Digital for me but I WILL be getting the trade when it’s out in July.
#3 was OK but it seemed a bit ambitious … there was too much to cram in to get Sonja face-to-face with Kulan Gath in the space of an issue, and it seemed to silly to do stuff like throwing in a whole half-page of Sonja showing off her new outfit when there was so little space and she was going to be back in the scalemail bikini 5 pages later anyway.
I feel there was also a great opportunity to chuck in a couple of nice fight scenes in #3 but the fights were really rushed. This series is still missing a really good fight scene. Micheal Oeming and Mel Rubi, in the original Dynamite Red Sonja run, used to have at least one fucking amazing fight scene every single issue, but all the fights so far this series have been restricted to about 3 panels.
Despite all the hype from Dynamite, I don’t think the Max reveal should’ve been a surprise to any readers but yeah, his reaction was a bit muted. I loved the sepia page showing his childhood; apparently that was an art experiment by Carlos which really worked IMO. What’ll be interesting now will be to see whether Max eventually goes back to the Hyborean Age with Sonja. He’s grown up in the modern era and enjoys all its comforts but he said he’s always been an outsider, and doesn’t appear to have any friends other than Jay. I’d like to see Sonja with a Joxer-style sidekick.
It’s gonna be a while before we get there though. I saw the solicit for #7 the other day, and Sonja’s STILL in the USA, apparently going on a roadtrip with Max to try to find a way home. I suspect that the original plan was to finish this run up at #5; in an early interview, Amy said it would last 6 issues. We’re up to #7 though, with Amy still on the book and Sonja still in America. I think sales and the critical reception have really pleased Dynamite and they’ve asked Amy to stay on, and she in return has asked to keep Sonja in America a bit longer because she’s more comfortable writing her in that environment. She’s been doing tons of research on Marvel Sonja, so I reckon she’ll eventually take the She-Devil back home … but not for the time being. Apparently, #3 outsold #2, which everyone was really pleased about, and sales have at least matched, if not surpassed, those of Gail Simone’s Sonja at the same stage. That’s pretty good going.
The good news for anyone missing Sonja in her traditional setting is there’s a one-shot out in a couple of weeks by Erik Burnham and Tom Mandrake called ‘The Long Walk To Oblivion’, which will act as a prequel to the current storyline and showing the Meruvians seeking Sonja’s help against Gath. I think the style will be very different from the main book … Mandrake’s style is much darker and more brooding than Gomez’ and I think this will be a much more serious tale but hopefully it’ll be pretty good nonetheless.