‘Altered States: Red Sonja One-Shot’ Comic Review

In Dynamite’s new Altered States line, the heroes of certain titles are “transported from the worlds and identities they recognize, to strange and terrifying new worlds and identities.” These types of tales are a fun change from the norm. Many different publishers have similar stories out there. Both Marvel and DC have a multiverse of altered characters. It’s exciting to see Dynamite step into this style of storytelling.

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In Red Sonja, our main character is a tough warrior woman who wears a metal bikini. That’s about as familiar with the Sonja as I was before reading this issue. While fighting an evil wizard, Red Sonja prays a little prayer as she’s being struck down and her essence is trapped inside her sword. Fast forward to today and a red head named Sonja is working in a museum and she accidentally uses the sword. This act turns her into Red Sonja! It’s Sonja but in Red Sonja’s body. With both of their thoughts up in there. Kinda like Firestorm, DC’s Nuclear Man.

I like the concept of this story more than the follow through. The writing is okay but not compelling, as none of the characters really popped for me. They didn’t read as real characters. Maybe it was the stilted dialogue. The problem with one-shots is that there is very little time to set up the issue before you have to go about solving said issue. With this being a new altered world, that’s an even harder thing to accomplish. So I do have to commend Brandon Jerwa on writing a story that did make me want to keep reading till the end.

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Juanan Ramirez is nice and detailed. In fact, it reminds be a bit of Phil Jiminez’s work, who I’ve been a huge fan of for quite some time. Ramirez is definitely an artist to keep an eye on.

Overall, Altered States: Red Sonja is a fun story with some great art. It’s possible I would have enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with Red Sonja. I’m told that reading the current Gail Simone book would totally be worth my time.

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