Red Sonja (Volume 6/Mirka Andolfo)

Background

Red Sonja
Real Name: Sonjita
Aliases: She-Devil with a Sword, Blade of Hyrkania, Anna, Sonja the Red, Red Death, Goddess of the Blade, The Hyrkanian, The She-Wolf
Nicknames: Red, She-Devil, the Devil Swordswoman, Chainmail Bikini, Fire-Hair, Blood-Hair, She-Cur, Raggedy Ann, Strawberry Shortcake, Annie, Wendy,
Occupation: Mercenary, pirate (temporarily), thief, peacekeeper, diplomat, soldier, tracker, guardian, member of the Hell Sonjas
First appearance: Red Sonja #1 (September 1, 2021)
Likes: Sitha, Warrick, ale, competitions
Dislikes: Perverts, prophecies, riddles, magic, Xumal, Scathach/the Godhead

Backstory

“Know, o prince,of Red Sonja, warrior woman out of majestic Hyrkania. Forced to flee her homeland, and because she spurned the advances of a king and slew him instead, she rode west across the Turanian Steppes and into the shadowed mists of legendry…”
- The Nemedian Chronicles

As a young girl, the girl who would one day become Red Sonja was born “Sonjita” to her parents in the land of Hyrkania. Nicknamed “Red Sonja” for her hair and fiery temper, she spent much of her childhood at home being trained in “woman’s work” while her father took her brothers hunting. But Sonja’s life would be forever changed when a band of marauders attacked her village, killing her parents right in front of her eyes and burning her home to the ground. Left as the only survivor, she turned to the goddess Scathach and offered prayers to gain the strength and battle prowess to defeat the men responsible. Scathach granted her request on one condition: in exchange for these gifts she must take a vow never to lie with a man unless he defeated her in combat.

Years later, while in the city of Massentia, Sonja was approached by the merchant Zondryck to travel to Hyperboria and find Sitha, a child from a powerful religious caste. After agreeing to the job, Sonja spent two months traveling there and was greeted by Sitha’s village being set ablaze by underlings of the Britunnian warlord Three-Eyed Shezem. After killing most of the ones responsible, she discovered Sitha among the wreckage, who agreed to travel with her after mistaking Sonja for her mom. During their travels, Sonja was injured by some of the surviving marauders, which awakened a strange fiery power that drove them off.

Sonja would have died if she hadn’t been taken in by Samosh, a lumberjack, medic, and ex-soldier who lived near where they’d been attacked. Though Sonja initially distrusted him and even tried to attack him, over time she’d come to trust him. Once she’d finished healing, Sonja left with Sitha and took her back to Zondryck, but there was just one problem. Sitha didn’t want to leave Sonja because of how much they’d bonded, and despite trying her best to deny it, Sonja felt the same. She returned to Zondryck’s home to take Sitha back, only for the now disfigured merchant to reveal she’d been taken by two necromancers. After killing his new, monstrous form, Sonja learned the identities of the kidnappers: the Blinded Twins R’Hakash and R’Hakiki, and received help from one of their former associates, Setubai.

With him and Samosh in tow, Sonja made her way to the Blinded Twins’ ship, but despite taking both of them down, Sitha still remained out of reach. Now possessed by the fiery power from before, the “Daughter of Fire” had broken free on her own, hijacked Sonja’s steed, and traveled into the mountains to get revenge on Shezem. Sonja’s party followed after her, and during their nightly trips Setubai revealed that Sitha’s power was actually the demigod Xamul possessing her.

Eventually they found her in the dungeons of Shezem’s fortress, nearly driven mad by Xamul’s influence. While there, Sonja and her men would confront Shezem himself, but any worries about him were tossed aside when Xamul’s influence rose once again. Samosh would end up gravely injured while protecting Sonja, who helped calm Sitha and escaped the fortress.

Using his knowledge of Xamul, Setubai gave Sonja directions to a priestess that could exorcize the goddess without the risk of killing its host. Sonja and Sitha would then set off on a two week voyage to Khitai, during which they came across a village under the reign of a corrupt, cannibalistic baroness named Drang.

Despite trying to lay low, Sonja was soon apprehended and Sitha found herself under the watch of local street rat Kebra. As it turned out, Kebra had been planning a heist on Drang’s fortress and saw Sitha as her ticket to success (yes, this design is apparently a girl). While they prepared to set it off, Sonja remained imprisoned, refusing to eat for the entire week she was inside.

