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Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005) (Collected Editions) #2
Red Sonja She Devil with a Sword Volume 2: Arrowsmith by Mike Avon Oeming
The second powerful story arc featuring the fiery Red Sonja is collected here for the very first time! Arrowsmiths continues Sonja's fateful quest to rid the world of the ultimate evil. It's also here that we gain glimpses into Sonja's past, thanks to flashbacks courtesy of artist Pablo Marcos.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
4 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Michael Avon Oeming
820 books64 followersMichael Avon Oeming is an American comic book creator, both as an artist and writer.
His 1998 comic book Bulletproof Monk was made into a film of the same name.
The previous mentioned collaborations are The Mice Templar from Image Comics, which he draws and co-authors with Bryan J.L. Glass,[1] and Powers from Icon Comics which he draws, and sometimes co-authors, with Brian Bendis. His creator-owned projects include Rapture, on which he collaborated with his wife, Taki Soma,[2] and The Victories, both for Dark Horse Comics.
As of 2010, he is employed as a staff member of Valve Corporation, working on Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 webcomics.
His 1998 comic book Bulletproof Monk was made into a film of the same name.
The previous mentioned collaborations are The Mice Templar from Image Comics, which he draws and co-authors with Bryan J.L. Glass,[1] and Powers from Icon Comics which he draws, and sometimes co-authors, with Brian Bendis. His creator-owned projects include Rapture, on which he collaborated with his wife, Taki Soma,[2] and The Victories, both for Dark Horse Comics.
As of 2010, he is employed as a staff member of Valve Corporation, working on Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 webcomics.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 31, 2015
While this book did a really good job with introducing me (a new reader) to the story, I don't think it's for me. The story is a little light, although that wouldn't be bad if you were a longtime fan of books set in this world as it's not supposed to be super complex. My bigger problem was the extremely sexualized way Sonja was drawn. After a book of this I was wondering if I needed to question my sexuality! Since that's not on my agenda today I think I will be moving on.
October 16, 2018
Red Sonja is again criticized for her skimpy armor. I certainly hope she doesn't relent and get properly dressed or something foolish of that nature. I mean, the character is known for showing off more skin than is practical in a fight between sane people. That's her gimmick. Her backstory is welcome, though it looks even worse than the artwork for current-day events.
The narration didn't sound so bombastic in the first volume. Add the poor artwork and you get a disappointing experience this time around. It's only made worse by the grammatical errors in the text. Did nobody check it before it was sent to the printer? There is way too much text too. I never expected this comic to read like a novel, so I skimmed the second half.
Red Sonja follows the priests of the Celestial God in the northern lands. She passes through Arrowsmith, a town known for its... arrowsmiths. The town was ransacked and most of the people butchered. Sonja vows to punish the ones responsible and is followed by a young woman named Karena who wants revenge for being raped by the attackers.
The narration didn't sound so bombastic in the first volume. Add the poor artwork and you get a disappointing experience this time around. It's only made worse by the grammatical errors in the text. Did nobody check it before it was sent to the printer? There is way too much text too. I never expected this comic to read like a novel, so I skimmed the second half.
Red Sonja follows the priests of the Celestial God in the northern lands. She passes through Arrowsmith, a town known for its... arrowsmiths. The town was ransacked and most of the people butchered. Sonja vows to punish the ones responsible and is followed by a young woman named Karena who wants revenge for being raped by the attackers.
November 2, 2023
İlk cildi beğenmiş biri olarak beklentim aynısından biraz daha görmekti. Kanlı dövüşler, seksi ama güçlü Sonja, yeni bir yolculuk ve yeni bir mücadele beklerken zayıf dövüşler, özensiz çizimler ve cılız bir hikaye buldum. Sonja'nın geçmişini ve nasıl bu hale geldiğini görecek olma fikri kulağa hoş gelse de ne yazık ki işleniş güzel değildi. Sıkılarak okuduğum bir cilt oldu.
October 11, 2023
Sonja continues her quest to root out the cult of the Borat-na-Fori and comes upon a town of arrowsmiths (wouldn't they be called fletchers? help me out weapons nerds!) terrorized by bandits. She teams up with a young girl tired of their depredations. In their stealthy Metal Gear takedown of the bandit fortress we get told this continuity's take on Sonja's origins, which seems to move away from Marvel's 90s "maybe it was in her head" version -- she does seem to have been visited by a "real" goddess (as far as the reader knows at this point). I initially thought "it was in her head/it's a trauma response" was a cooler take than "a goddess gave her power," but in this version there's already a focus on Sonja's upbringing as a ranger and her dad secretly thinking she's better at it than her brothers. The writer definitely weighed the introduction of overt magic gobbledygook with the possible undermining of the character.
Extremely charmed that the final page reveal of the villain Kulan Gath is followed by like 6 pages of editorial "here's exactly who this 70s Marvel villain is, thank you for letting us use him" -- the opposite of nowadays where they just toss in crossovers and events and expect you to do the research yourself. Either don't do it or tell me what the deal is! I read this shit for funsies not homework!
HUGE fan of Sonja telling the girl "yeah it's fine if you take vengeance, long as you're like real good at it" -- hell yeah, that's what I read this bullshit for.
Extremely charmed that the final page reveal of the villain Kulan Gath is followed by like 6 pages of editorial "here's exactly who this 70s Marvel villain is, thank you for letting us use him" -- the opposite of nowadays where they just toss in crossovers and events and expect you to do the research yourself. Either don't do it or tell me what the deal is! I read this shit for funsies not homework!
