Christopher Priest Returns To The Hyborian Age With August’s ‘Sonja Reborn’

Christopher Priest may spend a lot of his time with Vampirella, but this August, he has a date with Sonja.

Although it may not be clear which Sonja as Dynamite’s Sonja Reborn takes a different view of the Hyborian Age, a realm the writer returns to after three decades. But for this story, a modern woman named Maggie Sutherland — a British diplomatic clerk from 2025 — finds herself thrown back into the days of high adventure as Red Sonja and must survive all its perils. As Dynamite put it in its press release, “how might a single woman survive a land of mystical threats and monsters without caving into her fears, dying of infection, or losing the at-best conditional loyalty of her ragged band of male cutthroats? What might this woman really be like and how could she possibly survive?”

Also, is Maggie just a pawn in a game of the “ancient and codependent gods [known as] The Light and The Dark” to decide the fate of the world in all its various eras?

“We might have called this book ‘Becoming Red Sonja,’” Priest said in a statement. “The book delves into the culture shock of a presumed nightmare from which you cannot awaken. Both Black Panther and Quantum & Woody employed observational humor of the sidecar character, a voice from outside of the conceit of the fictional universe it observes, which can underscore both the drama and the humor of a world gone completely insane. Sonja Reborn is our “Kelvin Universe” alternate take on the classic, branching off from familiar paths in order to spiral chaotically into the unknown. I’m having a blast writing it, which is equal parts endorsement and warning.”

Priest is joined on the adventure by artist Alessandro Miracolo. Covers for the first issue include work from Stjepan Šejić, Joshua Middleton, Chad Hardin, Greg Land, and cosplayer Ani-Mia.

Sonja Reborn #1 stakes out its territory this August.