[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_sonja.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300: BringIt.]]

->''"Know also, O prince, that in the selfsame days that the CIMMERIAN did stalk the HYBORIAN KINGDOMS, one of the few swords worthy to cross 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, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a low fantasy sword and sorcery heroine created by Creator/RoyThomas and Barry Windsor-Smith. She first appeared in ''Comicbook/ConanTheBarbarian'' #23 (Creator/MarvelComics, February 1973). The character was loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino in Creator/RobertEHoward's short story ''Literature/TheShadowOfTheVulture'' (''The Magic Carpet'', January 1934), which Roy Thomas rewrote as a Conan story for the Marvel comic. Hence "Sonja" is supposed to be pronounced "Sonya", not with a J sound.

The character now appears monthly in her own series, as well as a series of mini-series and one-shots, all published by Creator/DynamiteComics. The first main Red Sonja series features a wide array of cover artists as well as the regular creative team of writer Michael Avon Oeming and artist Mel Rubi. Subsequent volumes were written by Gail Simone, Amy Chu, Marguerite Bennett and Mark Russell.

Red Sonja has become the archetypical example of the fantasy figure of a fierce and stunningly beautiful female barbarian in the utterly impractical ChainmailBikini ([[UnbuiltTrope though in her case it's technically scale armor]]).

Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes (modern Ukraine/Russia). When she had just turned 17 years old, a group of mercenaries killed her family and burned down their house. Sonja survived but she had been 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. (The "fair" part is sometimes not included.)

[[folder:Comic Book Reading List]]
* ''ComicBook/RedSonjaScavengerHunt''
* ''The Adventures of Red Sonja vol. 1-3''
* ''The Further Adventures of Red Sonja''
* ''Red Sonja: The Ballad of the Red Goddess''
* ''Savage Red Sonja: Queen of the Frozen Wastes''
* ''Queen Sonja vol. 1-6''
* ''Red Sonja Travel vol. 1-2''
* ''Red Sonja Omnibus vol. 1-5''
* ''Red Sonja: Atlantis Rise''
* ''Gail Simone's Red Sonja Omnibus''
** ''Queen of Plagues''
** ''The Art of Blood and Fire''
** ''The Forging of Monsters''
* ''Conan/Red Sonja''
* ''Legends of Red Sonja''
* ''Red Sonja: Blue''
* ''Red Sonja Unchained''
* ''Red Sonja: Vulture's Circle''
* ''Red Sonja: The Falcon Throne''
* ''Red Sonja: World's Away 1-5''
* ''The Invincible Red Sonja''
* ''Hell Sonja''
* ''Unbreakable Red Sonja''
* ''Red Sonja[=/=]Hell Sonja''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Crossovers]]
* ''Red Sonja / Claw: The Devil's Hands'' (2006)
* ''Spider-Man / Red Sonja'' (2008)
* ''Witchblade / Red Sonja'' (2012)
* ''[[ComicBook/Prophecy2012 Prophecy]]'' (2012) - First crossover starring Red Sonja and Vampirella
* ''Red Sonja / Tarzan'' (2018)
* ''Red Sonja / Vampirella'' (2019)
* ''Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica'' (2019)
* ''Red Sonja: [[ComicBook/ProjectSuperpowers The Superpowers]]'' (2021)
* ''Vampirella versus Red Sonja'' (2022)
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Novel Reading List]]
Sonja has been featured in several novels by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney with covers by Creator/BorisVallejo:

# ''The Ring of Ikribu'' (Ace 1981) (Adapted to comics by Roy Thomas and Esteban Maroto in ''The Savage Sword of Conan'' issues 230-3)
# ''Demon Night'' (Ace 1982)
# ''When Hell Laughs'' (Ace 1982)
# ''Endithor's Daughter'' (Ace 1982)
# ''Against the Prince of Hell'' (Ace 1983)
# ''Star of Doom'' (Ace 1983)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Spin-offs]]
* ''Red Sonja: Red Sitha'' (2022)
* ''Samurai Sonja'' (2022)
[[/folder]]

On television, Red Sonja makes an appearance on ''Series/ConanTheAdventurer'', 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.

She was played by Creator/BrigitteNielsen in the 1985 film ''Film/RedSonja''. A reboot film project has been in DevelopmentHell for quite some time until it was reported in October 2022 that a new film adaptation was being produced at Millennium Media, with Creator/MatildaLutz playing the heroine and M.J. Bassett as director.

An animated movie, ''Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues'', was released October 3rd, 2016.
----
!!Tropes:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Comics]]
* AncientEgypt: Represented by Stygia: pyramid as mausoleum, slave labor, stereotypical dress, and a NephariousPharaoh.
* AllianceOfAlternates:
** In ''Hell Sonja'', we have an alliance of several Sonjas fighting against a demonic version of themselves.
** In ''Unbreakable Red Sonja'', Sonja begins a new journey whose new partner is a child version of herself.
** In ''Red Sonja[=/=]Hell Sonja'', Sonja forms an alliance with the demonic version of herself to fight a common enemy.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: Most individual arcs as well as the end of Simone's run ended on this note, with Sonja riding off into the sunset to find more battles to fight.
* BarBrawl: A common trope in Red Sonja stories, usually at the start of a story and leading to Sonja getting into trouble. There were a couple of instances in Frank Thorne's run at Marvel and a great one early in the Dynamite reboot, with a fantastic cover by Adam Hughes. There have been instances of Sonja starting brawls because she's been out of sorts but usually trouble will occur when another character hits on her or when they are bullying another character. In such instances, Sonja usually comes out on top, relying on any available weapons. She's cut off the wandering hands of would-be admirers with her sword, she's smashed guys with tankards and she's flattened groups of men with her bare hands.
* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: Has happened to her more than once, when some EvilOverlord decides to make her part of his harem. See the ''Sonja Goes East'' one-shot for one such example. ''Birth of the She-Devil'' also opens with a Sultan making this fatal mistake. Probably in homage to her first solo comic appearance.
* BlackMagic: Occasionally used by villains. To be fair, it's probably their only hope against the She-Devil with a Sword.