Soon enough, Sonja was sent to battle the huntress, and after a hard fought battle, Sonja emerged victorious. She then took Sitha on a boat ride to Khitai, even gifting her her old sword, but by nightfall they were attacked by pirates and their captain Krancher. However, they’d soon forget their battle after the ship was dragged into the fabled crimson mists, depositing them into another dimension with a living island and two moons. While there, a swarm of bat-like monsters kidnapped Sitha, forcing Sonja and the pirates to team up. When they finally reached Sitha, she had relinquished control to Xumal, who revealed the island was the corpse of one of the god Ar'ghul-Akh Tan-Tan-y'an-She, and they’d been brought there by Beylab, who was actually a necromancer. Beylab had been trying to resurrect and enslave the deity through mass sacrifices, and he’d begun the ritual shortly after they arrived.

Despite his efforts, Beylab was slain shortly after, and the crimson mists parted, allowing Sonja and her “daughter” to continue their trip to Khitai. Soon enough they made it to the village of Agaras-Bulba and met with the priestesses. They even managed to reunite Sitha with her birth mother, but when she left Sonja came to two realizations: Sitha had mistaken her for her mom because of her red hair, which Sitha’s “real mom” didn’t have. And the “snow” her horse was walking on wasn’t snow at all. They were piles of skulls.

Though her return was greeted with a poisoned arrow to her shoulder, Sonja continued her pursuit to find the Priestesses of Fire and rescue her foster daughter. She ventured into the volcano where the priestesses resided, and there she learned the truth behind the ceremony. The village’s leader, Ya-Ya, sought to exorcize Xumal from Sitha and absorb him in the hopes of taming him.

This process failed almost instantly, and Ya-Ya’s body was completely taken over. But with Sitha’s help, Sonja was able to cast him into the lava, killing him. With the demigod slain and their adventure over, Sonja placed Sitha in Samosh’s care, letting him train the Daughter of Fire to master the sparks of Xamul’s fire that resided within her. Sonja would soon ride off on her own adventures.

At some point while in a bar, she met a potential suitor named Warrick, and against all odds, he actually defeated her. Taking her defeat in stride, Sonja’s relationship with him quickly evolved into a marriage, but much to his chagrin, Sonja continued challenging him to duels any time they were about to have sex. When he eventually raised an objection to it, Sonja went to the local temple and prayed for Scathach to release her from her service. But while she was away, Warrick was assassinated by an identical copy of Sonja, who would then die to Sonja’s own blade.

This murder would spark a catalyst as multiple other women, all bearing her name and face, were sent after her to try and kill her. This eventually culminated in the entire multiverse’s Sonjas being dragged to Hell for the chance to kill their Red counterpart. However, not all of them were up to the task, and with a small group of her other selves Sonja was able to escape Hell and learn the truth behind Scathach.

In reality, the goddess was nothing more than one of the ever-changing identities of the Godhead, a deity who had spread its influence throughout the multiverse to absorb the souls of anyone its “patrons” killed. She’d also come to learn that she was not the first to bear the moniker “Red Sonja” and all of the different Sonjas could freely reject their oaths without losing their blessing. With this knowledge, she renounced her devotion to the Godhead and killed it, freeing the trapped souls it had devoured and resurrecting them. Upon returning to her home, Sonja reunited with Warrick and the two set off to continue killing her resurrected foes.

She’d eventually be recruited by the demonic Hell Sonja alongside several other counterparts as part of the Hell Sonjas, a group dedicated to traveling the multiverse and killing those who deserve it. At first she joined with the agreement that she’d join for a few missions, and when they were done, Hell Sonja wouldn’t claim Warrick’s soul. However, during one of these missions she learned from her target that the demon shockingly wasn’t telling her the whole truth. When Sonja confronted the Hell Queen, she revealed that she couldn’t bring Red and Warrick back to their version of Hyrkania, but she would ensure they were reborn in a version of it. As Red, Warrick, and the rest of the group crumbled to dust, Hell Sonja got to work fulfilling her end of the bargain… while also scouting out other Sonjas to pick up the slack.

Four months later, Hell Sonja would reappear to help Sonja after strange, otherworldly entities began attacking a nearby village. As it turned out, the queen of Hell had been dethroned by the all consuming black void Zhaogeth, stripping her of her demonic nature and rendering her human. Realizing they’d need more help if they wanted to succeed, Hell Sonja called in a cavalry of other Sonjas to aid them in the final battle, and through their combined strength they managed to destroy its body. With the multiverse now safe, Sonja set off to continue her adventures in Hyrkania.

Even when she reached her elder years, Sonja would find a successor in Sitha, who followed in her footsteps to become a legendary warrior known as Red Sitha…At least, that’s how I would’ve ended this if Sitha hadn’t gotten her ass handed to her by this thing despite her years of training, then needed Sonja to bail her out against an actual threat.

