For the uninitiated, Red Sonja is one of a very elite list of long running female heroes with enduring importance to comics as a whole. Sonja spun off of the Conan series over 40 years ago and has become a fantasy-comics superstar in her own right. In 2013 we got a new and very well received run on Sonja, written by Gail Simone, and since her take on the she-devil with a sword took off as it did we were bound to get some more Red Sonja love in 2014. That brings us to today’s book: Red Sonja: The Black Tower.
With a character like Red Sonja, it’s all about the writing. Good fantasy has certain requirements, and it’s very easy to fall into one of the many traps this genre lays for unexperienced authors. Factor in the difficulty authors seem to face with writing women and avoiding the mire of saddling said heroine with sexist schlock and you have a real task for any author. Thankfully this seems to be the age of great writing for heroines across the board (for a change!) and The Black Tower is another attempt at genuinely surmounting the female-action book challenge. And it certainly succeeds in some areas; but leaves me sort of disappointed by books end.

Sonja arrives in the town of Lur in pursuit of the titular Black Tower; a monstrous spire that showed up out of thin air and is driving the citizens of Lur into depravity. Not by some supernatural force, rather the people of Lur attack one another out of fear and their own inner animality. Some brutes take the opportunity caused by the chaotic rioting in Lur to run rampant, and this is where we see Sonja get into the main conflict of this issue. Seeing these savages hold down an innocent woman after killing a man during the riot; Sonja promptly intervenes in spectacularly gory fashion. Red Sonja lives up to her name, as she always does, and the art accompanying this rampage is absolutely stellar. The color contrast between the town at night and the gore at hand is jaw-dropping! Almost every other page is a splash and what splashes they are; fantasy-comics artists take note because if nothing else this miniseries is artist Cezar Razek’s class on how art like this is done. The writing is a bit iffy. It shows fantastic potential and a great handle on our heroine, but the scenarios that make up this first issue are a bit hard to recommend to new readers. Multiple attempts at rape are a hard sell; but in general this still stands as a very strong first issue. Yet scenes like this are interspersed with some amazing panels that serve to really show us how strong Sonja is (what she does to one character in retaliation for his multiple attempts at sexual violence is fantastically handled). Sexual violence is always a touchy subject and subsequently a hard sell, so I do have to point it out.

In short; if you are looking for another great fantasy book to add to your pull list; giving this one a try can’t hurt. Maybe wait on the trade before you commit money to this title but do check it out! It may not be the strongest display of women in comics to date but it shows great promise; and that art is really worth the price of admittance in my humble opinion! Red Sonja is back in a big way nowadays and thankfully she is in some good hands!