Swords of Sorrow #5 - A Review

The Traveller has assembled her army, just as The Prince once called Charming has redrawn reality to merge various worlds into one great battlefield. Now - as Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris and Vampirella go to confront The Prince in his place of power - the rest of the assembled heroines must stay to fight an army of evil the likes of which has never been assembled! But are they all resolved to face the battle ahead of them? And are all of the so-called Women of Chaos committed to serving The Prince?


I find myself of two minds about this issue's script. Jungle Girl's sudden crisis of faith makes her a distinct point-of-view character in a book where most of the cast - due to the nature of crossover storylines - have had little chance for characterization beyond battle-hardened bad-ass or opportunist rogue. On the other hand, her sudden "But I'm just a girl"attitude seems contradictory to what we've seen of the character in this book so far and the Red Sonja/Jungle Girl tie-ins.

That said, I have faith that Gail Simone is building up something big for Jana in the final chapter and that the Jungle Girl will prove to be a true woman rather than the "jiggling jungle babe" Frank Cho established. Or maybe Dynamite Entertainment will be revealed to have licensed the rights to Sheena and we can get the true Queen of the Jungle for the final chapter?  A pulp fanboy can dream, right?



Whatever reservations I may have about the story going into the final chapter, I have no complaints about the artwork.  Sergio Davila's pencils and inks remain as fine as ever. The color art by Jorge Sutil further enhances the original art, crafting quite the set of pretty pictures.