But even though her current legacy might be in the hands of a total fraud, Sonja’s travels continued long after her death. Like so many times before, Red Sonja would reincarnate into an endless number of lives, eventually becoming the Polish-Ukrainian gunslinger Red Sonya of Rogatino.

Personality

As a child, Sonja was often quiet, defiant, and bullheadedly stubborn, often letting her temper get the better of her. At its worst she wanted to kill everything in her way, or for someone to kill her and stop the pain. As an adult, she’s often more stoic and reserved, though she’s occasionally been sarcastic and made jokes. She enjoys competitions and ale (maybe a bit too much), but isn’t fond of the idea of ruling others. She seeks adventure above all else and enjoys traveling.

She’s extremely sympathetic toward abused and dying animals and merciless toward their abusers. Examples include when she burned the amputated stumps of an enemy bowman whose crossbow killed her horse.

When it comes to law-related conflicts, she prefers not to get involved and was even willing to abandon a village to suffer under its corrupt baroness until the authorities forced her to involve herself. Should authorities start targeting her, she’ll try to keep peace by talking her way out of a situation, but this always inevitably fails and she’ll be forced to fight anyway.

As a mercenary she’s willing to follow her employer’s instructions to a T, even prolonging a target’s suffering if told to. She’s extremely prepared for battle, maintaining a death grip on her sword even while unconscious.

There are times where she can be extremely presumptuous and easily angered, to the point where she comes across as a belligerent moron. In her first meeting with Samosh she attacked him without letting him explain himself, then assumed he molested her in her sleep. This was after he told her he was a medic and explained in detail how he‘d spent the last 8 days feeding her, cleaning her wounds, changing her bandages, and applying ointments so she didn’t get infected.

She hates prophecies and riddles and considers anyone that speaks them to be a charlatan with a silver tongue. Additionally, it’s mentioned that she hated magic even as a child.

While she has no strong feelings toward cults and doesn’t practice religion, she’s occasionally been known to invoke the gods or swear by them, like saying “Praise the goddess” when something good happens, ”By Hanuman’s hairy hand” when confused; ”Mitra’s milk” when annoyed, and when surprised she’ll say “By the goddess,” “Crom’s taint,” “Tarim’s blood,” “Mother of Mitra,” “Mitra’s maidens,” “By Ishtar’s golden girdle,” “Shades of Erlik,” or “By Crom”

Unlike her other counterparts Sonja is unique in that she refuses to disobey Scathach and takes her vow to Scathach very seriously. It’s to the point where she’ll actively challenge a potential suitor, though she has no problems with getting defeated by them. However, even being defeated by someone doesn’t mean she’ll let them continue laying with her freely. She’ll still challenge her partner to a duel as a prerequisite whenever he wants to have sex.

While it doesn’t come up in the spinoffs , the main series has Sonja be extremely foul-mouthed. When she isn’t saying “shit” when she gets annoyed, she’ll switch to “fuck” whenever she’s angry, exhausted, or freaked out at her current situation.

Experience

Sonja is a warrior skilled in many fields who's seen her way through plenty of battles, both against humans and the supernatural. By her own admission, she’s lost count of how many she’s slain who were said to be powerful, evil, or immortal.

She’s defeated Agaras-Bulba’s best guards while having a poisoned arrow in her shoulder, killed a monster while in complete darkness, and slew multiple soldiers while filled with arrows.

Her skills in combat have been complimented by Drang, who’s trained since childhood to be a warrior. She’s even shown to be a gifted mentor, like when she taught Sitha swordsmanship and her past self how to use a knife. She also knows her ways around the seas thanks to her time as a pirate.

The Sonjaversal series establishes that Sonja is well-versed when it comes to killing alternate versions of herself. In the first two issues alone she’s shown knocking around and decapitating the cyborg Orange Sonja, and later on she harms Planet Sonja, who- as her name implies- is the size of a planet! She even went up against the Godhead, the very being that gave her and all other Sonjas their power, and easily murdered it.

The Unbreakable Red Sonja series goes even further in scale by having her kill Tendra, who traveled to the beginning of time and killed all of the other gods.

And then the Red Sonja/Hell Sonja series one-upped that by having her and the other Sonjas fight Zhaogeth, an all consuming void.

Strength

Red Sonja #1:
Snaps a man’s neck, severs another’s hands, and stabs a third in the chest.
Stabs, amputates, and decapitates some marauders.

Red Sonja #2:
Elbows Samosh.
Samosh admits that if she weren’t injured, she could snap his neck in the blink of an eye.
Throws Zondryck across a room.

