Dynamite Entertainment 2020
Written Erik Burnham
Illustrated by Jonathan Lau
Coloured by Celeste Woods
Lettered by Carlos S. Mangual
The past meets the present with the future of literally everything at stake! The warrior Red Sonja has a plan to keep freshly killed wizard Kulan Gath from resurrecting himself again -- but when the plan backfires, it allows a whole new kind of Chaos! to infest the Hyborean Age! Will these new beings be any easier to deal with than Kulan Gath, or has Sonja called a worse evil to her world? It's the first chapter of a brand-new quest for the She-Devil - and it may be her hardest yet as for the first time ever, Red Sonja meets the badass characters of Chaos!
I love Dynamite and I have for years and to see how they handle the whole Chaos line of books kind of makes me happy. I was more than a little curious how they were going to make the two franchises meet and that's answers right off the bat. What Erik came up with is pretty brilliant actually and by taking the Hyborean age and making it a part of the Earth's pre-history history and going from there. I really like this too because let's face it Sonja doesn't really have to read or write because I am never sure if what we think of education actually existed outside the families of Nobles. You see what I did right here, I am instantly engaged in the book and partly before even reading it as my went completely off-script and piquing the curiosity to level that is well, you'll see for yourself when you start reading this.
I am huge fan of how this is being told. Erik found a path to take with the story & plot development as seen through the sequence of events as well as how the reader learns information that is strong, interesting and logical. So yeah I am a huge supporter of seeing how the characters are introduced, how that's done as well as why. Also just the fact that we see characters whom I have missed dearly over the years making their debuts makes me that giddy schoolgirl with his first crush. The character development is utterly beautiful and everyone manages to feel exactly like they are supposed to and then some. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way helps in the creation of the overall ebb & flow of the book.
I can never say enough good things about Jonathan's artwork because honestly the man is so incredibly talented. When I saw the opening I was like hmm what is this, it is in a style that I wasn't expecting and yet catches the eye and commands your attention. I absolutely adore the way the linework and it's varying weights are utilised to bring about this level and quality of attention to detail. When we get to see the Chaos characters things take a sharper even more streamlined look. It is so beautiful and mesmerising to see there is something about a woman and her curves that when done just right is evocative and enticing and that green dress is pretty fully there. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this masterful eye for storytelling. How backgrounds are utilised and how we see them in the composition inside the panels bring us the depth perception, scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The colour work is exquisitely rendered. Oh the way that we see the various hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows us a someone who really knows and understand how colour works and how it can bleed or the gradation it needs.
I totally super excited for what is coming next because as this just really wets the appetite for more. That this was exciting as an idea and has blossomed into a full blown geek-gasm first issue thanks to the quality and level of writing and interior artwork is mindbogglingly good.