recent read; Queen Sonja, Volume 1

I read this one while on vacation in August.

The plot is a bit pedestrian fantasy, but not bad.  Sonja seeks a special sword and along way gets involved with bandits who are really royalty in exile from a conquered land.  The stakes keep rising, until Sonja becomes involved in a battle that leaves her with the crown of Sogoria.  To keep her crown she must battle against wizardry and political machinations.

I suppose if it's not the usurper tale (Conan, Kull) it would the be "farm girl learns she is the real queen and must kill her evil aunt" story.

It's good art work, some nice blood and gore in the battles.  Sonja looks good, as always, of course.

Let's talk about costuming - or armor.  But really, for Sonja it's a costume.  It started off with even less than its usual surface area.  I mean, really - if she's only going to cover her nipples, why even bother with mail up top?

But, surprisingly - it got better.  On the throne, she finally has plate mail.  Impractically, though, her torso is still exposed for disembowelment.

Finally, though, when she rides into battle with a full army, she is finally covered in more armor than I've seen her in since her first Roy Thomas Marvel appearance in "Shadow of the Vulture"!

So, as long as she knows there's going to be a crap load of fighting, she will dress for the occasion. ;)

My biggest complaint this time around, though, is the location of the action.  Issenni, capital of Sogaria.  Kamala.  Emora.  Never heard of them.  This wouldn't matter quite so much - if the graphic novel didn't open with a very nice map of Hyboria!  None of the locations mentioned in the story are on the map!  I suppose this is the standard map Dynamite inserts in every Red Sonja collection, but for this story, maybe they could have augmented that.  I had no idea if these are new nations off-map, or if the nations we know are having new nations carved out of them.

Not a bad tale, still nothing knocking me over.  I'm glad I bought it at a discount price.  I might continue with the series to see where they take Sonja as queen.  If they don't just copy Kull or Conan with genders reversed, it could be an interesting sword-&-sorcery tale.