Red Sonja #3:
Cuts through Zondryck’s tentacles and slices him in half.
Slits a man’s throat and stabs another in the back.
Stabs a man from behind, bifurcates another hard enough that his upper half goes flying, busts down a door, and throws her knife into one of the Blinded Twins’ chest.
Cuts through the Twin’s tendrils and decapitates her.

Red Sonja #4:
Slices some guards’ throats and chests.
Stabs Archibald in the back.

Red Sonja #6:
Punches a guard in a flashback.

Red Sonja #7:
Punches Drang twice and impales her through the stomach.

Red Sonja #8:
Slices Dragan in half and sends the upper half flying.
Kicks a door down.

Red Sonja #9:
Slices a pirate in half and another across the chest.
Cuts through some bat-like monsters.

Red Sonja #10:
Cuts through Beylab’s tendrils.

Red Sonja #12:
Defeated some of Agaras-Bulba’s guards off panel and rips an arrow out of her shoulder.
Slashes Ya-Ya, but Xamul’s possession prevents it from being fatal.

Red Sonja Holiday Special 2021:
Severs Hillak’s arm.
Chops some arrows in two.
Decapitates a wizard.

Red Sitha #4:
Decapitates a necromancer.

Sonjaversal #1:
Kicks a potential suitor in the face, lifts him, and throws him into a tree.
Throws Orange Sonja and smacks her away.

Sonjaversal #2:
Fights Warrick for some time and smacks him.
Decapitates Orange Sonja.

Sonjaversal #3:
Cuts a Sonja across the back.
Decapitates another Sonja.

Sonjaversal #5:
Decapitates Scarlet Sonja in a flashback.
Harms Planet Sonja off panel.
Clashes with Saint Sonja.
Kills the Godhead.

The Invincible Red Sonja #1:
Kills multiple soldiers and rips an arrow out of her chest.
Casually overpowers a pirate in arm wrestling and slams him through a table.
Decapitates, amputates, and impales some sirens.

The Invincible Red Sonja #2:
Throws a man through some doors while in midair.
Beats a monster to death in complete darkness and rips its jaw off.

Uses knives to climb a pit that’s at least 20 feet deep while a man clings to her back.

Speed

Red Sonja #1:
Dodges a crossbow bolt.
Says she can kill two guards before they could blink.

Red Sonja #4:
Flips away from a giant sword.
Pushes Samosh away before Shezem’s whip can hit them.
Dodges Shezem’s whip, but it still hits her thanks to his third eye’s precognition.

Red Sonja #9:
Dodges Krancher’s attacks.

Red Sonja #12:
Ducks under Ya-Ya’s fire attack.

Red Sonja Holiday Special 2021:
Dives out of the way before some arrows can hit her.

Sonjaversal #2:
Outruns an explosion.

Sonjaversal #3:
Runs ahead of a laser.

The Invincible Red Sonja #2:
Pushes Zaria away before an arrow can hit her, then cuts two out of the air.
Dodges shuriken.

The Invincible Red Sonja #4:
Moves FTE against a thief.

The Invincible Red Sonja #6:
Ducks under Bahira’s slash and dodges a thrown knife.

Red Sonja 1982:
Dives to the ground before exploding shards of bone can hit her, then avoids blasts from TDK-090.

Unbreakable Red Sonja #4:
Dodges a Guardian’s claws.
Blocks a blast from Tendra.

Immortal Red Sonja #1:
Dodges Lott’s attacks and ducks under them.

Immortal Red Sonja #2:
Ducks under the Green Knight’s slash.

Immortal Red Sonja #3:
Avoids Gog’s club.

Immortal Red Sonja #8:
Dodges Mordread lunging at her and his following attacks.

Immortal Red Sonja #9:
Dodges sword swings from Mordread’s men.

Battle Fairy and the Yeti vs Red Sonja:
Avoids a demon trying to charge into her.

Durability

Red Sonja #1 & 2:
Slashed across the back and punched. Samosh says in the next issue that this nearly split her rib cage and took nine days to heal.
Takes a knee strike to the stomach.
Smacked by Zondryck‘s monster form and smashed through a wall.

Red Sonja #3:
Squeezed by Zondryck’s tentacles.
Gets crushed by rubble and comes out uninjured.

Red Sonja #4 & 5:
Knocked back by a possessed Sitha’s fiery explosion, and later tanks a second one.
Sliced across the chest by Shezem’s whip, which broke her sword.

Red Sonja #6:
Refuses to eat for three days straight, though it’s noted she’ll die soon.

Red Sonja #7:
Has now gone seven days without eating.
Backhanded by Drang and hit with a rock hard enough that she goes flying.

Red Sonja #11:
Shot in the shoulder by a poisoned arrow.

Red Sonja #12:
Knocked back by Ya-Ya’s streams of fire.

