Red Sonja

Origin

Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble home in the Western Hyrkanian steppes. When she had just turned seventeen years old, a group of cruel mercenaries killed her father Ivor, her mother and two younger brothers and burned their house and all their possessions. She survived but at the cost of her own virginity after she was brutally raped by the leader of the group, leaving her in shame. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scathach appeared to her, and instilled in her incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat.

Marvel Comics 

Red Sonja's first feature story in Conan #24

One of Sonja's less-friendly encounters with Conan

The first issue of her own title

Red Sonja's first team-up with Spider-Man

Her final run with Marvel, in a redesigned blue costume

Dynamite Entertainment

Red Sonja's debut with Dynamite Entertainment

Red Sonja's second team-up with Spider-Man

In addition to her own title (storyline detailed below), Sonja also would star in a number of miniseries, including one alongside Claw the Unconquered. In 2007 Marvel, with the cooperation of Dynamite, welcomed back Red Sonja for a five-issue miniseries in which Sonja and Spider-Man met again in modern-day New York City, in a scenario very similar to their first team up. Sonja again switched bodies with Mary Jane Watson, and she and Spider-Man battled old nemesis Kulan Gath once more. The two succeeded in defeating Gath a second time, despite the latter’s recruitment of Spider-Man's arch-foe Venom to his cause.

The Celestial One

Red Sonja has been wandering the world. She eventually enters a town where most of the men have left for war. Women were being treated like slaves, however, Red Sonja did not help them as they did not want any help. She goes into a bar and chats with the bartender named Jessa. Sonja drinks until she passes out on the table, some men came in to take advantage of her being passed out. It was all planned out, make her pass out, and kill her easily. However, Red Sonja was not a warrior that is easily defeated, as she woke up and defeated all the men easily and left afterwards. Sonja then spends the night in the woods with her horse, Throne. She then shoots an arrow and kills an owl for food. After she finished eating, she continued her search for the Hyborian Kingdoms. Sonja runs into a group of bandits attacking a messenger on a horse. Sonja uses her skilled marksmanship and kills most of the bandits from afar with a bow and arrow. Once they began closing in on her, she drew her sword and finished off the rest. The messenger begins hitting on Sonja due to her revealing armor, but she assures him that it distracts men long enough for her to chop off their heads. They then get straight to the point, he mentions that he is a messenger of Gathia. He tells her that he was bringing a message to the Zedda Tribes (the bandits that attacked him) about surrendering. The two of them head for Gathia, which is a city that Sonja had been looking for. However, it was a days ride to get there. They rest near a pond, where the messenger warns Sonja to be careful of the monster in the pond. He begins telling her about how pure his city has become thanks to their King, and that the only reason she is allowed to come is because she saved him. Just as the messenger finishes drinking the water, he begins chocking and a vine type monster emerges from his mouth. Sonja was forced to decapitate him in order to kill the monster. Sonja decides to take his head to Gaitha and deliver his message for him. Once she arrived at the city, she shows them the decapitated head and they recognize her as Red Sonja. She tells them that part of their land is corrupted but they do not believe her, so they decide to attack her.

The number of soldiers did not overwhelm her at all as she easily killed soldier after soldier. However, Sonja stood atop a trap door and it opened, causing her to fall in it. There is a monster inside the area, and Sonja begins preparing herself by grabbing hold of a skull and lighting it on fire for distraction. Sonja gains the upper hand and stabs a broken sword in its head, she then takes the skull and drives the sword deeper in, killing him after multiple blows. Sonja passes out after the battle and the guards take her away. She awakens in a white dress with hand cuffs chaining her down. A woman was cleaning her and Sonja becomes angered that the woman is forced to bow before anyone. A priest comes in and tries to get her to worship his God. The people of that kingdom worship a man named The Celestial One, and he “purified” most of the lands around the area. Since Sonja did not accept The Celestial One as her God, she is to be killed. Sonja is then tied up to a pillar out in the open as the priest drives a dagger through her heart. Sonja is then dumped into the area where they throw dead people in. However, later that night, the priest returns and recovers Sonja’s body. He takes her to a nearby refuge to tend to her dagger wound. He uses some dark magic and revives Sonja to the world. Later that morning, Sonja wakes up and the priest Fa, shows Sonja that he spoke the truth, they truly needed her help. The priest reveals that he used the Blade of Vaven to feign her death, then revive her for help. However, the knife is forced to remain within her. He also reveals that they have to return the blade to the idol it stood on or else her death will be permanent. Sonja tells him that she is not for sell, but he assures her that he wants to take down the Celestial One. Sonja agrees and they head to the Idol.