* TheCaligula: When she wasn't killing evil sorcerers, Red Sonja was often killing mad kings, many of whom attempted to imprison her in their [[RoyalHarem harem]].
* CelibateHero: Until the Gail Simone's run retconned it, Sonja was defined by her celibacy vow unless if a man defeated her in fair combat. The nature of her vows and whether or not she would lose her skills should she ever had sex depends on who is writing it. She does show attraction to certain men from time to time, but these never develop into true relationships, though according to her past narrated in ''Queen Sonja'', she did have a boyfriend during her teenage years after her rape without losing her abilities. Its implied that in addition to her vows to the goddess, she also refuses to love any men because she still grieves her beloved's death and wants to NeverBeHurtAgain.
* CoolOldLady: Gerd, the blacksmith and retired adventurer who gives Sonja her very first ChainmailBikini in a story by Creator/RhiannaPratchett in ''Legends of Red Sonja''. She [[BigBeautifulWoman cut an impressive figure]] [[StoutStrength herself]] before she settled down.
* CrossOver: Red Sonja has crossed over with a number of others from Claw the Unconquered (a BarbarianHero from a different publisher) to ComicBook/SpiderMan and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}. She was also a major figure in the Dynamite ''Swords of Sorrow'' event, which included Dejah Thoris, Vampirella, and Snow White among others.
* EvilOverlord: Many of Sonja's enemies are warlords or dictators bent on military domination, such as the king of Zamora.
* EvilSorcerer: Kulan Gath, the brothers Kalas-ra and Katharas-ra, and many others.
* {{Fanservice}}: Not just our female protagonist provides this. Named male characters are often depicted shirtless with excellent muscle definition such as Lord Ariok.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: She is thrown into modern times with frequent regularity such as her crossover with Spider-Man, the Dynamite crossover ''Prophecy'', and the 2017 run where she was magically displaced in time and is trying to adapt to modern times.
* FullFrontalAssault:
** On a few occasions, Red Sonja has broken out of a [[RoyalHarem harem]] and fought while clothed only with shadow.
** In the third Smith/Tierney novel, ''When Hell Laughs'', her ChainmailBikini is torn off her in the middle of battle. She fights on, and makes no attempt to cover herself even when the danger is past. (For the remainder of the novel series she wears more practical armor, though the cover art keeps the bikini.)
** It also happens in the first act of ''Red Sonja: Blue''; during battle with a monster to save a young man from being a virgin sacrifice, her top is ripped away. [[ArmorIsUseless This, naturally, just pisses her off]], and after defeating the monster (berating the boy not to look all through the rest of the battle) skins it to wear its blue fur as a makeshift tunic.
** A male example happens in ''Queen Sonja'' when Ariok is ambushed by a couple of nobles while taking a bath and he is forced to beat them all up while naked.
* GoGoEnslavement: A frequent trait of bad guys. The King of Zamora is shown having multiple slaves of both genders from kingdoms he's conquered, including at least one queen whose husband he murdered.
* HumanShield:
** Sonja uses Rudus' body to as a shield to close against archer Haron in the final issue of ''The Forgiving of Monsters''.
** Used tactically by Sonja whenever she's outnumbered. She'll maneuver around frontline fighters to keep a body between herself and arrows/bolts.
--->'''Sonja:''' Basic combat. When surrounded, as the arrows start flying, it's not a matter of how you stand. It's where.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Done to Sonja constantly, whether it's by [[TheCaligula mad kings]] and [[EvilOverlord dark lords]] trying to add her to their harems or turn her into a HotConsort, or by [[TheBrute barbarian brutes]] looking forward to [[BestHerToBedHer defeat her in combat to take her as their prize]]. Not even [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer female]] [[DarkActionGirl villains]] (like the Queen of the Frozen Wastes) are exempt from pulling this to. Of course, this is [[BullyingTheDragon always a bad idea]].
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Red Sonja has always been a boozer and this probably reached its zenith under Gail Simone, where she was a full-blown alcoholic who could barely function without booze.
* KangarooCourt: Sonja finds herself before one in the ''Red Sonja: Berserker'' one -shot after maiming two young hotheads who mistook her for a prostitute and then attacked. One of them was the son of the justicar who sat in judgement on her.
* LowFantasy: Usually, with some variation depending who's writing. Sonja isn't often motivated to take down a BigBad or Ultimate Evil, nor does she often work alongside other adventurers. She's taking on quests to earn money to get drunk and fights whenever she feels like it.
* ManEatingPlant: ''Savage Tales'' #5.
* MasterSwordsman: Red Sonja is dangerous with a bow or improvised weapons, but she's most deadly with her sword.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: A villainous version of this appears in the 2nd issue of ''Red Sonja: The Black Tower''. After maiming the thug Fengar Tolt in the previous issue, he becomes a mighty warlord and captures Sonja. Not only that, he also has [[EyeScream one of her eyes cut out]]. None of these events are shown on-panel.
* OhMyGods: "By Ishtar and Mitra!"
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: One dark wizard shows off by conjuring wyrms to devour his enemies.
* {{Pirates}}: Just as with ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', pirates feature prominently in the ''Red Sonja'' stories: both as enemies and allies.
* PoisonIsEvil: Zigzagged. Poison is evil if used indiscriminately, but acceptable if targeted and used by someone otherwise physically incapable of murdering them. For example: the poisoned daggers of Utro are treated as evil since they subject victims to excruciatingly painful death.
* PoisonedWeapons: Utro the Needle uses daggers covered in dung to cause lethal infection from a scratch.
* PsychoLesbian: Not Sonja, but some of her foes fall into this category, such as the Queen of the Frozen Wastes.
* SavagePiercings: Katharas-ra wears facial jewelry: two nails driven through his right eyebrow and eyelid and spacer earrings in his nostrils.
* StrawMisogynist: Red Sonja is constantly getting mocked by men for the fact she's a swordswoman rather than a wife or concubine.
* SwordAndSorcery: One of the genre-defining works.
* TilMurderDoUsPart: Implied to be how Laranda-fa took the throne as Empress Dowager.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: Used defensively by the town when evil wizard Katharas-ra comes hunting injured Sonja.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Sonja's opponents all too often make the mistake of thinking they can outsmart or outfight, with many making this assumption because she is a woman. Time after time, Sonja proves them wrong, usually with fatal results for them.