The Invincible Red Sonja #1:
Takes multiple arrows, including one to the heart that she ripped out.

The Invincible Red Sonja #4:
Punched by a giant demon.
Electrocuted by Brelaq lightning spell.
After receiving an invincibility spell from Brelaq, she survives being stabbed in the heart.

The Invincible Red Sonja #5:
Stabbed in the chest by Brelaq and regenerates thanks to his spell.

The Invincible Red Sonja #6 & 7:
Slammed into the ground and backhanded by Bahira.
Sliced across the side and crushed beneath a tree.
Survives being submerged in lava. Issue 8 elaborates on what this felt like, where she felt every nerve being seared by the heat.
Has a chunk of the skin on her arm ripped off by a reptilian monster.

The Invincible Red Sonja #9:
Knocked back by Tezzah’s son twice.

Red Sonja 1982:
Thrown by TDK-090 and kicked by it.
Shot in the arm by TDK-090’s lasers.

Unbreakable Red Sonja #4:
Backhanded by a Guardian.
Unharmed after blocking a blast from Tendra that could level a mountain.

Immortal Red Sonja #3:
Sent flying by a Magog’s club.

Immortal Red Sonja #6:
Smacked into a wall by Bormaris.

Immortal Red Sonja #8:
Cut on the arm by Mordread’s claws.

Immortal Red Sonja #10:
Blasted by Mordread’s magic.

Battle Fairy and the Yeti vs Red Sonja:
Knocked back by Yeti and dropkicked by Serena.

Notti & Nyce Red Sonja Vampirella:
Kicked by Notti, then takes three crotch shots and gets slammed through some rocks.

Scaling

Sitha

During their journeys together, Sonja tanked Sitha’s fire attacks multiple times while she was possessed by the fire god Xumal, and she personally trained Sitha for a time. Sonja’s easily more skilled than her ~~fraud successor~~ foster daughter considering she killed the final boss of Sitha’s series and that same boss one-shot Sitha.

Drang

Despite admitting she’d stand no chance against her with her bare hands, Sonja was still able to challenge her in battle and eventually split her in two.

Tendra

Sonja’s blocked her attacks without issue, matched her strength, and killed her.

Hell Sonja

While they never had an actual physical confrontation beyond Red Sonja attempting to snap her out of a trance, there’s still an argument to be made that the She-Devil with a Sword can scale to this actual She-Devil. Red Sonja casually murdered the Godhead, the being that gave her and the multiverse’s other Sonjas their power, including Hell Sonja. And in the Red Sonja/Hell Sonja miniseries, Red and Hell teamed up with their other counterparts to kill Zhaogeth, with all of them doing equal damage to him. Thus it would make sense for Red Sonja to be at minimum comparable to Hell Sonja.

Created Hell, which is a planet connected to the entire multiverse
Constructs a giant demonic bazooka that incinerates part of Hell
As mentioned above, she and other Sonjas all dealt equivalent damage to Zhaogeth, whose stomach is actually Hell

Intelligence

Red Sonja #1:
Knows how to combine roots to help with fevers.

Red Sonja #2:
Deduces that Samosh is from the military based on his fighting skill.

Red Sonja #7:
Identifies the poisons in the food Drang’s jailer sent to her.

Red Sonja #8:
Figures out that Captain Beylab is smuggling contraband based on his ship’s reaction to the tides.

Red Sonja 1982:
Picks up English while transported to America.

Hell Sonja #1:
Has extraordinary physical and martial abilities, with combat expertise spanning from siege warfare to tavern brawling.

Immortal Red Sonja #1:
Determines that Lott is lying to her based on the layout of their surroundings.

Abilities

Stamina and Endurance

Sonja’s taken multiple arrows during battle without slowing down, including one to the heart that she proceeded to rip out. She’s defeated a skilled huntress after going an entire week without food, could spend hours dancing nonstop while weighed down by her armor, and once took three crotch shots followed by being slammed through some rocks, only to get back up more pissed off! And while under an invincibility spell that still forced her to suffer the pain of her injuries, she withstood getting stabbed in the chest, losing the skin on her arm, and even being submerged in lava. That last one’s particularly notable because she could feel every nerve being seared by the heat.

Swordsmanship

Sonja is skilled with her blades and can easily switch between using one or two. She’s even taught Sitha how to wield one.

Marksmanship

She can impale a squirrel with a spear, throw her knife into an enemy’s throat, land a headshot on Orange Sonja, and free some prisoners with an explosive arrow.

Hunting

Sonja is a skilled hunter, letting her fend for herself in the wilderness. She’s killed fish, cooked them, and knows their most nutritious parts, and can accurately identify poisons.

