Immortal Red Sonja #4 // Review
The She-Devil is led by her haunted chain mail. It guides her to a place where it expects to find the aid of The Lady in the Lake. Instead, warrior and cursed armor find themselves thrust into danger in Immortal Red Sonja #4. Writer Dan Abnett continues the journey into weirdly Arthurian mutations of fantasy with the aid of artist Luca Colandrea and colorist Ellie Wright. A simple fantasy adventure episode feels fresh and brisk in the hands of Abnett and company as Sonja ventures further into an ancient unknown that’s familiar to anyone with a passing interest in Arthurian legend. It’s a pleasant mash-up that seems to be going in an interesting direction.
Sonja is a bit alarmed when she sees a ghostly hand sticking out of the water. Her chainmail assures her that there is nothing to fear. Then there are a few more hands sticking out of the water. The chainmail suggests that they flee…but by that time it is too late. Renton and her cursed armor find themselves taken possession. This is no lady of the lake. This is something altogether more haunted and sinister. Sonja will need to act quickly if she is to avoid becoming a possession of the dead for an echo of eternity.
Abnett paces the action through the issue with thoughtful prediction. The immediate adventure comes to a satisfying resolution while advancing the plot of the overall story AND allowing for a greater sense of complexity in relations between Sonja and her possessed armor. It’s a very sharp balance that keeps everything exceedingly fun. There’s nothing terribly deep etched into the narrative, but there doesn’t need to be in a story that moves swiftly into the fire and finds a thoroughly entertaining path out of it. Abnett’s Sonja is a fun lead through the action, tempered as she is by the spirit within the armor that guides her.
Colandrea delivers the action to the page with sweeping movements. Detail is kept to a minimum in strikingly simple dynamic moments. The fun of the script dances lightly across the page. Wright’s colors fill the space of the action with a clean, vibrant atmosphere. It’s a style that may not always match the potential of the script, but it’s not unappealing. Sword and sorcery make their impact more or less equally, which does dampen the strange sense of wonder that might be possible from a realm inhabited by the Lady of Mirrors, but the action is fun nonetheless.
With one more member added to the pairing of She-Devil and armor, the adventure continues to expand. Abnett’s weird accumulation of heroics feels like it could lurch into inspired strangeness if he would only allow things to dive in the right direction. As it is, the story is fun and unique, but Abnett needs the right push to make this particular tale of Sonja truly distinguish itself from the dreamy tapestry of everything that Sonja has been through over the course of the past few decades.