* WarriorVersusSorcerer: Like Conan, Sonja frequently finds herself pitted against {{Evil Sorcerer}}s, the most recurring of which is Kulan Gath. Sonja has occasionally expressed a dislike for magic due to bad experiences.
* TheWomenAreSafeWithUs: In ''Queen Sonja'', she finds out that her soldiers are used to killing women and children, and were attempting to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape a rebellious noble's little sister]]. Even though said noble sent assassins to kill her, Sonja is completely horrified with learning this due to being a rape victim herself, and while she doesn't punish the men for threatening to do this (due to the leader that suggested it being already dead), she warns that she will not tolerate them trying it again.
* WorfHadTheFlu: Sonja defeats a fighter believed to be really strong almost [[OncePerEpisode once per issue]]. They use this excuse.
-->'''Sonja:''' Every spoor of a mud village has an unbeatable local swordsman. They often say they "slipped" after I thrash them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Marvel Comics (1977-1995)]]
* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: In ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' v2 #16, a crossover with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Red Sonja is beaten by Wolverine and essentially gives up and waits for him to rape her, but he walks away, disgusted by the idea and saying "Sorry, darlin', that ain't my style." Sonja is both perplexed and slightly insulted, so she follows him. After their next meeting he warms up to her, and she eventually becomes his queen.
* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: Her first solo comic has this as the plot. King Ghannif offered her his "greatest treasure" and then said it was his bed. Oh and she had best comply or be put to death.
* BestHerToBedHer: Introduced in this run and inspired by Roy Thomas being a fan of Greek mythology with things like the story of Atlantea.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Invoked -- when Roy Thomas decided to create a DistaffCounterpart for Conan, he wanted to make her a redhead, as the established warrior women in Conan lore were Valeria (blonde) and Belit (Brunette).
* BreakoutCharacter: Red Sonja rapidly rose to become one of the most popular characters in Marvel Comics in the Seventies, not just among ''Conan the Barbarian'' fans.
* TheCakeIsALie: Due to the fact she's a woman, Sonja's employers frequently believe they can cheat her.
* CanonForeigner: Red Sonja herself when she first entered the comics and now many individuals think that Robert E. Howard created her.
* ChainmailBikini: Subverted in the earliest stories actually as she initially wore a metal cuirass.
* CombatPragmatist: Sonja has no sense of honor in battle and uses whatever methods to win as she can from stealth to trickery.
* {{Crossover}}: Red Sonja would frequently have these with Conan the Barbarian in his own comic as well as made a couple of trips to the modern age where she hung with Spider-Man.
* DistaffCounterpart: Subverted actually. According to WordOfGod, Red Sonja was actually created as a counterpart to Belit and Valeria who were unusable for various continuity reasons.
* DolledUpInstallment: Sonja's first appearance was an adaptation of Howard's non-Conan story ''The Shadow of the Vulture''.
* DramaticIrony: Roy Thomas was the creator of Red Sonja's infamous oath but had a lot of fun with it even in the earliest issues. One of these facts is the fact that Red Sonja is certainly attracted to men and desires them but she's ''not'' attracted to big burly hulks like Conan. She actually prefers soft pretty boys that could never defeat her in combat.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Sonja's second appearance has her dancing on a tavern table to get Conan's attenton.
** Sonja's first outfit was chainmail that covered her front and hot pants. Roy Thomas said he found it weirder than the ChainmailBikini.
* EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity: The "red goddess" Scathach (known as "The Lady" in some accounts) who grants Sonja her fighting skills in the Creator/MarvelComics version of her origin.
* FaunsAndSatyrs: Sonja slaughters a temple full of AlwaysChaoticEvil ones in her second solo story.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: The very first solo story has Red Sonja dealing with this and King Ghannif.
* MercyKill: Sonja gives one of these to a Priest of Mitra that had been tortured horrifically by a bunch of satyrs.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Trollus seems to have UndyingLoyalty to the late King Ghannif but it turns out he was only upset at losing his meal ticket.
* RoyalHarem: Many of the rulers of this time keep these. Sonja often ends up trying to rescue the women of them or dumped in one of herself.
* TheTease: Amusingly, Red Sonja is this to Conan and deliberately baits him every chance she gets.
* UndyingLoyalty: Trollus seems to possess this for Pasha Ghannif.
* WarElephants: In the 1970s Marvel run, Sonja allied herself with the young ruler of kingdom whose major military strength was its war mammoths.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Red Sonja's preferred type of man as seen with Dunkin, the only time she's actually oggling and regretting her oath.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Dynamite Comics (2005-Present)]]
* AndroclesLion: In ''Red Sonja: Beserker'', Sonja rescues a polar bear cub from a pair of sadistic hunters who were tormenting it. The bear stays with her through winter. Years later, Sonja has been sentenced to [[GladiatorGames die in the arena]] and a bear is unleashed against her. It turns out to be the same bear and refuses to attack her. The two team up and escape the arena.
* AnimalAssassin: Sonja sets the arena animals on their masters in ''Red Sonja: Berserker''.
* BodyguardBabes:
** The Red Sisters serve as the PraetorianGuard to Sonja as Queen of Songaria.
** Ayla and Nias from the Gail Simone's run also serve Sonja.
** Amy Chu introduces Taya and Leera.
* BrokenPedestal:
** In the Brian Reed's run, Scathach reveals that Sonja was created from the blood of Kulan Gath, saying that and that his hair is red due to the blood of Gath that runs in his veins with each reincarnation and to make matters worse, Sonja discovers that Scathach let her family be massacred and she be raped purposely only to use it as a weapon to destroy Gath forever. Sonja renounces the your devotion to Scathach for her betrayal is revealed by the goddess herself.
** Ozzyus in "Birth of The She-Devil" is the man who raised Red Sonja after her family's death and helped her become a thief as well as drunkard (not that he's proud of these things). Red Sonja turned against him when he and she robbed their employers, genuinely nice people, resulting in the father's horrific demise as well as the enslavement of his daughter. Ozzyus eventually quit drinking and turned to Mitra but it was too late to regain her respect.
