Sonja Reborn #2
The She-Devil with a Sword has a squire. He’s a bit concerned about her. She’s not quite herself. She killed a beast while his back was turned...and she’s leaving her sword in its back. When he asks her about it, she speaks of a “sword shop” where she might get another. It’s quite strange and it’s about to get stranger in Sonja Reborn #2. Writer Christopher Priest continues an appealing new angle on Sonja with artist Alessandro Miracolo and colorist Giovanni Caputo. Things seem to be stabilizing for the series as the full weight of the premise settles-in.
Margaret Sutherland insists that her name is Margaret Sutherland. Everyone keeps calling her Sonja, though. She’s convinced that it’s all some sort of hallucination that she’s simply going to have to work through. She’s having some kind of a psychotic fugue and she’s simply going to have to work through it. Of course...it’s going to be a bit disconcerting to her squire to find her allowing people to try to kill her as a way of breaking out of her hallucination. Maybe she’ll gain a bit of psychological equilibrium when she gains access to a misplaced smartphone...
The smartphone is an interesting addition to the narrative that could end up being remarkably dynamic on a few different levels depending on how Priest decides to move with it. Margaret’s concern that she might be hallucinating the whole thing could take-on a whole new depth as Priest explores the weird interplay between perception, reality, danger and safety in a series that could take on a whole new depth than Sonja has typically been allowed over the years. Margaret’s reaction to the world around her DOES have a considerable amount of novelty to it, but there is a real danger of the series becoming stale if Priest decides to use Margaret’s situation as more of a gimmick than a deeper thematic element.
Margaret’s emotional state is cleverly rendered for the page by Miracolo. Some of the more intricate aspects of the action might not be placed on the page in the way that makes them all that coherent. That being said, there's a definite mood that is being developed with the visuals that feels quite immersive. Any emotionality of it is definitely there. There might be with some ways in which the artist and color is could amplify the reality of a smart phone in the Hyborian Age. The distinct power of that could be visually overwhelming in the right circumstances. Miracolo and Caputo don’t really deliver the strangeness of modern tech in an ancient age visually on the page.
Theoretically, this treatment of a character could become a lot more interesting than the traditional read of the character. It's not like there isn't some precedent for it. Contemporary Doctor Donald Blake was thrust into the world of Asgard by Thor’s hammer. American Civil War veteran John Carter was exposed to strange gasses and found himself thrust into a pulpy sword-and-sandals Mars fantasy world. There’s no reason a long-running Sonja reborn couldn’t develop into some interesting insight into the character of Sonja.
