Red Sonja


Red Sonja is a fictional sword-and-sorcery comic-book heroine created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially based on Robert E. Howard's characters Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon.
From 2005, the series was published by Dynamite Entertainment. In issue #34, the original Sonja was killed and replaced by a "reincarnation". The series was rebooted by writer Gail Simone in 2013, telling an altered version of Red Sonja's early life story via flashbacks. In 2017, Amy Chu began writing the series.
Red Sonja has appeared in numerous editions both solo and together with Conan, as well as in some Marvel comics crossovers. A novelization was published in the 1980s written by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney, and in 1985, a feature film starring Brigitte Nielsen in the title role, Red Sonja, was released. There have also been television and animated adaptions.
Sonja is well known for her bikini armor, consisting typically of scale mail covering only her waist and breasts.

History

Marvel Comics (1973–1986)

Red Sonja was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially based on Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino, a female swashbuckler from his 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture", and to a certain degree also based on Howard's character Dark Agnes de Chastillon.
Red Sonja debuted in Conan the Barbarian #23. Thomas created a new origin story and transposed the timeline from the 16th century of Howard's original Red Sonya to the Hyborian Age, another Howard creation, in order to have the comic-book Red Sonja interact with Conan the Barbarian. In 1975, Marvel Comics published the first issue of Red Sonja after the character headlined Marvel Feature for seven issues that same year.
Red Sonja's origin story was told in the story "The Day of the Sword", in Kull and the Barbarians #3, written by Roy Thomas and Doug Moench and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. The same story was later redrawn by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin in The Savage Sword of Conan #78.
In this version, Red Sonja lives with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes. When she is 17, a group of mercenaries kills her family and burns down their house. Sonja attempts to defend herself, but cannot lift her brother's sword. She is raped by the leader of the group. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scáthach appears to her and gives her incredible fighting skills, on the condition that she never lie with a man unless he defeats her in fair combat.

Dynamite Comics (2005–2013)

began publishing the series in 2005. The original Sonja dies in issue #34 of the first Dynamite series. A new character of the same name, described as a reincarnation, takes her place from issue #35 onward.
In her new life, Sonja is described as a distant relative of the original Red Sonja, taking her name as a good omen, since Sonja had come to be known as the most beautiful and fearless woman in Hyrkania. A noblewoman, this incarnation lives a fairly sheltered existence, along with her sister Verona and her little niece, longing for a child of her own and waiting for the return of her far-off husband, Lord Daniel.
Eventually she is reunited with her husband, but then a pirate crew slays him and leaves Sonja on the brink of death. Sonja is then nursed to health by Osin, in Sonja's previous life a bard companion and now a gruff swordsman, who accepted the curse of Claw the Unconquered for himself in exchange for the ability to locate and train the new incarnation of Red Sonja.
Osin begins her training. He and Sonja find that, even though she has occasional flashes of her former reflexes, she no longer has access to the full might of the skills bestowed by Scathach in her previous life. Despite this, Sonja is able to learn faster than Osin expects. She decides to seek revenge covertly, joining Lucan's pirate crew to be closer to Daniel's assassins.

Gail Simone reboot (2013–2017)

At the 2013 Emerald City Comic Con, Dynamite Entertainment, which began publishing Red Sonja comics in 2005, announced that Gail Simone would be writing a new ongoing Red Sonja series. Simone noted in further interviews that her version is slightly "rebooted," showing the character's beginnings. Issue #1 of Simone's run was released in July 2013 to positive reviews. The series ran through 18 issues.
In Gail Simone's series, Sonja's origins are retold in flashbacks. Sonja is a young teenager in a Hyrkanian village which is attacked by bandits. After her family is killed, Sonja lures the bandits into the forest and kills them one by one. No goddess appears in this version and Sonja makes no vow of chastity. While she is threatened by the bandits, she is neither raped nor seriously injured. Another set of flashbacks shows Sonja as an adult, and indicates that she learned many of her fighting skills from a fellow prisoner when she was captured and forced to fight as a gladiator.