* DecadentCourt: Despite Songara appearing to be peaceful and isolated from the rest of Hyboria, Sonja quickly finds out their nobles are a cutthroat bunch that do not take kindly to a foreigner (and a ''woman'', no less) being on the throne and they attempt to find ways to remove or subvert her.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu:
** EvilSorcerer Thulsa Doom slays an Elder God in ''Queen Sonja'' #20. Overlaps with DidYouJustScamCthulhu, as he first tricks it into giving him enough power to allow him to kill it.
** Sonja herself gets this a lot; in one mini-series she kills Woden, Loki, the Fenris Wolf and the Midgard Serpent. She also becomes a Witchblade wielder in another mini-series and defeats a fallen archangel.
* EmergencyTransformation: It happened to Sonja in the crossover event ''Prophecy'' when she is fatally poisoned by a Mayan demon and in order to save her life, {{Dracula}} turns her into a vampire. She was still a vampire at the end of the story and for a short time in her regular series, until [[StatusQuoIsGod it was reversed]].
* EvilAllAlong: The thief Jubal, who personally trained Sonja in her youth, was revealed to be a Kulan Gath's follower who tried to resurrect his master before Sonja stopped him.
* EvilCounterpart: Crimson Katherine from ''Giant-Size Red Sonja'' #2. She is a woman with a backstory virtually identical (orphaned, made a compact after her family was killed, redheaded female barbarian hero) but was empowered by the Goddess of Vengeance. They initially team up before Sonja realizes she's just too extra.
* EyepatchAfterTimeSkip: In issue #2 of ''The Black Tower'' arc, it is revealed that Sonja lost one of her eyes after spending years being forced to fight as a gladiator and is shown wearing an eye patch.
* EyeScream: Sonja gets an eye removed by a vindictive warlord in ''Black Tower'', due to some [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong timestream repairing]] when a possible clone/bastard daughter or whatnot of Sonja went back to the past, losing the eye was undone.
* TheFagin: Jubal in ''Queen Sonja'' was a criminal that trained children to pickpocket and "conscripted" Sonja during her teenage years.
* GladiatorGames: Commonly overlapped with slavery.
** Sonja is sentenced to the arena in the ''Red Sonja: Berserker'' one-shot.
** In ''The Black Tower'' arc, Sonja spends years being forced to fight as a gladiator before breaking free.
** ''Queen of Plagues'' has a flashback to when Sonja and Dark Annisia were gladiator slaves together.
* GodIsEvil: Odin and Loki from the Norse pantheon in ''Wrath of the Gods'' are monstrous beings that rule the realm of Aesir with iron fist and aim to wipe out the Bundini people off from existence and return to Earth just to re-establish their control over mortals. Thor, on the other hand, averts this trope, being [[SemiDivine half-Bundini]] and being genuinely heroic and kind towards humans.
* GoldDigger: Laranda-fa, the Empress Dowager, was a common peasant until she married the emperor. It's implied she murdered him to wield his power.
* GreatWhiteFeline: Issue #50 of the original Dynamite run has Sonja accompanying an EgomaniacHunter known as Lord Kinzara on a hunt for a mythical beast known as the Cloud Tiger which takes the form of a large, terrifying white tiger. Sonja convinces him to journey to the top of a mountain with just her and leave his hunting party behind. When they are confronted by the Cloud Tiger, it is revealed that Kinzara was the leader of the bandits who murdered Sonja's family and raped her when she was a child. Sonja has spent years tracking him down and used his obsession with hunting to lure him to his doom. Sonja leaves Kinzara to be killed by the Cloud Tiger and avenges her family.
* AHandfulForAnEye: Sonja pulls this trick on Raven in the ''Red Sonja: Raven'' one-shot.
* HeelFaithTurn: Ozzyus turned to Mitra to regain control over his life. It actually worked out for him.
* HeroicSacrifice: Ozzyus attempts this in "Birth of the She-Devil" but fails. It's enough to make him a RebuiltPedestal for Sonja, at least partially.
* KickTheDog:
** Jubal leaves Sonja and her boyfriend to die before sacrificing all of his former child thieves to Kulan Gath.
** Laranda-fa forces a slave to brush her hair, then has her executed when the brush shows the girl broke off too many hairs.
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** In issue #49 of the Brian Reed's run, Sonja, now reincarnated, confronts [[EvilSorcerer Scathach]] without knowing who she really was, let alone about the revelation made in the issue #29 and kills her without first, the witch making Lucan her champion and tell him to kill her and drinking his blood and and then get killed by her.
** In ''The Black Tower'' arc, Thraxis chooses one of the your Sisterhood of Thraxis girls and after he tells her his origins, she gets her revenge for [[spoiler:Sonja's death]] without first confronting him, because everyone messed up about her origins.
* MamaBear: In Mirka Andolfo's run, she protects her adopted daughter Sitha, who carries a great curse and everyone wants to kill her.
* {{Retcon}}: Happened partially when Dynamite first re-introduced Red Sonja. While almost all the other details have been kept the same, her age had been reduced to tweeny-hood in her origin (perhaps to increase the believable length of her adventuring career) and she was made to be the youngest child not the oldest.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In Brian Reed's run, Sonja's sister Verona sides with Lord Lucan Martur with whom she has been having a secret affair and they send a crew of pirates to kill Sonja and her husband Daniel Dorn. Lucan ends up selling Verona and their baby into slavery for money and Verona is ultimately murdered by Sonja after her treachery is revealed, with her baby being given by Sonja to a kindly woman who wanted a daughter of her own.
* RoyalBastard: The''Vulture's Circle'' story has Xoana who is one of Sonja's students. She is the daughter of King Xoan of Zingara and his favorite concubine. When Xoana's mother died, Xoan, [[MurderTheHypotenuse suspecting she was actually murdered by his jealous wife Queen Isaura]], sent Xoana to Sonja's school for young female warriors to protect the girl.
* SeriesContinuityError: Luke Lieberman has Sonja leaves Ozzyus' service twice under different circumstances. Notable because Luke wrote them both.
