Dravara knows she’s coming. She doesn’t necessarily know her by name. She knows her as “the soul bearer.” She brings Dravrara news from Ember Falls. Yes: the wizard Kulan Gath is more or less alive again. This isn’t a good thing in another life in another world back in 1984, Gath turned all of Manhattan into a sword and sorcery nightmare in The Uncanny X-Men. No he threatens the Hyborian Kingdom once more and there’s one woman looking to do something about it in Red Sonja #14. Writer Torunn Grønbekk continues a deeply enjoyable action serial with artist Walter Geovani  and colorist Omi Remalante Jr.

Kulan Gath is a distant concern for Sonja in the immediate moment. Right now she IS bearing the soul of a being with the ability to turn life to death. So Dravara suggests the she go to Hell. Literally. If the soul she bears finds its own body, there could be a great deal of peril. Take he soul to Hell and that peril is eliminated. Sonja’s been an agent of death for quite some time. Now she gets to find out what the afterlife is like. And she has a god of death to accompany her...one that is safely trapped inside a severed head.

Grønbekk plays with the strange and unsettling as she explores the distinctive fantasy world that Sonja inhabits. The author mixes dramatic moments with action sequences that feel strikingly well-balanced. The overall rhythm of the story feels active and dynamic. Sonja feels very much in control of her own destiny even as she is ensconced in a situation that is well beyond her control. She allows Sonja an opportunity to be truly heroic at issue’s end in a way that gives her a bit more of a heroic dynamic than she’s had in the recent past. It’s refreshing to see her being more of a classic hero by the end of the issue.

Geovani moves the action fluidly around the page in a way that deftly dances with the rhythms of Grønbekk’s script. Action hits the page with a steady hand. Close-ups and mid-range shots are occasionally accompanied by some gorgeous silhouette shots that maintain a cunning momentum throughout the story that guides the energy of the issue from the opening conversation to the issue-ending action. It’s a sharp execution of a real fun story. 

Grønbekk is working with epic heroic tropes that have been around since the dawn of storytelling. She’s putting it together in a way that feels new and interesting. This is a tricky matter...try too hard to move things in a new direction and the writer runs the risk of making the story feel gimmicky. Keep too close to the origins of heroic fiction and it becomes forgettable. Grønbekk does a good job of finding a middle ground with cleverly and appealingly skewed ideas that reach right into the beating heart of what heroism is. Hard to believe that she’s already 14 issues into the series. It’s been moving along SO fluidly. 

Grade: A