DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER: Gail Simone – @GailSimone
ARTIST: Walter Geovani
COLORS: Adriano Augusto
LETTERS: Simon Bowland
COVER: Adam Hughes
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Jae Lee with June Chung; Aaron Lopresti; Walter Geovani with Dee Cunniffe; Sergio Davila with Dinei Ribeiro; Sergio Davila; Jae Lee; Jim Balent
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (May 2, 2018)
Rated Teen+
In the Marvel Comics publication, Conan the Barbarian #23 (cover dated February 1973), writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith created a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine. She was named Red Sonja and was loosely based on “Red Sonya of Rogatino,” a female character that appeared in the 1934 short story, “The Shadow of the Vulture,” written by Conan the Cimmerian's creator, Robert E. Howard.
Tarzan is one of the most famous fictional characters in the world. Tarzan was an orphan and the archetypal “feral child,” and in this instance, he was raised in the African jungle by great apes. Tarzan was born a noble, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, but he rejects civilization and lives in the wilds of Africa as a heroic adventurer. Tarzan was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and first appeared in the novel, Tarzan of the Apes, which began serialization in All-Story Magazines in 1912, before it was published in book form in 1914. Tarzan would go onto to be a multimedia star, appearing in films, television, comic books, etc.
Red Sonja and Tarzan come together for the first time in the new crossover comic book miniseries, Red Sonja / Tarzan, from Dynamite Entertainment. It is written by Gail Simone; drawn by Walter Geovani; colored by Adriano Augusto; and lettered by Simon Bowland. The series finds Red Sonja (The She-Devil with a Sword) and Tarzan (Lord of the Jungle) caught in a deadly conflict with a man whose very name inspires fear in even the most powerful people.
Red Sonja / Tarzan #1 opens in Australia in 1921, revealing the exploits of the evil “great White hunter,” Eson Duul. A year later, outside London, Tarzan clashes with Duul, a first step, which unbeknownst to Tarzan, begins a game of death between the two formidable men. Meanwhile, in the “Hyborian Age,” Red Sonja has her own unpleasant encounter, one that will leave her broken and crossing the oceans of time in order to get revenge.
Pencil ink artist Walter Geovani and color artist Adriano Augusto deliver some nice illustrations and storytelling in Red Sonja / Tarzan #1, and they are quite good at conveying the multiple shifts in settings and time that this story requires. Letter Simon Bowland uses his fonts and balloons to give this story a sense of hysteria that imparts the sense of many of the characters' state of desperation.
However, the star of this creative team is Gail Simone. She may be a fan-favorite, but I consider her an underrated and under-appreciated comic book writer. If she were not under-appreciated, she would have been writing flagship comic books like Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, and Star Wars (for Marvel) and Superman, Batman, and Justice League (for DC Comics).
Simone is adept at quickly establishing the personalities of her characters and at defining their motivations for her readers. Simone totally sells the idea of Red Sonja, that same She-Devil with a Sword, as a woman who has been soundly defeated, especially mentally. Simone makes Duul so evil that I could order a drone attack on the bastard myself, and I am not a supporter of drone warfare.
Gail Simone is going to make Red Sonja / Tarzan a must-read, event crossover comic book. It is worth fighting in your local comic book shop over a last copy.
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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