Personality Crisis

Red Sonja is Reborn in Christopher Priest's radical new barbarian series

- WORDS: STEPHEN JEWELL

CENTRING ON YOUNG BRITISH diplomatic clerk Maggie Sutherland, who is mysteriously transported from 2025 to the Hyboria Age before turning into Red Sonja herself, Sonja Reborn could easily have been titled Becoming Red Sonja. Illustrated by Alessandro Miracolo, it represents writer Christopher Priest’s return to the She-Devil with a Sword after initially scripting her during his mid-’80s run on Marvel’s Conan The Barbarian.

“It’s not so much an origin story as it’s a derivation of Alice In Wonderland or The Wizard Of Oz. Is this person hallucinating, imagining herself transported to Hyboria, or is this Red Sonja hallucinating about the modern world? The answer to both is yes!,” says Priest, who also writes Vampirella for publishers Dynamite Entertainment.

“While differing in execution, the basic idea is inspired by Robert E Howard’s 1932 short story for the pulp magazine