* ShoutOut:
** In ''Queen Sonja'' when a couple of assassins try to ambush her and her guards, they tell her that "[[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire your subjects send their regards]]".
** Also from ''Queen Sonja'', Sonja sends a prayer to her goddess that ends with "[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 If you forsake me, then to Hell with you!]]".
** Ariok is one big homage to ''Literature/TheElricSaga'' being a long-haired noble descended from corrupt magic wielders that also wields a [[EvilWeapon cursed sword]].
** After being [[VampireRefugee turned into a vampire]] by Dracula in the ''Prophecy'' CrisisCrossover and returning to her own timeline in Issue #76 of Dynamite's regular run, rumors spread that "she became the Devil's concubine", a reference to ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' where Van Helsing says the same about Lucy Westenra when she is bitten by Dracula and she happened to be a FieryRedhead in that movie.
* SingleMindedTwins: Ayla and Nias, the two hunters sent to track Sonja. They're always in the frame together and complete each other's sentiments if not sentences.
* SiblingTeam: The Red Sisters in ''Queen Sonja'' are the daughters of the old king of Sogania.
* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Laranda-fa was a commoner girl until she caught the attention of the emperor with her beauty. Shortly thereafter they were married, and shortly after that he was dead.
* SpikedWheels: She acquires a Boudicca-style chariot, complete with spiked wheels, for leading troops into battle in Queen Sonja #4.
* TooDumbToLive:
** Fengar Tolt in the ''Black Tower'', not only was this thug trying to rape a woman in front of Sonja (this is the hugest BerserkButton for her), he also jabs his finger into an exposed part of her breast. [[FinGore He loses a finger as a warning.]]
** Sultan Bashir in "Birth of a She-Devil" knows 18-year-old Sonya as a mercenary and killing of kings already but insists on ordering BatheHerAndBringHerToMe. This, of course, leads to his horrifying demise.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Virtually the entire kingdom wishes to avenge Sultan Bashir in "Birth of a She-Devil" despite the fact he was a FatBastard HateSink.
* VirginSacrifice: Sonja saves a young man from this fate in ''Red Sonja: Blue''.
* WaterfallShower:
** Sonja takes one (surrounded by strategic CensorSteam) just before she is captured by an EvilSorcerer at the start of ''Red Sonja Annual'' #4.
** She has a similar experience in Thulsa Doom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gail Simone (2013-2014)]]
* AdaptationalDumbass: Red Sonja is a great more often drunk, confused, and easily fooled than she normally is in Gail Simone's run. It is usually played for humor and she often shows startling insights when not drunk (which isn't often).
* TheAlcoholic: Gail Simone gave Red Sonja the status of being almost continuously drunk throughout the story and when she wasn't, annoyed by this fact.
* AnnoyingArrows: Notably averted, at least in the Simone run. Sonja recognizes archers as a threat (having been one herself) and will write off any plan that requires charging them.
* {{Anticlimax}}: With only a day remaining before her deadline Sonja bashes into an inn and declares she's taking Rakaua with her and slaughtering everyone who gets in her way. The innkeeper happily informs her that they've heard of her quest and are honored to assist. Rakaua still requests he be carried out over her shoulder (for dramatic reasons) but Sonja is underwhelmed by the whole experience.
* AnArmAndALeg: At one point Sonja's hands are burned to the point of being permanently crippled to prevent her from ever holding a weapon again.
* ArmedWithCanon: Creator/GailSimone had Sonja encounter Osric the Untouched, a seemingly invincible swordsman who has his skills given to him by the gods and who can only have sex with the person who defeats him in battle. Sonja declares that she has never heard of anything so stupid.
* {{Astrologer}}: Samala believes "the greatest stargazer in the world" is an astrologer, but defined target Plaitius is an astronomer.
* AvengingTheVillain: After the death of Kalas-ra, his brother Katharas-ra comes hunting for his killer.
* BackForTheFinale: Not quite the finale, but the penultimate plot has Sonja's friends show up to say goodbye as she lies on her deathbed. Ayla and Nias, Gribaldi and Avena, Plaitius, Rat, Rakaua, Osric, and even [[spoiler:Annisia]] all appear in addition to a mob of nameless extras claiming to represent villages that Sonja protected.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Dark Annisia]] joins Sonja's friends for their BackForTheFinale mourning party.
* BadassBoast: In the Gail Simone version she throws these before or halfway through almost every fight. Apparently it's much more successful offscreen.
-->'''Osric:''' Do they ''always'' run?\\
'''Sonja:''' I'd say it's about half and half.
* BandOfBrothels: Aneva's brothel is an abusive one in that Captain Ferox protects them from outside violence but no one protects the workers from him and his men. Aneva's stated dream is to create a prostitute-run band.
* BeastlyBloodsports: Kalayah the Beastmaster oversees these in the ''Art of Blood and Fire'' arc.
* TheBeastmaster: Kalayah claims the title but his assistant Rat does the actual work. She frees herself by setting the gladiator animals loose on Kalayah knowing their love for her will leave her safe. Later she's seen asking a gorilla to break a jail cell and sending her hawk Windsong into combat.
* {{Bookends}}: Gail Simone writes them for her run on the character: the first page of ''Queen of Plagues'' shows Sonja sleeping in the woods about to be attacked by three men while the last page of ''The Forgiving of Monsters'' shows Halayah recording the same encounter for posterity.
* ButtMonkey: In the Gail Simone run; she's been thrown in the mud by bouncers, has a chef turn her down when she's practically begging him for sex, and a swordsman spanks her in the butt before she falls face first in the mud. Finally a barbarian who saw her get humiliated gives her the nickname Mud Sonja. Stuff like this would never happen in the previous Dynamite incarnations.
* CapturedOnPurpose: In ''The Art of Blood and Fire'' Sonja makes an assassination attempt against Kalayah, motivating him to capture and imprison her, which allows her to break free (with Rat's help) within his compound and set his own animals against him.
* CarnivalOfKillers: The Gray Riders, a group of twelve mercenaries and assassins hired to hunt down and kill Sonja in the ''Legends of Red Sonja'' mini-series.