Powers

Heightened Senses

Could clearly overhear a mob even at a distance.

Acausality

When Tendra went back to the universe’s beginning and killed all the gods, Sonja was the only one who remembered the original history.

Fourth Wall Awareness

Interrupted the narrator at the end of Immortal Red Sonja to tell him to cut it out with the speeches.

Invincibility

In The Invincible Red Sonja, after getting brainwashed by Brelaq, he cast an invincibility spell that ensured she would be unable to die in battle. While this doesn’t protect her from the pain of her injuries, anything she sustains will quickly regenerate. This includes being shot or stabbed in the chest, damage to her organs, losing the skin on her arm, and even being submerged in lava. It also enhances her strength and fighting prowess. The spell’s effects are strong enough that they persist even after Brelaq’s death, though they fade overtime.

Reincarnation

In Unbreakable Red Sonja, it’s revealed that whenever she dies, Sonja will reincarnate into a new body and be visited by Scathach to receive her power. The end of the comic shows that Red Sonya of Rogatino is among these reincarnations.

Arsenal

Bikini Armor

Unlike previous series, this Sonja goes for a bizarre attempt at combining the usual bikini armor with traditional armor. The spinoffs forego this entirely and return to a more traditional look, which is justified in-universe as giving her better mobility.

The Holiday Special reveals it’s made of a mesh forged by metal from a meteor. According to its metalsmith, Esteban, nothing can penetrate it, from arrows, to swords, to poisoned daggers. Some of its portions are also razor sharp.

Chainmail Shirt

Crafted by the smiths of Capella, this was given to her as a parting gift before she went on a voyage at sea.

A similar chainmail shirt shows up in Immortal Red Sonja. This one is cursed so she can’t take it off. If she tries, it will dig into her skin until it draws blood. Additionally, it’s possessed by the talkative spirit of Mordread, who’s disguised as Arthr Paindragon and only she can hear. Though it does still have its uses, like completely shielding her from a giant blade that’s cut through hundreds of mail shirts.

Straight Swords

A pair of steel, single-edged swords. One has a serrated blade. While she originally used both, she later gave one of them to Sitha.

The appearance of her remaining sword changes after issue 7, going from a single-edged sword to a double-edged broadsword.

Scimitar and Broadsword

A combination of blades exclusive to “The Dance of Fire” from the 2021 Holiday Special. In later series she just uses a single broadsword.

Knife

Sonja has been depicted carrying knives at her side or hidden in her loincloth and cuffs. She can use them for close range and long range kills.

Axe

Used during a bar fight or while fighting Blackwing and Mordread’s men. In the latter case, she stole it from a dead man, and it was able to cut through armor like butter.

Bow

She can fire regular arrows or strap a bundle of dynamite to one for explosive results.

Wait, how the hell does she have dynamite? That wasn’t invented when this story takes place!

Horse

Sonja’s standard mode of transportation. They can be gray, brown, or white, and she has no problem stealing them from enemies.

Lightsaber

Taken from one of her counterparts she’s killed, Sonja used this to decapitate her other counterparts and kill the Godhead.

Gwynbur

A sword given to Sonja by the Lady of the Lake. It’s light as a feather, but using it comes at a cost. She can only use it against those who are evil or cursed. If she attacks someone worthy or pure she’ll be afflicted by a curse that causes nature to attack her. She can’t get rid of the sword either, as it will automatically return to her grasp if anyone tries to separate it.

While it was destroyed during a fight with Mordread, Sonja can still fight with its broken pieces.

Caliburn

A legendary sword hidden deep in the forests of Broken-Land in the pool of Elowyn. It’s said that it can only by wielded by kings and the Paindragon family, though Sonja has used it on her own to kill Mordread. She later kept it when she became Queen of Logres.

Flintlock Pistols

Used during her time as Red Sonya of Rogatino.

Resistances

Poisons:
Was unaffected after being shot in the shoulder by a poisoned arrow.

Mental Manipulation:
Listening to the sirens’ song only irritates her.

Feats

Rescued Sitha from her burning village
Killed Zondryck after he was transformed by the Blinded Twins
Rescued Sitha from the Mad King’s Fortress
Killed Drang
Killed Xumal with Sitha’s help
Has slain many of her counterparts across the multiverse
Killed the Godhead, a multiverse-spanning deity that tricked many Sonja’s into making paths with it
Slew an entire army while under Brelaq’s enchantment
Survived an entire city being engulfed in lava
Killed Tezzah, her son, Blackwing, and his men
Killed Mordread and became the Queen of Logres

Weaknesses

Despite her insanely high pain tolerance, Sonja isn’t unstoppable. It took 9 days for her to heal a spinal injury and after getting cut on the side, she eventually passed out from blood loss and needed medical attention.

