

Sonja was 21 and didn’t possess the capacity to fight back. Then we discovered that before becoming a fierce warrior, Red Sonja used to live with her family until a group of mercenaries kills her family and burns down their house. Red Sonja’s origin story was told in Kull and the Barbarians #3 (1975), written by Roy Thomas and Doug Moench with art by Howard Chaykin. She became quite popular and Marvel Comics published stories featuring Red Sonja for a good decade-she also appeared in novels and, in 1986, got her own movie starring Brigitte Nielsen in the title role. She made a few appearances in Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan, and Kull and the Barbarians before finally getting her own solo series in 1975. One issue later, Conan declared that she was his equal.

That was the author’s ambition and, in Conan the Barbarian #23, their last book together, Thomas and Smith introduced Red Sonja as she was wielding a sword against guards, wearing a long-sleeved chain mail shirt. She could battle at his side and keep her feminine side.

Red Sonja was to be a fierce warrior that could be Conan’s match. Howard’s short story “The Shadow of the Vulture.” With artist Barry Windsor-Smith, Thomas created Red Sonja, a character that was loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino from Robert E. At the beginning of 1973, the Conan the Barbarian series was a success and writer Roy Thomas wanted to expand Marvel’s sword and sorcery line with a spin-off title.

Legends of Red Sonja by Gail Simone