I realise I’m not exactly reviewing this comic in a timely manner, but it’s not as if it’s set at New Year 2026. Or 2025, for that matter. However, having picked it up at Portsmouth Comic-Con from Empire Comics in a blind bag for a great price, I’m finally checking out this Red Sonja New Year’s Special!

The services of Red Sonja’s skills are required, to deal with a village’s problem with giants. Yet things are not quite what they seem, and Sonja must soon make use of her wits, as well as her physical prowess.

This was a genuinely excellent story, with a nicely one-and-done feel that doesn’t really require any prior knowledge. As long as you’re aware that Red Sonja is a blade for hire, that’s all you need here. Even then, that context is easily picked up in the story’s opening pages.

I wasn’t overly enamoured with the art style, which felt a bit awkward at times. The cartoonish look is fine, but it just didn’t gel with some of the material for me (some wildlife in the story looked particularly awkward to me, for example).

Despite that, there’s good use of dialogue free scenes in establishing shots, and during action sequences, which were very well done indeed.

So many of the non-Big Two comic publishers are doing great work with licensed comics at the moment, and Dynamite are up there as one of the best in my opinion, alongside my current favourite, Mad Cave Studios (well, that’s unless you count the GOATs for me: Udon Entertainment).

And it seems the blind bag gimmick works for suckers like me, because I would never have read this otherwise. It does make me want to read more of their Red Sonja comics too, so mission accomplished for Dynamite I guess!

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