Review: Red Sonja #10- Emasculated men and women in charge

Story: Gail Simone
Art: Walter Geovani
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 18th June 2014

Gail Simone has been having a bit of fun with Red Sonja recently, and in issue #10 she continues to portray the scantily clad warrior as somebody having a bit of a laugh. That’s okay, but when this current story- arc concludes I hope that the book starts to offer something more than just another feminist liberal chuckle.

This issue of Red Sonja will be remembered as the one where Sonja has a bit of fun with a dandy swordsmen who call himself ‘the untouched,’ not just because no opponent can lay a sword on him, but because (to Sonja’s dismay) he has vowed to remain chaste until somebody bests him in battle.

You can tell where the story is going from the very beginning, with Sonja clumsily duelling with the fop before getting serious at the end and showing him who’s the star (and boss) of the book.  It was fun, although the art was sometimes a little inconsistent.

Some reviewers will laud this book as being a champion of women’s rights as it portrays female characters in a strong and dominant role. This claim would have more substance if that was something unusual in contemporary comics, but that is not the case.

Gender roles are not being reversed in this book, as women get the better of feminised, emasculated men in just about every mainstream comic book on the market today. It’s the same in television shows and movies as well. Women are in charge, and men are fools, sexless metrosexuals or evil villains. In that regard this is a book of its time, where men are a bit of a joke and women are in charge.

So why am I reading what I myself would describe as feminist liberal book? After all, doesn’t this portrayal of emasculated masculinity weaken traditional gender roles, confusing not only young men but women as well?

Yes, it does, and it produces an enfeebled society where ‘useless’ men are removed from the family, replaced by the state and an ‘independent’ women who is nothing more than a slave to the centralised control system. This book undoubtedly plays it’s role in making this happen, and I’m very aware of that.

So again, why am I reading it? Because I’m still reacting as programmed by my liberal education I guess, where male guilt commands me to applaud any female portrayed in a dominant, masculine role. That’s probably the real, honest answer to my own question. I have been programmed, and I’m very aware of that. My goal now is to break the programming, but it’s bloody hard to do so.

Gail Simone is subconsciously playing into a larger agenda that she is probably unaware of. I don’t deny that she is very good at telling a joke, and as the one feminist liberal comic book on my pull list I’m still laughing at it, even though it’s starting to get a little uncomfortable for me now.

Will I still be following this book in a few months’ time? That’s the question here. If all it’s offering is a politically correct joke, why would somebody like myself who is looking to expand his critical awareness and consciousness bother to hang around? For the time being I’ll follow this story through to the end and see where the next arc is going. If it’s just more feminist liberal jokes then I’ll say goodbye to Red Sonja, but I’ve followed Gail Simone for a long time now, so I’ll give her another chance before moving on.
Rating: 7/10