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Red Sonja

Gallery

Real Name

Sonja

Current Alias

Red Sonja

Aliases

The She-Devil of Hyrkania, The She-Devil with a sword

Affiliation

Ally of Conan

Status

Alignment

Good

Identity

Public Identity

Citizenship

Hyrcanian

Occupation

Warrior

Characteristics

Gender

Female

Height

5' 11"

Weight

130 lbs (59 kg)

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Red

Origin

Origin

Orphaned and raped at the age of 17 when her family were killed by mercenaries, the goddess Scathach instill her with incredible warrior skills after Red Sonja requested for revenge.

Universe

Earth-616

Created by

Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith

First appearance

Conan the Barbarian #23
(February, 1973)

HistoryEdit

Know also, O Prince, that in those selfsame days that Conan the Cimmerian did stalk the Hyborian kingdoms, one of the few swords worthy to cross with his was that of Red Sonja, warrior woman out of majestic Hyrkania. Forced to flee her homeland because she spurned the advances of a king and slew him instead, she rode west across the Turanian Steppes and into the shadowed mists of legendry

-- The Nemedian Chronicles  

Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble home in the Western Hyrkanian steppes. When she had just turned 17 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.

In her adventures, she has often cross path with Conan the Barbarian and the two has been constant enemies of the evil sorcerer Kulan Gath. Red Sonja also went to the future on two separate occasions when she possessed Mary Jane Watson and teamed up with Spider-Man in defeating Kulan Gath who had also traveled to the future in one of many attempts to take over modern day Earth.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Abilities

A sword-master in peak human physical condition, martial arts expert, as well as knowledge and experience of fighting the supernatural.

NotesEdit

Red Sonja is heroine set in the Hyborean Age created by Marvel Comics, loosely based on Robert E. Howard's Red Sonya from the short story "The Shadow of the Vulture", which was later rewritten for Conan comics by Roy Thomas. She is now under license to Dynamite Entertainment. This profile should focus only on Marvel's involvement with the character, and with whatever implied or referenced background is necessary.

The origin of Red Sonja, "The Day of the Sword", first appeared in Kull and the Barbarians #3 by Roy Thomas, Doug Moench and Howard Chaykin, and was later redrawn by Dick Giordano and Terry Austin for The Savage Sword of Conan, issue 78.

In the current Dynamite comic book series, Sonja's origins are portrayed in "flashbacks" within each issue beginning with issue #8. The goddess makes her first appearance in the new series in issue #12, which also marks the return of the deadly sorcerer Kulan Gath.

TriviaEdit

• Red Sonja writer Frank Thorne, along with Mike and Sal Captuo, wrote a song entitled "The Ballad of Red Sonja" which they performed at a New Jersey nightclub called Lily Langtry's in 1977. ^[1]
  

Appearances in Other MediaEdit

Red Sonja

She was played by Brigitte Nielsen in the 1985 film Red Sonja, which also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Prince Kalidor (a Conan clone). The film was directed by Richard Fleischer. It performed poorly at the box office.

Conan

Red Sonja makes an appearance on the Conan TV series, in the episode, "Red Sonja". She is on a mission to rescue a young wizard who was kidnapped. When one of Conan's partners sarcastically asks why the village didn't send their best warriors, Sonja replies, "They did send their best warrior, mulebrain!" She was played by Angelica Bridges.

LinksEdit

• 120 Appearances of Red Sonja (Earth-616)
• 16 Images featuring Red Sonja (Earth-616)
• 3 Quotations by or about Red Sonja (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Red Sonja (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Red Sonja (Earth-616) 
• Red Sonja (Earth-616) at Wikipedia.org 
• Wikipedia contributors, "Red Sonja," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Sonja&oldid=96142746 (accessed December 30, 2006).

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Footnotes