HUGE fan of Sonja telling the girl "yeah it's fine if you take vengeance, long as you're like real good at it" -- hell yeah, that's what I read this bullshit for.
August 8, 2020
Her costume, and the justification of it in character, is fucking ridiculous. If it weren't for that, this would be an amazing vengence story.
July 31, 2013
The second volume of Red Sonja's adventures starts with a few pages of direct continuation of the first one, and which serve perfectly as an introduction. The main story arch then continues from the previous arch, with Sonja hunting down the followers of a dark deity that's trying to make its way back to her world - nothing surprising, the main idea is quite typical, but it's treated nicely, with the Lovecraftian influences blending well with the typical heroic fantasy. Much as Robert Howard would have wanted, I think. The writers go out of their way to provide Red Sonja with a good backstory (the flashbacks to her childhood are some of the most interesting parts, even though her entire background is particularly easy to guess), and once again try, almost convincingly, to justify her, arguably ridiculous, outfit. The young girl prodige and Osin's eventual reappearence help in character development, the action is abundant, and the text, even in translation, at times pompously epic without ever becoming ludicrous - a hard and applaudable achievement. Also commendable is the effort (story and art-wise) put to make the battle triumphs of two against many seem plausible. The artwork is excellent, and the notes at the end regarding the introduction story useful.
I was a little disappointed by the abrupt ending, unlike the first volume which could be taken to be a complete story in itself, here there is a clear "to be continued". The, irrelevant to the arch, last story offers some compensation to this. All in all, though closely related to Conan, Red Sonja achieves to be much more than his female version, but a wonderful landmark character of heroic fantasy on her own.
I was less than pleased with the binding of this greek translation, as the book fell apart in one day.
I was a little disappointed by the abrupt ending, unlike the first volume which could be taken to be a complete story in itself, here there is a clear "to be continued". The, irrelevant to the arch, last story offers some compensation to this. All in all, though closely related to Conan, Red Sonja achieves to be much more than his female version, but a wonderful landmark character of heroic fantasy on her own.
I was less than pleased with the binding of this greek translation, as the book fell apart in one day.
July 22, 2020
This was not good. I think Red Sonja has always been a bit of a troublesome character to write. She is a woman in a man's world, a master of the sword, and adventurer, and in many ways a female Conan. However, a lot of Conan's drink, womanizing charms have not transferred to Sonja. She might have more potential for empathy and mentorship and can rely somewhat on her divine swords woman backstory. Both are used here, but neither to good advantage. Sonja's coaching of the survivor is stilted and weak and divine intervention is confused.
- There is a lot of potential for a Joan of Arc/mental illness plotline around Sonja's brush with a goddess. Did it really happen, or was she just hallucinating? Did she receive a divine gift, or is her swordmanship and resilience the result of a powerful delusion? It could work, but Avon didn't take it that direction.
In the first story, Sonja explains to the young survivor of a slaughtered village that she wears her chain mail bikini because it distracts the men who are trying to kill her. That's a bit ridiculous, but is still probably the most cogent explanation I have ever seen for her outfit. She proceeds to teach the girl woodcraft and stealth and 'camouflages,' both of them with about three smears of mud each. The second plotline revolves around a mysterious religious fanatic who is stalking Sonja. The writing is pretty poor throughout and while the art is good, it's not outstanding for Red Sonja generally and certainly doesn't make up for the writing.
- There is a lot of potential for a Joan of Arc/mental illness plotline around Sonja's brush with a goddess. Did it really happen, or was she just hallucinating? Did she receive a divine gift, or is her swordmanship and resilience the result of a powerful delusion? It could work, but Avon didn't take it that direction.
In the first story, Sonja explains to the young survivor of a slaughtered village that she wears her chain mail bikini because it distracts the men who are trying to kill her. That's a bit ridiculous, but is still probably the most cogent explanation I have ever seen for her outfit. She proceeds to teach the girl woodcraft and stealth and 'camouflages,' both of them with about three smears of mud each. The second plotline revolves around a mysterious religious fanatic who is stalking Sonja. The writing is pretty poor throughout and while the art is good, it's not outstanding for Red Sonja generally and certainly doesn't make up for the writing.
July 5, 2015
Red Sonja is a tricky character to get right.First there is her look. The classic metal bikini that depending on the artist can make her look over sexualized or empoweeed. Second is her connection to a Goddess that a I haven't seen explored as much as in this story. This is very much a middle story. We see Sonja helping a young girl grow strong & protect her village, a fight with a mysterious hunter who is trailing Sonja as well as new allies and a mission to stop a demon child from being born.
I've enjoyed Sonja stories for a long time , & this creative team has portrayed her very well
I've enjoyed Sonja stories for a long time , & this creative team has portrayed her very well
March 3, 2014
Vol 1 was pulpy but had a lot of promise: like the best of Conan. It's clear that what Vol. 2 is lacking is Mike Carey, who is just a much better writer. After this one, I'll just skip ahead to the new series with Gail Simone and see if it's any better.
July 18, 2014
I liked this one a lot more than Volume 1. There's a good amount of back story and as always the art is fantastic.
March 2, 2014
A very satisfying adventure. A nice hint of origins.
September 13, 2016
Enjoyable, but some of the events in the flashbacks (and their order) seemed inconsistent, or possibly just not well explained...^^;
January 4, 2016
Solid story with good characters. Very nice splash page art by some of the industry's best.
December 11, 2016
This was fun, good violent fun. A bit too much flashbacks, but still, good fun.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews