Conan and Red Sonja, a dynamic duo of coolness is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the cover for this book. With a duo like this you would think that the story would be epic. However, epic is not the way I would describe this book. The story starts off with Sonja dressed like a common girl in the Coliseum watching gladiators fighting animals. The animal master takes an interest to Sonja and explains to her that he is the man responsible for the animals in the Coliseum and that he is merely giving the people what they want. The animal master begins to flirt with Sonja and she quickly accepts his invitation without the master finishing his proposal. Once the events are over Sonja meets the master in the dead of night. Just when the animal master is going to make his move, Sonja tricks the animal master as all she wanted was to find a way to the castle to get to the Prince.
Meanwhile, Conan dresses like a hermit trying to get help from the guards. The guards try to make him move away only to find out that Conan is behind the costume. He persuades the guards to open the gate so that he can come in and find the Prince as well. As Conan reaches the Prince, Sonja is already there. Sonja and Conan are confused as to why they are both there. Wondering what to do with the Prince Conan does what Conan does best and kills the guy. They both escape the castle with a strange box that their contractor requested. After they have escaped from the castle, Sonja decides to see what is inside the box. Conan wakes up from his slumber and sees Sonja open the box and a big fights ensues. Who wins the fight? And, do they find out the content of the box? All of this is revealed to you in the issue.
Story wise, the issue isn’t terrible; Simone & Zub do a good job of setting up the main story and establishing who the villain is in the book, and how he will destroy the world. From that perspective the story moved along very smoothly with no holes. My problem with this issue and probably the rest of this series is the way Sonja treats Conan. She sounded superior and smarter than Conan when both of them are hired mercenaries and are very good warriors. Showing some mutual respect would had been a better way for the characters to interact rather than all the mistrust both of them display. As for the art in this comic. I thought the art was decent. Red Sonja looks very good in her scenes but Conan look very clean and good-looking rather than tough and rugged. I found this depiction of Conan hard to believe as the great warrior that kicked butt and took names.
Overall Conan and Red Sonja was a very ordinary book. The story is very straightforward as to what is going on and very easy to understand, but the dialogue and the way both characters talk and interact with each other felt off. I didn’t feel Conan as the bad ass warrior he is and I didn’t feel it from Sonja either. A good idea that was poorly executed character wise.
Score: 2/5
Writer: Gail Simone & Jim Zub Artist: Dan Panosian Colorist: Dave Stewart Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date:1/14/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital