Red Sonja

Red Sonja was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially based on Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino, a female swashbuckler from his 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture", and to a certain degree also based on Howard's character Dark Agnes de Chastillon.[3]

Red Sonja debuted in Conan the Barbarian #23 (1973).[4] Thomas created a new origin story and transposed the timeline from the 16th century of Howard's original Red Sonya to the Hyborian Age, another Howard creation, in order to have the comic-book Red Sonja interact with Conan the Barbarian. In 1975, Marvel Comics published the first issue of Red Sonja after the character headlined Marvel Feature for seven issues that same year.[5][6] Red Sonja's origin story was told in the story "The Day of the Sword", in Kull and the Barbarians #3 (1975), written by Roy Thomas and Doug Moench and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. The same story was later redrawn by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin in The Savage Sword of Conan #78 (July 1982).

In this version, Red Sonja lives with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes. When she is 17, a group of mercenaries kills her family and burns down their house. Sonja attempts to defend herself, but cannot lift her brother's sword. She is raped by the leader of the group. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scáthach appears to her and gives her incredible fighting skills, on the condition that she never lie with a man unless he defeats her in fair combat.

Dynamite Comics began publishing the series in 2005. The original Sonja dies in issue #34 of the first Dynamite series. A new character of the same name, described as a reincarnation, takes her place from issue #35 onward.[7]

In her new life, Sonja is described as a distant relative of the original Red Sonja, taking her name as a good omen, since Sonja had come to be known as the most beautiful and fearless woman in Hyrkania. A noblewoman, this incarnation lives a fairly sheltered existence, along with her sister Verona and her little niece, longing for a child of her own and waiting for the return of her far-off husband, Lord Daniel.

Eventually she is reunited with her husband, but then a pirate crew (unbeknownst to them called upon by Verona's husband, Lord Lucan, in a bid for more power) slays him and leaves Sonja on the brink of death. Sonja is then nursed to health by Osin, in Sonja's previous life a bard companion and now a gruff swordsman, who accepted the curse of Claw the Unconquered for himself in exchange for the ability to locate and train the new incarnation of Red Sonja.

Osin begins her training. He and Sonja find that, even though she has occasional flashes of her former reflexes, she no longer has access to the full might of the skills bestowed by Scathach (now an almost forgotten goddess with waning powers) in her previous life. Despite this, Sonja is able to learn faster than Osin expects. She decides to seek revenge covertly, joining Lucan's pirate crew to be closer to Daniel's assassins.

At the 2013 Emerald City Comic Con, Dynamite Entertainment, which began publishing Red Sonja comics in 2005, announced that Gail Simone would be writing a new ongoing Red Sonja series.[8] Simone noted in further interviews that her version is slightly "rebooted," showing the character's beginnings.[9] Issue #1 of Simone's run was released in July 2013 to positive reviews.[10] The series ran through 18 issues.[11]

In Gail Simone's series, Sonja's origins are retold in flashbacks. Sonja is a young teenager in a Hyrkanian village which is attacked by bandits. After her family is killed, Sonja lures the bandits into the forest and kills them one by one. No goddess appears in this version and Sonja makes no vow of chastity. While she is threatened by the bandits, she is neither raped nor seriously injured. Another set of flashbacks shows Sonja as an adult, and indicates that she learned many of her fighting skills from a fellow prisoner when she was captured and forced to fight as a gladiator.[12]

In 2017, a new Red Sonja comic series began, written by Amy Chu.[13]

And with

• Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #79 (Marvel Comics) (The spirit of Sonja possesses the body of Mary Jane Watson to face her old enemy Kulan Gath). The two meet again, albeit in a seemingly different continuity, in the Spider-Man/Red Sonja mini-series co-published by Dynamite Entertainment, in which Kulan Gath and Venom are the principal antagonists. The Spider-Man/Red Sonja TPB (ISBN 978-0-78-512744-4) collects Spider-Man/Red Sonja (2007) #1 – 5 (Oct. 2007 – Feb. 2008) and Marvel Team-Up (1972 – 1985 1st Series) #79 (March 1979).
• Wolverine in What if? Vol. 2, #16 (Marvel Comics) (Sonja is defeated by Wolverine and becomes his mate).
• Official Handbook of the Conan Universe #1 (Marvel Comics) (1986).
• Marvel Feature #4 was reprinted in the book The Superhero Women edited by Stan Lee. Red Sonja was featured among many of Marvel's female characters on the cover painted by John Romita, Sr.

Sonja has been featured in several novels by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney with covers by Boris Vallejo:

• #1 The Ring of Ikribu (Ace 1981) (Adapted to comics by Roy Thomas and Esteban Maroto in The Savage Sword of Conan issues 230–3). Smith has written an unproduced screenplay based on this novel.
• #2 Demon Night (Ace 1982)
• #3 When Hell Laughs (Ace 1982)
• #4 Endithor's Daughter (Ace 1982)
• #5 Against the Prince of Hell (Ace 1983)
• #6 Star of Doom (Ace 1983)

Angelica Bridges portrayed the character in the "Red Sonja" episode of the 1997–1998 TV series Conan the Adventurer. In 1999, there was a planned TV series with Sable starring as Red Sonja.[17]

The character was played by Brigitte Nielsen in the 1985 film Red Sonja, which also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as High Lord Kalidor (originally intended to be Conan). The film was directed by Richard Fleischer.

Misty Lee provided the character's voice in the 2016 animated film Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues.

Actress Rose McGowan was originally intended to portray Sonja in 2010's Red Sonja film, but these plans were abandoned after McGowan suffered injuries that permanently damaged the mobility and strength of her right arm.[18] In a February 2011 interview, film producer Avi Lerner stated that Simon West was hired to direct the film and also mentioned Amber Heard as the frontrunner to star in the lead role.[19] On February 26, 2015, Christopher Cosmos was hired to write the film's script.[20] Filmmaker Mike Le Han has made a video for his pitch of him directing Red Sonja.[21] According to Deadline, Millennium Films will finance and produce a new Red Sonja movie with Avi Lerner and Joe Gatta producing alongside with Cinelou Films’ Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon and writing by Ashley Miller.[22][23] In September 2018, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the studio was considering Bryan Singer to direct the film.[24] The next month in October 2018, Singer was confirmed to direct the film.[25] In February 2019, following allegations against Singer of sexual assault, Millennium stated Red Sonja was no longer on their slate of films.[26] The next month, the studio has removed Singer from directing the film.[27] On June 21, 2019, three months after Singer was removed as director, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Jill Soloway had been hired to write and direct the film.[28]