Red is the color of beauty, of blood, of death. It’s the mark of Queen Sonja, that She-Devil with a Sword who has moved her way up to a throne of her own. Dynamite Entertainment sat down with writer Joshua Ortega, to tease the new adventures of this warrior-born.

QUESTION: What led to the Red Sonja title transitioning to this new title, Queen Sonja?

JOSHUA ORTEGA: I think a number of factors, really. The main one being the chance to do something really different with the character, the chance to throw a twist on a classic, enduring character.

Dynamite has done a fantastic job with the current series, and has really brought the character of Sonja back to the prominence that she deserves. Now that the series is nearing 50 issues, it’s time to shake things up a bit, introduce some compelling new elements that’ll keep the readers guessing and take them to some brand new places in Hyrkania that they’ve never seen before.

QUESTION: In the previous series, the original Sonja portrayed in the Dynamite series died in #34 – and a reincarnation of the original Red Sonja took her place. Is she still in the lead here?

ORTEGA: I guess we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we? (laughs) All will be revealed in time, but you can be assured that this *is* Sonja in this story, this isn’t going to be a clone story of Sonja or “Who shot JR” or anything…you can read this and know you’re getting the real deal, an epic tale of the She-Devil with a Sword.

QUESTION: What is Red Sonja up against in this new series?

ORTEGA: She’s up against many things, but her main enemy will ultimately be the empire of Emora and its allies. We don’t want to reveal too much just yet about the specifics, but suffice it to say that she’ll be facing one of the greatest challenges of her life, and her actions will have ramifications far beyond her own personal sphere.

And of course, in classic Sonja fashion, she’ll be battling against the evil that men do, and defending those who can’t do it for themselves…while making a little bit of loot on the side, of course.

QUESTION: The solicits promise a new Sonja short story in addition to the comic – did you write that as well, and if so, can you tell us about it?

ORTEGA: Top secret so far, but I’m sure Dynamite will be releasing the details soon…all in all, it’s looking to be an awesome new launch for fans of Sonja, high fantasy, and kick-ass barbarian action!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 9:23 am and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.