Defeating the Celestial

Red Sonja heads out with Mika, Kang, Solath, and an old ally, Osin. They head into the forest where they have to leave their horses due to terrain problems. They finally arrive at the idol, Sonja then takes the blade out of her chest when Solath betrays them, killing Kang and Mika. Sonja is forced to stab Solath with the blade in her neck, killing her quickly. Sonja then passes out once again. Osin tended to her wound and eventually Sonja would re-awaken. Osin wants to exact revenge for his fallen friends, and continues the journey with Sonja. Sonja and Osin then run into the savage bandits that Sonja saved the messenger from earlier. Fa emerges from the group and Sonja is angered that Solath was a spy for Celestial. Fa said that he knew her since childhood and would’ve trusted her with his life, but it does not calm Sonja down. Fa then reveals that the Zedda had come to them for help since the Celestial One opened the dam and destroyed their homes. The Zedda leader is angered that they are allying themselves with the woman who saved that Celestial messenger and killed many of his men. He challenges Sonja to a fight, but Sonja backs down after Fa convinces her it is not the time. However, the Zedda leader thought otherwise, he leaps at her while her back was turned. Sonja turns in time to catch him while stabbing a knife in the Zedda, killing him. The others bow to their new leader, Red Sonja. Fa goes over the attack plans with Sonja and one of the Zedda. Afterwards, they prepare for a big feast. Later that night, Osin and Sonja talk to each other about the Celestial. They begin talking about her travels and how big of a legend she is. Osin then mentions that he likes that “she will not sleep with a man until he has beaten her in battle” part. He then tries to sucker punch her but she catches it and flips him on his back. Later that morning, they begin their assault on the Celestial One’s kingdom. Sonja, Osin, and a Zedda named Borg were able to enter the kingdom easily. They kill all the guards that are in their way, afterwards they see their ally Borg hurt. They pick him up and they are all ready to fight to the end. They hear children screaming for help in the dungeon, to which they tend to. However, the Children were some kind of demons and they are trapped inside with them. At first, Sonja could not bring herself to kill the children, however they turned out to be demon spawn so there was no guilt in killing them. As they headed up stairs, they encounter a giant snake-like monster. Borg would sacrifice himself for Sonja and Osin to continue on. Sonja eventually arrives at Celestial’s room, where he is ready to battle her. They begin battling each other and Sonja would be able to knock off his helmet. She discovers that Celestial is really a Zedda in disguise. She then grabs a sword and slices his neck, she then cuts off his arm and knocks him off the ledge. Sonja and Osin fall off the ledge also, but Sonja lands in the water. She searches for Osin but could not find him.

Pirate Troubles

Sonja goes to a bar and gets drunk again. She gets into another bar fight with the drunk men there. After she humiliates them, she talks to a young man named Ander, who is seeking her help. He asks her to help him escape from the pirates keeping him, to which she agrees. They run to a harbor then grabbed a small boat to sail off in. They were able to escape and land nearby safely. They walk through the forest and he tells her that he is trying to find out what his father had learned, but Gorkon (the pirate leader) told him that his father died at sea, to which they both did not believe very much. They enter a cave and discovers the treasure chest. The only thing inside it was a small stone, but it was activated when he touched it and he saw what really happened to his father. It was Gorkon who murdered his father. Gorkon and the pirates arrive and Ander is ready to fight them. Sonja defeats the other pirates while Ander battled Gorkon. Ander was able to stab and kill Gorkon. Afterwards, they part their separate ways.