Her blades have limits to what they can take, as a strike from Shezem’s whip, even when blocked, still shattered one. Her broadsword shattered when it hit an armored demon and defended against an attack that could level a mountain, and it melted when exposed to acidic centaur’s blood. Her knives have had similar problems since one snapped in half against a robot.

As mentioned above, her belligerent, hotheaded nature has led to her starting pointless fights over baseless assumptions. She also lacks any innate resistances to sleeping powders or mind control, having fallen under hypnotic tunes, spells, and demonic brainwashing and being completely powerless against them.

Conclusion

Another volume down! It’s taken over a year, but once the 2023 run ends I’ll officially be all caught up with the Red Sonja comics.

Honestly, I don’t know if it was burnout or something else, but I barely felt anything toward the Andolfo run. The concept of Sonja having to escort a child to her true home was interesting, as was uncovering the cause of Sitha’s possession. It’s just that everything else kinda dropped the ball.

Sonja’s fights with the bandits in the first two issues was decent, but the scene where she threatened Samosh and accused him of molesting her was garbage. Sonja having a bad temper has been a thing in a ton of stories, but this makes her come across as a presumptuous, idiotic bitch. I could understand being jumpy and suspicious because she just woke up in an unfamiliar place after bleeding out, but why does she assume he molested her? He just told her he was there to apply ointment and medicine, which clearly implies he’s a medic, then he explained the only times he touched her body were to feed her and clean her wounds. Why jump to the idea of molestation when he never implied that?

After that, the Sitha rescue arc was kind of boring. Shezem was such a forgettable villain that even the story sidelined him to focus on Xumal possessing Sitha. The next arc with Sitha rescuing Sonja wasn’t much of an improvement. Kebra felt like an annoying sidekick with an ugly design, but at least Dragan was an improvement as a villain. Her insanity gave her scenes something enjoyable and I liked the fight between her and Sonja. The only problem was she lacked screen time.

The following arc with the pirates had a good start, but once they reached the island of the dead god it started to feel like filler.

One thing that bothered me was the writer went back and forth with whether Xumal was a man or a woman. Setubai calls him a god and describes him as “he” in issue 4, but the next issue has him call Xumal a demigoddess and use “her.” Then in the last two issues Xumal’s a “he” again and it’s emphasized that he’s the only male tolerated in Agaras-Bulba.

Funnily enough I accidentally called one of the plot points in issue 11. The first issue had Sitha mistake Sonja as her mom because of her red hair, but when we see her actual mom, she has black hair. I caught this immediately and figured it meant something, and a few pages later Sonja realized the same thing. It’s a shame the final issue, much like the rest of this run, just left me feeling empty. I thought Sonja being shot with a poisoned arrow would come into play during the finale, but nothing came of it. And the final battle with Xamul was just “Sonja struggles with him for a bit, Sitha shanks him, and Sonja tosses him into a volcano.” Even the ending wasn’t anything to write home about and felt like it was just there to set up a spinoff!

Speaking of which, Red Sitha was also a disappointment. It felt like a shitty Red Sonja fan fiction that wanted to be a young adult novel. Seriously, look at these pages and narration and tell me you don’t see a resemblance. The character designs weren’t any better since you’ve got period fitting townspeople and guards mixed in with sailors that look more at home in the 1800s. There are also times when the writing and the art don’t seem to connect, like Sitha’s brother saying his eyes are a mirror of hers when the close-ups show they’re different colors. And Poppet was probably one of the most annoying things I’ve seen in any Red Sonja media. His design feels like a rejected Pokémon and having his introduction be him kicking Sitha’s ass only convinced me she sucks as a hero.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Sonjaversal. I’m not part of the comic readers that vehemently multiverse stories, but there being a canon multiverse of Red Sonjas and having them engage in a free for all felt a bit divorced from the Hyborian setting. My only hope was that this turned out better than Dan Slott’s shitty Spider-Verse comics. I’ll admit I was kinda surprised they brought back Sonja’s vow of celibacy. I always thought that idea was cool, but I figured they abandoned it after 2010’s Queen Sonja.

Her fight with Orange Sonja (whose name sounds more like a drink if you ask me) was cool, especially when main Sonja pulled out a lightsaber. And the free for all against the different Sonjas was cool. It started to get a bit weird when we got the Godhead reveal, and the final battle with it also felt a bit anticlimactic.

I thought it would’ve ended there, but for some reason it kept going, and those remaining issues were still really good. Noir Sonja was a major highlight, and Yellow Sonja’s fight against vampires was cool. Same with Purple Sonja being a mech pilot that fights kaijus and Blue Sonja killing monsters as part of a military unit. The final issue also had an interesting setup for its sequel.