Amy Chu (2017–present)

In 2017, a new Red Sonja comic series began, written by Amy Chu.

Bikini armor

Most artists depict Red Sonja wearing a very brief "chainmail bikini" costume of scale armor, usually with boots and gauntlets. As originally drawn by Barry Smith for "The Shadow of the Vulture" and "The Song of Red Sonja" in Conan the Barbarian issues 23 and 24, she did not have as full a figure and dressed a little more conservatively, in a long-sleeved mail shirt and short pants of red silk, a style that did not last long.
As told by Roy Thomas in the introduction of Red Sonja Adventures Volume 1 Spanish artist Esteban Maroto submitted an uncommissioned illustration to him when he was editing the magazine Savage Sword of Conan where he redesigned the character and for the first time showed her wearing what would become her famous costume, the silver "metal bikini", which resembled other fantasy costumes that other Maroto heroines sported in the 1970s. This illustration had been printed for the first time in Jim Steranko's magazine Comixscene #5 in black and white. It was reprinted in Savage Sword of Conan #1, and in Marvel Treasury Edition #15 colored but poorly reproduced, and finally restored and colored by José Villarrubia as an alternative cover for the Dynamite Entertainment edition of Red Sonja #2. Maroto drew her in this costume for a double page spread illustration in Savage Tales #3 and then for her first solo adventure in Savage Sword of Conan #1, and John Buscema drew her in this costume in the same magazine. Buscema drew her again in this costume in issues 43, 44 and 48 of Conan the Barbarian and Dick Giordano in the first issue of Marvel Feature vol. 2 before Frank Thorne took over from issue #2. The "bikini" proved popular, becoming well known through the paintings of Boris Vallejo and others.

Comics bibliography

As a main character

In solo stories in anthologies

Team-ups

In other media

Novels

Sonja has been featured in several novels by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney with covers by Boris Vallejo:
portrayed the character in the "Red Sonja" episode of the 1997–1998 TV series Conan the Adventurer. In 1999, there was a planned TV series with Sable starring as Red Sonja.

Films

The character was played by Brigitte Nielsen in the 1985 film Red Sonja, which also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as High Lord Kalidor. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer.
Misty Lee provided the character's voice in the 2016 animated film .
Actress Rose McGowan was originally intended to portray Sonja in 2010's Red Sonja film, but these plans were abandoned after McGowan suffered injuries that permanently damaged the mobility and strength of her right arm. In a February 2011 interview, film producer Avi Lerner stated that Simon West was hired to direct the film and also mentioned Amber Heard as the frontrunner to star in the lead role. On February 26, 2015, Christopher Cosmos was hired to write the film's script. Filmmaker Mike Le Han has made a video for his pitch of him directing Red Sonja. According to Deadline, Millennium Films will finance and produce a new Red Sonja movie with Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta producing alongside with Cinelou Films’ Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon and writing by Ashley Miller. In September 2018, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the studio was considering Bryan Singer to direct the film. The next month in October 2018, Singer was confirmed to direct the film. In February 2019, following allegations against Singer of sexual assault, Millennium stated Red Sonja was no longer on their slate of films. The next month, the studio has removed Singer from directing the film. On June 21, 2019, three months after Singer was removed as director, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Jill Soloway had been hired to write and direct the film.

Awards

On June 6, 2006, the comic news site Newsarama reported that Red Sonja, LLC filed a lawsuit on four counts against Paradox Entertainment in US Federal Court in April 2006. The four counts are claims of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unfair competition. The lawsuit was settled in January 2008, on the second day of the hearing, for a sum of $1 each. Red Sonja LLC paid $1 to Paradox for the rights to Howard's Red Sonya and permission for the Red Sonja stories to continue being set in Conan's Hyborian Age. Paradox simultaneously paid $1 to Red Sonja LLC for the exclusive print-publication rights for "The Shadow of the Vulture" now that one of the characters belongs to Red Sonja LLC.