More Celestial Followers

Sonja runs into an area where some of Celestial followers are performing a ritual on a girl. Sonja kills them and demands to know more about other Celestial generals. However, the man was killed before he could say anything. Sonja travels to a nearby town to discover a massacre, everyone there was dead. She discovers a surviving girl buried under rubble. She takes the young girl to a house with survivors to tend to her wounds. Sonja begins reminiscing through her memories about the time she played with her father’s sword. Later, Sonja decides to go after the men who did this to the village. While she was sleeping, the girl named Karena she saved followed her, wanting to exact her own revenge. Sonja decides to teach her how to fight, later that night they sneak into the men’s camp and attack them. Karena turned out to be a very good archer, however, in the shadows a mysterious man is lurking, ready to attack Red Sonja. She teaches the girl a more on strategy now, and they ready their attack again. Both of them snipe the guards from afar. They continuing picking the guards off, however, Sonja was attacked by a mysterious stranger. The stranger then flees after he misses his attack, Sonja heads inside to where Karena was. She had the leader tied up already. Later that morning, Sonja and the girl part their separate ways. Karena takes the heads of the men and the leader back to her village as a trophy.

The Next God Trouble

As Red Sonja watches Karena head back to her village, she is attacked by that same man that attacked her earlier, and he drops a decapitated head next to her. They eventually begin battling each other. His swordsmanship rivaled Red Sonja, and as they clashed swords and struggled, he bit her arm, to which she bit his shoulder back. However, she quickly discovers living vines coming out of her hand, similar to the way the messenger died. He knocks Sonja onto the ground and reveals the decapitated head to be Karena. Just as he was about to slash Sonja with a sword, Osin arrives and distracts him. Osin then engages against the monster as they fall into a temple in ruins. However, before they could fight more, a giant behemoth comes crashing in, causing them to fall underneath to a hidden area. Sonja was knocked unconscious, but she would eventually reawaken after she dreamed about the time when she was raped, and her first time meeting the Goddess. After Sonja wakes up, the man reveals his name as Suumaro, and that he was once a prince. He also reveals that he sent his behemoth in to save them from being killed, but the behemoth was killed protecting them. He tells her that his Goddess told him to seek out Red Sonja to help him with his problem. His father, King Quillo, has been taken over by a great evil. He reveals the Dark Shadow that has taken over his father, and it surprises Sonja. The Borat-Na Fori is the Dark God who his father fell in love with. Luckily for Suumaro, Sonja had been seeking out this God her whole life, killing all those loyal to it. She agrees to help Suumaro and mentions that they have to destroy the baby the Witch is bearing, which is the son of a terrible God named Kulan Gath. They begin to go after the Dark God, as they were resting, Sonja asks Suumaro about the Goddess that helped him. It surprises her that it might be the same Goddess that granted Sonja her powers. They quickly finish up and head off again, as time is running short for them.

They finally arrive on the mountains nearby the castle, and are scouting the area. They decide to just burst in and kill anyone in their way. Meanwhile, the Witch just gave birth to Kulan’s son, as he bursts through his mother’s stomach killing her in the process. Sonja and the others are being chased by guards and are forced to fight after they kidnapped Suumaro’s possessed father. Her horse’s head was decapitated but was quickly possessed by Kulan’s son and threatens Sonja. Suumaro tries to snap his father out of it but is unsuccessful, then the Goddess shows up. However, only Sonja and Suumaro sees her and Osin does not. She tells them that they must seek out the Old Gods and wake them from their slumber. They start their journey, looking for the Old Gods. Traveling through snowy mountains, their horses would eventually die from tiredness. While climbing the mountain, Osin was carrying the mad King, but he struggles too much and Osin drops him. Sonja catches him safely, but they are interrupted by an avalanche. A monster then rises out of a pond nearby controlled by the Kulan’s son. The monster crashes into the icy walls and causes them to collapse, Sonja and the others are forced to run from the area or else they’d be crushed. They were able to avoid getting crushed and they prepared to fight the monster. Sonja charges in and stabs it in the face, defeating it. The group continues forward and discovers heat leaking, eventually finding the entrance to the temple. Suumaro’s father this pokes his own eyes out and kills himself in order to be free. Then, Kaleval emerges and demands to know what they want. Sonja pleads for help but he attacks them because they are not Gods. Sonja then jumps and attacks him, however he defeats her easily. They finally convince him after telling him about the new evil and how he can be praised and worshipped if he helps them rid the world of this new evil. Sonja tells Kaleval about a blade that is in her homeland of Hyrkania. He tells her that they will go there and get the sword, while Suumaro forms an army with whatever they had.