* CombatPragmatist: Especially in Creator/GailSimone's run on the series.
** Sonja uses her ChainmailBikini to distract male opponents.
** In ''Legends of Red Sonja'' she tells a former adventuring partner to spread lies about her cowardice and lack of prowess so a group of hunters tracking her will be caught off guard.
** When it comes to a straight-up fight, she's perfectly willing to put on a suit of full plate armor and pull out all the stops with her swordfighting skills.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Sonja arrives in the bogmen's camp to rescue the chef Gribaldi. Gribaldi foraged some eggs and lizards a few weeks ago and has been cooking them for the tribe. Those eggs and lizards were actually the offspring of lizardmen who chose to attack the bogmen within hours of Sonja's arrival, slaughtering the bogmen so she and Gribaldi can escape.
* {{Curse}}: With his dying breath Kalas-ra curses Sonja to be incapable of forgiveness. His intent is that her inability to control her rage will see her killed by an angry mob or at least exiled.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Dark Annisia endured the fighting pits alongside Sonja. Annisia was driven mad, hearing the ghosts of everyone they were forced to slaughter to stay alive and constantly promising to deliver more company to them.
* DeathByIrony: Kalas-ra's vengeance against Sonja is for her to lose control of her rage, resulting in her attacking innocents and allies to turn them against her.
* DefiantToTheEnd:
** Plaitius the stargazer. He faces torture and execution for his observations defying the divine writ of the rector, but refuses to recant even to save his own life.
** Death offers Sonja a job as Death's personal enforcer, seeking glory in battle for eternity. Sonja refuses, mostly to prove that she can.
* DiscontinuityNod: Gail Simone's relaunch dispenses with the "can't have sex unless the man defeats her in battle" aspect of her origin. Instead, a very horny Sonja meets a swords'''man''' who won't have sex with anyone unless they defeat '''him''' in battle. She declares it to be the stupidest thing she's ever heard.
* TheDogBitesBack:
** In the first arc of Simone's run [[spoiler:the queen of the king killed by the mad King of Zamora gets even with him by feeding him the very poison he'd used to decimate the countryside in his drink, resulting in an extremely messy death as all his organs fail at once]].
** Both metaphoric and literal examples in the ''Art of Blood and Fire'' arc: the apprentice Rat releases all the caged animals at once on their abusive trainer Kalayah.
* DuelToTheDeath: Invoked by Sonja to beat Osric, the greatest swordsman in the world. Turns out he ''is'' a better swordsman in a duel, but if death is on the line her steely nerves hold up where his fail.
* EvilCounterpart: Dark Annisia in ''Queen of Plagues''. She is a gladiator who befriended Red Sonja in the battle pits of Zamora before they both escaped. Dark Anissa was driven to madness by the deaths of all those fellow slaves she killed, however, and coped by becoming a KnightTemplar.
* FireForgedFriends: The ''Art of Blood and Fire'' arc has Sonja collecting six artisans. As they journey with her they band together so that when she is captured, they all contribute to her escape (except for the dancer, who was the last to join).
--> '''Sonja:''' They could have lived lives of endless surplus. They chose friendship instead.
* {{Forgiveness}}: Obviously, a heavy theme in ''The Forgiving of Monsters'' arc.
** Kalas-ra curses Sonja to be unable to forgive, intending that this will lead to her being cast out and/or murdered by the people she protects.
** A barkeep who suffers Sonja's rage as a result forgives her publicly, nullifying the curse's effect in that town.
** Sonja asks Death's forgiveness for opposing her in a literal DuelToTheDeath. Death, who understands Sonja's nature and is barely inconvenienced by the encounter, agrees.
** When Sonja catches up to Fellan, she tells him that he is forgiven since he is no longer the man who sinned against her.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: When Sonja meets Death in her fever dream, Death appears as Sonja-but-more-so: ten feet tall in a chainmail bikini with prominent skull motif. Death intends it as a compliment after all the people Sonja has delivered to her arms.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While Gribaldi, Rat, Aneva, Osric, and Plaitius are fighting for Sonja's freedom, Rakaua is lost in his dancing in the background.
* GladiatorGames: In the Gail Simone run, she and Dark Annisia used to be slaves fighting in an arena for the King of Zamora's amusement until they were rescued.
* GottaCatchThemAll: Sonja is charged with collecting six of the greatest artisans in the world. Four need rescuing from hostile forces, but the other two only need convincing.
* GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: The nuns' Citadel of All Knowledge aspires to be this, but it's really quite small in that context. Considering the time period and the practical difficulties of travel, it may well be the largest collection of knowledge in the world.
* HealingPotion: The alchemist of ''Queen of Plagues'' develops one, but is killed shortly thereafter. The last few drops he manufactured are delivered to Sonja as she lies dying.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Aneva. When introduced, her dream is to unite the prostitutes into a guild for their own protection. She agrees to join Sonja to save the lives of slaves who will be freed if Sonja succeeds.
* KickTheDog: Kalayah the Beastmaster not only runs a savage arena pitting animals against each other, after he captures Sonja he puts her horses into the ring -- hamstrung, so they can't run or fight back.
* ILied: Though never directly stated, this was [[spoiler:Samala's]] plan all along. Sonja is unsurprised but still pissed.
* ImAHumanitarian: The bog people delight in consuming outsiders who enter their swamps as a delicacy.
* ImportantHaircut: In the final few pages of ''The Forgiving Of Monsters'' Sonja cuts her long red hair short, symbolizing her learned control of her rage.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: The final page of Simone's last issue shows Halayah carefully chronicling Sonja's adventures (starting with Simone's first) for the Citadel of All Knowledge.
* ISurrenderSuckers: Rare heroic variant: when Rudus offers injured Sonja the chance to kiss his blade to earn a swift coup de grace, she uses it to get inside his reach and stab him.
* LizardFolk: There is a tribe in the bogmen's swamp, secret enough that Gribaldi doesn't recognize their young as an intelligent species. Sonja dubs them mindless predators, but they are intelligent enough to coordinate an attack on the bogmen (who were prepared for such), to use the table for their feast, and to speak at least a few words.
