Red Sonja, Vol. 3: The Forging of Monsters by Gail Simone

Red Sonja, Vol. 3: The Forging of Monsters

From the acclaimed creative team of Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Batgirl) and Walter Geovani comes an all-new Red Sonja epic that will shake the She-Devil to her core! While the Hyrkanian warrior aids a small village against the ravages of a rampant parasite, she picks up the trail of the man she hates and distrusts most in the world: the last survivor of the marauders who murdered her family. In the grip of a vengeful obsession that is all-consuming, the heroine barely recognizes herself. Can even the unconquerable Red Sonja return from a darkness so complete? Includes an extensive cover gallery by talented female artists, hand-picked by Gail Simone, including Jenny Frison, Stephanie Buscema, Renae De Liz, Yasmin Liang, Emma Vieceli, Cat Staggs, Rebecca Isaacs, and Adriana Melo.

This is the 3rd book in the series and was reviewed based on its Kindle edition available at Amazon -

India -          

https://www.amazon.in/Red-Sonja-Vol-Forging-Monsters-ebook/dp/B018WAVVD4

US -             

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sonja-Forgiving-Monsters-New/dp/1606906011

Forever Red Sonja with Gail Simone, her last book in this role. This is the third and final volume in Gail Simone and Walter Geovani's rollicking Red Sonja series.

The fictional sword and sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, more famously known for Conan. Red Sonja that we know in these graphic comics was created by the combination of writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith back in 1973. Her signature bikini armor has changed over the course of time across various iterations of the character.

Gail Simone has been the heart and soul of the Red Sonja resurgence and provides the book with even paced adventures. We have seen that Gail has changed Sonja's back story and the benevolence of the God Scathach. Her personality has changed with a degree of softness and she has also left behind all pretenses of celibacy which were a hallmark of her previous avatars and sealed with her vow of bowing to the one who defeats her in a fair combat.

Neither of these changes are unpleasing and the new Devil seems more human although at times she seems a brooding unintelligent hulk like her more famous colleague from similar times, Conan.

The Forging of Monsters follows two story lines. The first story is the one where she destroys a malevolent sorcerer only to end up with a curse where she is cursed with not being able to forgiving any slight, forcing her to punish insignificant common people and determination to stop the curse by destroying her hands and her subsequent duel with another sorcerer goes to dizzying heights as in a painful coma she duels in hell with Death incarnate herself is a stuff for legends. The graphics and art for the duel take this book soaring above its storyline.

Simone pulls off this exploitive storyline although I am still not convinced about her doing away with Sonja's rape survivor back story which seemed more realistic and justifiable. She also meets a character from her backstory, the last of the group who had killed her family and whom she comes upon by chance. Sonja's single mindedness in tracking Fella, the last of the group and then has feeling the sympathy and empathy for the aged scum and then in a twist, with her newfound understanding of death and forgiveness, she goes for the latter.

The next story line shows us a Sonja in full unchaste revelry being approached by nuns to save a fountain of knowledge, a library that has been ordered to be destroyed by a venomous empress.

When we read Sonja we know she shall overcome all.

All demons, monsters, kings, everyone and come up triumphant but here in this book we witness a soft side to the warrior who has never learnt to read and write following her family being destroyed. In the library we see the nuns trying to help her understand the value of knowledge (she understands only monetary value and life, that too whether to kill or be killed) and we see her on the nuns lap as she reads out a story.

As is usual we also see the overblown villains puffed with their self-centeredness and underestimating their fight with a women. This kind of writing is cringe worthy in a modern context but even in these books the way they are straightened out or rather flattened out satisfies my cringes. Like Red Malek we have a overblown character by the name of Thrus who gets his life swatted out because he made a mistake with Sonja and then compounded the same by returning later to gloat her destruction getting a treatment that should serve as a reminder for every boorish bully. (what comes to the mind of everyone who has suffered at the hands of bully's) ;-)

After the final resurrection, Sonja's new hairstyle (so hip), new found learning and finally her challenging the Empress in her own chambers very Rambo-ish.

The book ends with a whole lot of bonus materials and covers.

The art is a revelation.

I recommend everyone who has not partaken from the Sonja books to participate in this adventure.

Please do not forget to post your comments. I am an equal opportunity person so would love to hear your love or your hate for the review or book in any order. Please write what you did not like or whether the book was an absolute disaster for you and why.

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4702159606