Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword

Sword and sorcery mainstay Red Sonja is back in all her chain-mail bikini glory, once more hurling vitriol at her barbaric male counterparts while removing appendages from any man stupid enough to attempt invasion of her personal space. This spinoff from Robert E. Howard's Conan canon gained popularity in the '70s via the Marvel comics version, and the idea of a female warrior who triumphs while wearing as little as possible within the confines of censorship guidelines remains appealing. The new story lines by Carey (Lucifer ) and Oeming (Powers ) try to give Sonja's character a bit of depth, but struggle against art that concentrates on shots of Sonja's shapely rear sitting firmly in her saddle. Red Sonja's new adventures are a reliably familiar exercise in the basic sword and sorcery formula: Sonja's wanderings bring her to an isolated city governed by the obligatory mad sorcerer, and it's only a matter of pages until the two must meet in combat. Rubi's art mostly settles for getting the job done without too much flair. Rounding out this barbarian battle fest is a 41-page gallery of variant covers by a artists including Arthur Adams and J.G. Jones. (Nov.)