* LoadBearingBoss: Kalas-ra, who pulls his cavern sanctuary down on top of himself as he's dying of bloodloss. Sonja sprints to the exit.
-->'''Sonja:''' I'll say this about wizards. They are very poor losers.
* LostFoodGrievance: Sonja likes ale, and does not like absence of ale.
** She objects vehemently when Gribaldi uses Cimmerian ale to cook instead of drink.
** It's reversed when Sonja uses Gribaldi's artisanal soup as an improvised weapon.
* LowerClassLout: Red Sonya may not be stupid when she's drunk but she's rude, crude, and considerably less dignified than previous installments of the character.
* MagicFeather: Havan the Fire Maker loses his ability to summon fire. He sought out other magic users to find what he was missing. Sonja re-empowers him by claiming to be a witch princess and commanding him to restore his fire.
* MarkOfShame: In the ''Queen of Plauges'' arc Sonja's face is marked with one after she contracts the plague.
* MasterSwordsman:
** Dark Anissia, who is every bit as good with a sword as Red Sonja.
** Osric the Untouched, a duelist so named because he's never been touched by his opponents' blades.
* MercyKill: Sonja shoots a mortally injured bear in Kalayah's arena, drawing his ire.
* NephariousPharaoh: Emperor Samala of Stygia is a FatBastard who is prone to ILied. He plans to have a thousand slaves BuriedAlive with him.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Plaitius the stargazer is learned in physics to conduct his craft, but he also claims to be an expert in "potions and powders", i.e. biology and chemistry. Amusingly {{Averted}} when the Pharaoh asks for him to tell his fortune and Platius has no idea what to do despite this being a common practice of astonomers at the time.
* PlayingWithFire: Havan the Fire Maker can conjure and control flames.
* PlotCoupon: The six artisans Sonja collects in ''The Art of Blood and Fire''.
* PoisonIsEvil:
** Poison is used by the villains of ''Queen of Plagues'' to kill off enemy militaries before a fair fight even starts. The men in question are depicted as cowardly and unnatural.
** The same arc sees one of them heroically poisoned by his own attendant at risk of her own life.
** In the next arc, a chef poisons an evil king when he reneges on his bargain with Sonja.
* TheProblemWithFightingDeath: Referenced but handwaved. Sonja goes toe-to-toe and is unabashedly disrespectful when she fights Death herself. After the fight Death communicates that she's not displeased and there's no bad blood between them.
* PsychoLesbian: Dark Annisia is a lesbian and in love with Sonja but also insane as well as evil.
* RedemptionEarnsLife: Fellan the woodsman was the only survivor of the band that killed Sonja's family. He fled and escaped her wrath until she hunted him down decades later. [[spoiler:She forgave him since he gave up raiding and went into self-imposed exile.]]
* {{Retcon}}: In the latest Gail Simone version, her origin seems to be retconned again, this time making her successful revenge against the killers of her family come from her own childhood skills as a hunter rather than being powered up by a goddess and there seems to be no rape.
* ReallyGetsAround: In this iteration, Sonja achieved her warrior prowess on her own and thus took no vow of celibacy, so she's free to do the nasty as she pleases. And she doesn't seem particularly choosy either, only requiring that they're "limber."
* ReTool: The Creator/GailSimone series, with an eye toward {{Reconstruction}}.
* SanitySlippage: Over the ''Queen of Plagues'' arc Dark Annisia transitions from a competent and fearsome general protecting the world from a dangerous plague to a bloodthirsty executioner driven mad by the weight of deaths she's caused.
* ScarecrowSolution: Played by Gravaha the Clever in her in-universe children's book when she dressed a field of cornstalks as an army to intimidate an enemy with terrible eyesight.
* SchmuckBait: Gribaldi announces his first appetizer to his captor as Khitaian mushroom pate, which the man happily eats. Minutes later Gribaldi announces that any gourmand would know Khitaian mushrooms are poisonous.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Samala empowers Sonja to get the cooperation of the six greatest artisans in the world for his party by offering any amount of money. None of them accept the money, but Sonja persuades them by other means.
** Gribaldi the chef is just happy to repay Sonja for his rescue from the cannibal tribe.
** Rat the beastmaster likewise repays Sonja for ending Kalayah's BeastlyBloodsports.
** Avena the courtesan is willing to help secure the release of Samala's slaves.
** Osric the swordsman agrees after Sonja defeats him in a duel.
** Plaitius the stargazer wants a platform to educate people on his observations of physics.
** Rakaua the dancer finds Sonja's quest noble and interesting.
* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: Inverted by Gribaldi among the cannibal bogmen. By day they captured travelers and brought them to him to cook for dinner. Instead he cooked foraged foods and released the travelers.
* SiblingTeam: Ayla and Nias who are also Sonya's PluckyGirl sidekicks.
* SupremeChef: Gribaldi, renowned as the greatest chef in the world. It's implied that his skills were either the reason the bogmen allowed him to live as a slave or else why they captured him in the first place.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath:
** This is shown as the first weapon Sonja used when she avenged her family, having practiced hunting rabbits.
** Ayla and Nias are also expert archers due to their hunting backgrounds.
* ThroughHisStomach: How Gribaldi earned survival from the bogmen. It helps that they have palates sensitive enough to appreciate his work; Sonja certainly doesn't.
* TrueCraftsman: Gribaldi the expert chef, who cannot prevent himself from turning forage into gourmet meals.
* VillainousBreakdown: Dark Annisia is dangerous as the general of an army cleansing plaguebearers. When the plague is cured, she refuses to believe it and executes healthy people violating quarantine. When the plague's true cause is finally revealed she snaps completely into bloodthirsty madness.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Dark Annisia is fighting to stop a mysterious plague from spreading throughout the land. She does so by massacring any population with signs of infection.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Gribaldi cooks and eats eggs and baby LizardFolk without realizing their intelligence. He is genuinely penitent when he realizes his mistake.
* WhereItAllBegan: ''Queen of Plagues'' quickly flashes back to Sonja's past as a slave gladiator in the king of Zamora's arena with Dark Annisia. The end of the arc sees them return to the same arena to fight with the king of Zamora watching.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Amy Chu (2016-2019)]]
* ArmedWithCanon: Amy Chu prefers the bonkers "Vampirella is a alien from the planet Drakulon" origin to her being the daughter of Lilith.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Kulan Gath's amulet as always, functions like a Lich's SoulJar.