They arrive back at her homeland to discover the river is covered in blood. Sonja jumps into the river of blood to go after her sword, to which she does successfully and then emerges. Later that night, Sonja talks with Kaleval and mentions that he already knows what happened to her in Hyrkania, and that a man finally defeated her in battle. The two of them make love near the fire. Sonja and Kaleval head back to the gathering place to prepare for battle. The next day, they take their armies and battle against the evil forces. Sonja and Suumaro headed straight for Kulan’s son. Sonja and Suumaro engage against Kulan’s son and their fight begins. Sonja would be overpowered by the demon, but Kaleval was able to come in and aid her. Unfortunately, Kaleval was not strong enough and had his heart pulled out by the demon’s bare hands. Just as he taunts at Sonja and eats the heart, she sneaks up behind him and decapitates him. Meanwhile, Osin is forced to battle against the mysterious man that kept ambushing Sonja earlier. Osin gets his left arm cut off, but luckily, after Sonja decapitated the demon, the man Osin was engaged with began to lose his mind. However, killing Kulan’s son did not do any good, as it opened the door for Kulan Gath himself to enter. Osin grabs Sonja and escapes as the place is being destroyed. Sonja wanted to finish off Kulan as it was her destiny. They continue running as the place continues to collapse. They arrive at a boat and takes it down stream. However, Sonja was grabbed by the mystery man and is forced to battle against him. Osin jumps off the ship tied with a rope to go after Sonja, just as Sonja was about to deliver to killing blow, Osin grabs her and pulls her back onto the boat. Some of them decide to sleep while the current takes them somewhere, however when they wake up, they discover a water fall right in front of them. Everyone falls off the water fall but were able to survive. Sonja feels that she has failed her mission, however, there was nothing they could do but rest for now.

Finding their next Journey

Sonja, Suumaro, and the remaining of their army arrive at the area where Suumaro’s kingdom was being held. It was being held on a lone piece of land with vines wrapped beneath it. Suumaro agreed to just cut the vines and let it fall, as it is better then letting it continue standing the way it was now. Quickly afterwards, a group of flying beasts attack Sonja and company. Some where captured by a net, but Sonja was able to escape. The man beasts do not follow them into the jungle as it is already a death sentence. The group is attacked by living vines again, killing some more men. Luckily, some beings that reside in the jungle save Sonja and her men, then they took her to their village. Sonja learns more of the man beasts called Leijona. They also tell Sonja about an Old God that has been dead in their pond for a long time, and that she should seek it out for help. Sonja decides to jump in the pond and grab the key down there. However, after she grabs it, she is attacked by a sea-beast. It knocked her out but she was rescued quickly. Sonja and her men then went to seek the help of Gaimad, the lord of the El-Hazar. Gaimad then gives them some information before he teleports them unknowingly to their captured friends. They were easily defeated and have become the prisoners of the Leijona. Sonja convinces the Leijona leader to allow them to live for a bit longer, to which he agrees and sent them to the dungeon. In the dungeon, Sonja uses the smoking pipe she received from Gaimad and figures out what to do. Sonja and the others set up a play for them, performing a story that the Leijona absolutely loved. The play was successful and the Leijona allowed Sonja and her men to leave. The play also helped the Leijona and the El-Hazar to be in speaking terms with each other again. The next morning, they prepared their ship and sailed off.

The Armor

From Conan #24

Esteban Maroto

Brigitte Nielsen as Red Sonja (1985 film)

 In 1985 a live action Red Sonja film was released, with actress Brigette Nielsen in the title role. Nielsen, a blonde, dyed her hair red in order to look the part. The film received poor reviews and was a commercial failure despite the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, co-starring as a thinly disguised version of Conan. Sonja was not portrayed in her chain-mail bikini in the film and instead wore leather corset-style armor. 

Angelica Bridges as Red Sonja (television)

In 1998 Red Sonja made an appearance in the short-lived live action “Conan the Adventurer” television series, in an episode entitled “Red Sonja.” She was portrayed by red-haired actress/model Angelica Bridges. Sonja wore bikini armor in this appearance, though it was made of leather, not chain mail. 

Teaser poster with Rose McGowan as Red Sonja

Recently a completely new Red Sonja feature film was announced, originally scheduled for release in late 2009 or early 2010. The film was to be directed by Robert Rodriguez and would star actress Rose McGowan in the title role. Various promotional posters for the film have since been released, featuring McGowan wearing Sonja’s signature chain-mail bikini. Unfortunately, for reasons currently unknown, the production appears to have been shelved indefinitely.