You know what? It is a really good time for awesome fantasy comics about warrior women. Here are some of the ones I’m loving:
- Rat Queens, by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch
- The Legend of Bold Riley, by Leia Weathington, Marco Aidala, Konstantin Pogorelov, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McClellan, and Jason Thompson
- Red Sonja, by Gail Simone and Walter Geovanni
- Princeless, by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin
- Princess Ugg, by Ted Naifeh
Do you have others you’re liking?
Unfortunately it appears the the Golden Age of Red Sonja costuming is over and she is now regularly wearing the scalemail bikini. Personally I am disappointed by this (big surprise right!?). However, it’s worth mentioning that she is still being written counter to many of the usual tropes.
As well as amazing skills of combat, Sonja also seems possessed of amazing body odor that, amazing capacity for faux pas, is often covered in mud and constantly indulges in the kinds of excess usually reserved only for the boys – and still manages to be a heroine of legendary status.
So she is within the bikini armor trope, she’s at least doing so in a way that we could be argued to be an actual female power fantasy ala the barbarian in a loincloth. I’m not sure on how well it’ s succeeding, but it’s an interesting experiment.
Certainly better than the other titles that Dynamite has been putting Red Sonja in.
– wincenworks