Hello. It’s time to read Red Sonja: Unchained #4. You might remember her from the 1985 film of the same name, but this comic is much more grounded in high fantasy. I’m talking werewolf Red Sonja baby! We check out issue #4 of this 4 part series to answer the question, is it good?
Red Sonja Unchained #4 (Dynamite Entertainment)
Going in completely blind the book opens with Red Sonja in the middle of a full-on werewolf killing spree. If you’ve ever wanted to see multiple renditions of intestines you’ve come to the right issue!
Playing it fast and loose, I kept turning the pages expecting exposition to bog me down, but thankfully writer Peter V. Brett kept me guessing and artist Jack Jadson blowing my mind with werewolf vs. Sonja action.
That’s hot!
In this very issue there are five, yes five action scenes. That’s a hell of a lot of action scenes when you consider how short comics are these days. I won’t spoil them, but let’s just say, much like a videogame, they ramp up and become more and more deadly. The final showdown is quite good too, as Brett gives us a Sonja vs. Sonja battle akin to all the classic battles. Everybody knows no matter who you are: Link, Conan, Spider-Man, the ultimate battle is against yourself. Well you get that here! Seriously, if you enjoy well rendered action sequences this issue will not disappoint.
At least there’s no hangover.
I must say Jadson does a great job with the monsters. Sonja isn’t rendered as a sex object either but is mostly conveyed as either strong and brave or cool and collected. She’s basically drawn like a Conan the Barbarian counterpart with just as much skill and wearing even more clothing!
You can tell Jadson digs drawing the monsters, because they’re always tagged with a bit more detail than Sonja herself, which is fine by me because that’s where all the slicing and dicing takes place.
Having not read the issues leading up to this one I can’t say for certain if the story adequately concludes, but as far as single issue reads go I can’t see anyone not enjoying this. Sure the amount of action resolves this issue to basically videogame level of events, but that’s not all that bad considering the title we’re reading here.
Om nom nom nom nom.
- Lots of gory action with many different enemies
- Sonja is NOT a sex object
- Okay…so it’s mostly action…
I’ve been reading Conan the Barbarian for decades and I can safely say this issue has more action with many different types of enemies than 2 or or even 3 issues of Conan put together. I call that a win. I also love how Sonja isn’t a sex object like so many female heroes are these days but a levelheaded master fighter. There are so many pages in this issue that’ll make you cheer for her badassery that you’ll be satiated from that alone.
Is It Good?
Yes. Sonja kicks ass, takes names, kills innocence as a blue werewolf…awesome.
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