Invincible Red Sonja was a series I’d been looking forward to reading ever since I first heard about it. I’ve been a huge fan of Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner since I read Power Girl, and I was excited to see them tackle Sonja (I know they’d already done work on Sonja separately, but this is the first time together). And they more than delivered!

It’s only 10 issues, but Invincible Red Sonja is easily one of her best series and a love letter to her older stories in Marvel. It captures the best traits of Sonja, whether it’s her brutal efficiency as a warrior, her willpower and endurance, her kind nature, and even a bit of her philosophical side. And while Moritat’s art looked a bit odd at first, it quickly grew on me.

Red Sonja 1982 was a fun one-shot. Amy Chu’s writing was just as good as it was back in her solo. It’s Sonja going up against a Terminator. You can’t really screw that up, though it ends a bit too quickly for my liking.

Hell Sonja was weird. It started off decent, then went off the rails when they went on that airplane of the damned in issue 4. And it was all for a boring final issue. The main villain gets taken out without any fight, and after sitting on her ass the entire comic, Hell Sonja, the titular character, doesn’t even do anything meaningful! She briefly gets her ass kicked by some brainwashed Sonjas, then sends them off to new lives after they die.

The Valentine’s Special was quick, dumb fun, but there’s some major false advertising. The description for the book says she gains fire powers to fight some warlords that have ice powers. I think whoever wrote this description might’ve gotten it mixed up with another book because that doesn’t happen here. Sonja’s her usual self, no powers or anything. The closest she gets to pyrokinesis is when she shoots a dynamite arrow to free some prisoners. And again I have to ask, where the hell did she get dynamite from?

Jim Zub’s Unbreakable Red Sonja was just as solid as his writing for Conan. Admittedly, the concept felt a bit derivative considering I just got through a story where Sonja has to take care of a redheaded child, but the time travel aspect with her taking care of her past self kinda reminded me of Bayonetta. The references to the previous Sonja origins with her reincarnating was awesome, and I loved the epilogue with Red Sonya from the original Robert E. Howard story.

Red Sonja/Hell Sonja was strange. The first issue had a solid start, but then things got really trippy with Hell Sonja getting trapped in a bunch of illusions and it left me really confused. Especially when one of those illusions was of the 1985 movie. And that ending was totally insane! All of the Sonja’s going up against Zhaogeth and killing it was awesome, but once I finished the series I realized something. For as fun as they were, the Hell Sonja comics mark the moment Red Sonja jumped the shark.

Earlier volumes had some weird concepts: time traveling into the modern day, crossovers with other Dynamite series, and Sonja turning into a vampire. Hell, I liked the crossovers with Spider-Man and Betty and Veronica. But the Hell Sonja stories were becoming so far removed from Red Sonja’s original concept that it was insane. This series is supposed to be from the swords and sorcery genre, yet we have tons of pages and panels discussing how infinite universes exist, they’re all linked to this one construct, and the entire multiverse will die if that construct’s destroyed. Something about that feels a bit off.

Immortal Red Sonja was kind of lame. I remember liking Dan Abnett’s writing for her in Red Sonja: The Super Powers, but everything here felt off. The art was mediocre at best and had a massive downgrade around issue 5. Timeline discrepancies aside, Sonja interacting with Arthurian characters sounds cool in concept, but everyone’s names are misspelled for some reason. Sonja’s dialogue throughout the series feels juvenile and out of character, and the constant “fucks” were especially ill-fitting given the time period. “Arthur’s” dialogue reminded me of that British bracelet from Forspoken, and big surprise, he was actually evil the entire time! The only thing that even left me mildly surprised was that he was actually Mordread. The final battle against him was kind of cool, but the ending felt lackluster.

Battle Fairy and the Yeti vs Red Sonja was a major step up in comparison, partially because of its really good art from Marat Michaels and Matthew Weldon. There wasn’t much to the story and I still know nothing about Battle Fairy and Yeti, but I’ll gladly take a simple plot if it means the writing for Sonja’s as superb as it was here.

Notti & Nyce Red Sonja Vampirella was much the same. I’d never heard of Notti & Nyce before this, but it was a good introduction. Notti’s constant nicknames for Sonja were a bit much, but their fight was cool. Though I have to say I never expected to see a comic where Sonja got kicked in the vagina, much less two more times. My only real complaint is that overall Sonja’s appearance feels forced and doesn’t impact the story at all.

Nyce gets into an even more violent fight with Vampirella and after that she actually contributes to the story by helping Nyce track down and kill her target. Meanwhile, Sonja just fights Notti, tells her to piss off, then leaves the story entirely.