The sorcerer Kulan Gath is tangling with magics far more potent than even he knows about. He’s awakened a giant and sent it against a city so that he may be its savior. He doesn’t know what he’s unleashed, but he’s about to find out in Red Sonja #12. Writer Torunn Grønbekk continues a satisfying run on the sword and sorcery fantasy series with artist Walter Giovani. Rob Lean assists on inks. Omi Remelante Jr. handles the color. Heavy matters are afoot as battle breaks out between gods, men and more in a powerful clash the continues to push the conflict forward. 

Kulan Gath has summoned Ymir. Red Sonja’s going to try to tell the giant that he’s being used as a pawn by a human sorcerer. He’s a giant. She’s a mortal. What’s the worst that could happen? Before she can get to the giant, she’s going to have to get through Gath himself. THAT’S not going to be easy. He’s wielding ferocious power beyond his own control and he doesn’t seem all that aware of it. Sonja’s got quite a bit to defend her and keep her safe...most notably, there IS a little pouch that might just be the difference between life and death.

Grønbekk has been quite good in setting-up the conflict between giants, gods and the like. Sonja is frames as something of a wildcard moving around the edges of the action who just might be able to save a whole lot of lives if she can get the right words into there right ears. It’s a bit disappointing to see Sonja squarely outside the center of the narrative, but she is still one of the most influential characters in her own title and that goes a long way. Still....it would. Be nice to get more time in with the title character.

Giovanni moves around the action on the page with a precise hand. There may not be a profound range of emotion being delivered to the page, but there isn’t a great range of emotion being presented in the issue either. It’s a powerful clash of forces and there really isn’t a whole to of room for movement in and among the various characters who are in play. Sonja looks pretty powerful in the moments that she’s seen in the center of the action, but the full power of the conflict that Grønbekk doesn’t feel as present on the page as it should.

There’s a bit of a lack of perspective going on. Grønbekk is working with characters who are on range of different scales both physically and and conceptually. The finesse needed to contract the overwhelming power of the giant versus the borrowed power of Kulan Gath and the scrappy heroism of Sonja...its just isn’t clearly defined enough in the momentum of the story to be able to really give the reader a sense of what’s at stake. It all congeals together in a vaguely satisfying chapter that really should be much more explosively constructed.

Grade: B-