Saturday, November 6, 2010

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Red Sonja #52

GOOD THING: Remember how much I liked the first issue with the new team? If not, go read my review of their first issue. Everything I said about that issue applies to this one.





BAD THING: After doing such a fine job to establish an interesting supporting cast for Sonja in the last issue and the early part of this issue, the most memorable of Sonja's company - the smartass Rogatino - is killed off at the end of the issue for no purpose other than to make the war personal for Sonja.





Admittedly, I may be a bit biased on this point since I love charming rogue characters (it's what I play most in D&D), but this still smacks of someone being Stuffed Into The Fridge.



The Final Verdict: A good solid read, in the vein of Roy Thomas's work with Red Sonja. I'm a bit disappointed that they killed off my favorite of the new supporting cast, seemingly for no purpose other than to add shock value to a story that doesn't need it... but that only detracts slightly from my enjoyment of the issue and does nothing to stop me from recommending it to all comic readers. Not all fans of sword and sorcery, mind you. ALL comic readers.

2 comments:

  1. Heh. Rogatino. Rogatino the Rogue. Too obvious, really.

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  2. Actually, that's a bit of a nod to the original Robert E. Howard story that inspired Roy Thomas to create the Red Sonja we know and love.
    Thomas adapted one of Howard's historical pulp adventures - which detailed the adventures of Red Sonya of Rogatino, which is a region of Western Russia, near their border with Finland - into a Conan story.
    And in D&D terms, Rogatino is more of a bard than a Rogue rogue. Reference is made in the first issue to him singing another of his horrible ballads. :)

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