Red Sonja: Vulture's Circle #2 - A Review

The Son of Set - Sutekh the Unclean - has risen!  Now an army of the undead parades before a north-bound army of the conquered Southern nations of Hyboria, hell-bent on enslaving the free nations and spilling enough blood to free Set from his celestial prison.  Their next target?  A school that trains young women to become warriors, run by a woman warrior long retired to the role of Sensei. But for the sake of the world, Red Sonja must fight once more!


A remarkable thing about Red Sonja: Vulture's Circle #2 is that it recaps the action of the first issue as part of its narration.  It is rare to see that done these days in a monthly series, let alone a mini-series such as this.  It's a nice touch and the script by Nancy A. Collins and Luke Leiberman handles it naturally. It also reveals a number of interesting details about Sonja's life before this and how she found love with another unconventional figure - a male medic who preferred healing to swordplay. One wishes we could see more stories set in this continuity in the future, as it's such a novel change from the usual Red Sonja tale.


Of course no Red Sonja tale would be complete without a little action and this issue does contain that!  The fight scenes by Fritz Casas are well-depicted and well-blocked. The only real flaw in the artwork is that many of the smaller panels lack the vivid detail that Casas packs into his full-page spreads.  Thankfully, the line-work is never busy despite that detailing.