The Chaos! Universe and Hyboria collide in Dynamite’s latest crossover event Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1. The She-Devil with a Sword finds herself face to face with the Hordes of Hell in the new limited series debuting in January 2020. The publisher has announced the series just in time for New York Comic Con 2019, beginning Thursday October 3.
Written by Erik Burnham (Vampirella/Dejah Thoris, Ghostbusters) and with art by Jonathan Lau (Red Sonja, Green Hornet, Pathfinder: Worldscape), the series centers on a cosmic level spat between Mistress Hel and Lady Demon, which leaves Sonja, Chastity, Evil Ernie, Purgatori, Jade, and more stuck in the middle. Alliances will be made to combat this mayhem and great evil, but Sonja may have to resort to something she never would have guessed—help from her sworn enemy, Kulan Gath.
“I am incredibly excited to get a return trip to the Hyborean Age to spend a little more time with Red Sonja. She’s an incredibly fun character to write, and the contrast of her nature up against the magic and mayhem of the Chaos! characters is going to make for a good time at the ol’ keyboard,” said Burnham. “Even better, Jonathan Lau’s art is gonna blow the doors off (please have all doors reinforced before opening the book). Hyperbole aside, I’m looking forward to the project and can only hope the readers have as much fun as we do on it. Now let’s go get violent!”
Lau adds, “My mission has always been to bring big action back into comics, which is sorely lacking in the ‘dialogue-heavy’ style of comics nowadays. Writers like Erik have given me artistic freedom when it comes to fight scenes. He says something like ‘Hey Jon, I leave to you these three to five pages as long as this certain guy wins but loses an arm at the last panel.’”
“It’s kind of amazing mixing two disparate franchises together and discovering just how well they actually fit,” says editor Matt Idelson. “Eric ‘s done a bang-up job finding what makes each of the characters tick, not to mention how they’d tick each other off!”
While new readers can easily get into the comic without prior knowledge of the characters, fans may remember Burnham’s contribution to the previous ongoing Red Sonja volume with Amy Chu and Carlos Gomez. In the arc “Worlds Away,” Sonja was sent to modern-day New York City, putting the swordswoman in the middle of a fish-out-of-water story filled with new challenges for the heroine. Burnham teases there may be callbacks and Easter eggs in this new series for fans of that previous run. The writer says, “Anything we mention would just be for flavor, and not really a main ingredient.”
A comic crossover this exciting wouldn’t be complete without gorgeous covers. First up is painter Lucio Parrillo (Red Sonja: Birth of the She-Devil, Vengeance of Vampirella) and his contribution depicting Sonja and Purgatori locked in mortal combat and drawing blood. There is also a cover by Alan Quah (X-O Manowar, Judge Dredd) that captures nearly the full cast of characters (but be ready for more surprises in the series). Ale Garza (Deadpool, Dejah Thoris) and Cian Tormey (Valykyrie: Jane Foster) also add their own personal take on the characters. A cosplay cover starring Shannon Kingston rounds out the list.
Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1 will be available for preorder at your local comic shop in November and is currently slated to release in January 2020. For digital, you can find the series on Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Dynamite Digital, ComicsPlus, and more. Stay tuned for more on Dynamite’s website.