* BarBrawl: There's a short but neat bar brawl in the modern day, where Sonja picks up a table with one hand and hurls it across the bar like a softball, taking a gigantic thug off his feet ... Chu's Sonja is a cut above most Sonjas and WordOfGod is that she is pretty much superhuman.
* BigBad: Kulan Gath returns to this role and serves as the main antagonist for the first three volumes.
* BookDumb: Averted. Sonja demonstrates the ability read English signs within 24 hours of arriving in 21st century New York.
* BreakingTheFellowship: Leera loses Sonja's trust due to [[spoiler: keeping Kulan Gath's amulet]] and is sent away with her best friend.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Amy Chu's take on the character in the current run is probably the most physically impressive yet. She can take a fall onto bare rock from 30 feet up and jump straight up again, and can leap 15 feet straight up to slash a sauropod-sized demon; she is also swiped by the same demon and hurled hundreds of feet away and immediately jumps to her feet unscathed. She can catch a thrown knife by the hilt in the dark without even looking and can necklift a 250lb man with one arm, with him being unable to break her grip with both hands. Amy Chu has said in a Reddit chat that Sonja [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower developed her abilities through sheer bloody determination and training]] (i.e. without divine intervention, unlike Oeming's version) but that she has the strength of several men and is powerful enough to topple a horse with a punch.
* CombatPragmatist: Sonja encounters a group of mercenaries on a quest and demands to join them. When their hulking leader mocks her in front of a crowded tavern and tells her there's no more room in the party, she calmly chops him in the windpipe and punches him out, before telling his group that she'll be taking his place.
* {{Crossover}}: ''Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica'' brings the two Dynamite antiheroes to Riverdale.
* {{Cult}}: Kulan Gath has one of these that seeks his resurrection whenever he is killed as well as hassle Sonja.
* DareToBeBadass: Sonja tells Lord Skath that he can recover his former glory if he just chooses to embrace it.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler: Max ends up returning to New York at the end of the book without Sonja or the other women who took a fancy to him during his time in the Hyborian Age.]]
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica'' is about how the pair visit Riverdale in order to solve a bunch of murders by a Chaos cult. [[spoiler: It is actually Vampirella's sister Draculina.]]
* {{Expy}}: Lord Skath is one for Conan the Barbarian himself. He's a Cimmerian warlord who became King by his own hand but he's fallen on hard times unlike his inspiration.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater:
** Red Sonja is hurled into the future (again) by Kulan Gath and has to explore present-day New York.
** [[spoiler: Max ends up hurled to the Hyborian Age at the end of the first volume of the Worlds Away series.]]
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Dialed back from Gail Simone but Chu's Sonja still loves a drink. In the storyline where Kulan Gath transports her through time to modern-day New York, her first priority after escaping captivity is food and her second is ale. Sonja pretty much says the trope title while walking around Harlem looking for a bar.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Amy Chu's Red Sonja has no problem with casual nudity.
* LikeADuckTakesToWater: Her ability to learn new skills is practically a superpower. Arriving in New York, she quickly figures out how to use a remote control to operate a television and becomes almost fluent in English in 24 hours ... a faster learning curve than Wonder Woman. She somehow also learns how to ''read'' English without being taught and even picks up how to drive a motorbike just by riding on the back of one (with a nasty hangover, to boot).
* MagicFeather: Lord Skath's sword is certainly a fine blade but it's clear it's also a psychological crutch for Skath.
* NeverGetsDrunk: Having been transported through time and space to modern-day New York, Sonja finds herself a bar, makes friends quickly despite her inability to speak English and ends up in a big drinking session with her new buddies. When her cop friend Max comes by to pick her up, he finds her passed out drunk with a bar tab of 837 dollars to settle. The bartender tells Max it’s all her’s. WordOfGod is that there was a glitch with the calculations … based on the price of beer on the wall, 837 bucks would’ve bought nearly 300 beers but Amy Chu ‘only’ intended Sonja to have gone through 120 beers, equalling the personal best of Wrestling/AndreTheGiant. Bear in mind that Andre was about 7’0’’ and 450lbs at the time and Sonja’s 6’0’’ and 140.
* OneSidedArmWrestling: In the ‘Lost In New York’ storyline mentioned under BarBrawl, NeverGetsDrunk and INeedAFreakingDrink above, Sonja finds a seedy bar and while she’s knocking back a couple of beers, she notices a big guy called Luis crushing his friend in an arm-wrestle. Luis then invites the statuesque female barbarian in the chainmail bikini to step up, hoping to BestHerToBedHer and figuring he’s got an easy win on his hands. Unfortunately for him, Sonja immediately smashes his arm down without blinking. With the other patrons laughing at him, Luis complains that he wasn’t ready, so Sonja offers to take him on again. Once more, she immediately and effortlessly beats him, with Luis saying he thinks she broke his wrist. The next panel shows Sonja beating a huge bald guy with ease in an arm-wrestle and this particular bout goes viral on social media and alerts her enemy Kulan Gath to her presence. The strong implication here is that the She-Devil beat every single challenger in the bar without breaking a sweat, although we only see her taking on two. Now factor in that Sonja was sporting a nasty head-wound in the scene and also had a nasty gunshot wound to her arm-wrestling shoulder, suffered in the previous issue. WordOfGod is that Red Sonja is as strong as six normal men. We also get instances of her destroying huge guys at armwrestling in the Red Sonja Halloween Special (2018)and in Invincible Red Sonja #1 (2021)
* SuperStrength: Red Sonja explictly has power far beyond that of a normal woman and Amy Chu says via WordOfGod that she has the strength of six men.
* ThoseTwoGirls: Taya and Leera are this for much of the run and eventually graduate to being LovelyAngels with Sonja.
* TooDumbToLive: Leera [[spoiler: steals Kulan Gath's amulet and intends to sell it despite the fact it is a object of ultimate evil.]]
[[/folder]]

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