Red Sonja: Age Of Chaos #2 - Dynamite Entertainment

RED SONJA: AGE OF CHAOS No. 2, February 2020

Publicised as a comic book within which “Red Sonja is fully made to understand her victory over Kulan Gath not only led to the invasion of her world by a whole new kind of evil, but may cause time itself to end”, Erik Burnham’s script for Issue Two of “Red Sonja: Age Of Chaos” undoubtedly does it job. Yet having simply packed this twenty-page periodical with Lady Demon’s disinteresting explanatory dialogue as to how the end of the world happened and “Mankind is done”, it is hard to imagine that many perusing bibliophiles who encountered this word-heavy title upon their local spinner rack, subsequently took it to the counter as part of their ‘Pull List’.

For starters the comic opens with Chasity somewhat swiftly providing the Hyborian Age heroine with a recap as to the events in this mini-series’ previous instalment, and simultaneously touches upon the titular character’s own past adventures in modern day New York City; “A long story. Suffice it to say that magic has complicated my life more than once.” Unfortunately however, just as soon as this re-tread of old events has concluded, the “Minnesotan writer” then decides that Lucifer's red-skinned consort will simply deliver more of the same for the majority of the book, by subjecting the reader to an almost blow-by-blow account of Bad Kitty’s involvement in the build-up to the “punk rock fan turned vampire” getting “stuck in Fantasyland!”

To make matters worse though, the American author additionally blames this situation upon Red Sonja, because the warrior defeated Kulan early in the dark-hearted sorcerer’s career, rather than just repeatedly opposed him whilst the villainous magician “spread his evil for years to come.” This plot’s premise therefore debatably makes no sense whatsoever, as all Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith’s co-creation did was logically decide to “dispose of Garth’s amulet where no mortal could reach it” by hurling it into the sea. There was no 'divine intervention' or prevailing sense of foreboding that this act “broke the cycle and changed all time.” It simply seemed like the best means to prevent Vammatar’s husband from returning to plague the planet once again.

Of course, all this elucidation on the part of Burnham’s penmanship doesn’t mean that Jonathan Lau lacks the opportunity to pencil some truly pulse-pounding panels packed full of ferocious fighting moves. Chasity tearing apart a couple of hapless vampires alone is debatably the highlight of this book. But even some superb ‘punch-ups’ between Lady Demon, the she-devil with a sword, and a Mohican-haired assassin can’t help maintain a continuous sense of momentum throughout essentially a publication long discourse.

The regular cover art of "RED SONJA: AGE OF CHAOS" No. 2 by Lucio Parrillo