More of Red Sonja's Formative Years Revealed in Birth of the She-Devil #2

Luke Lieberman and Sergio Davila continue adding to the idylls of Red Sonja with this second issue of BIRTH OF THE SHE-DEVIL.

On the hunt for Raka, the man who took her childhood friend Shoshanna, Sonja finds herself reunited with her foster father, Ozzyus, who has information on Raka's last known location. The reunion is far from a happy one, however, and with the flashbacks to Sonja's childhood in this the reader comes to an understanding of why she harbors such animosity toward Ozzyus -- and how it involves Shoshanna's fate!

Most of the action in this issue takes place at sea, and, unfortunately, there are some art and story elements that give the tale a few hiccups. While traveling with Sonja on the boat, Ozzyus looks for his knife, only to find it in the next panel. The transition is fine, and the situation would even be humorous. The problem is that the discovery panel is so crowded out with word balloons that it's almost impossible to see the picture that explains the words. Afterward, we learn that the boat has a third passenger who, despite being an obvious liar who promises to show them where treasures are buried, is allowed to remain alive and a member of the traveling party.

Meanwhile, Raka continues to enslave the minds of others, releasing their baser, more violent instincts as his control expands. But we are given a clue as to how he is accomplishing this task, and it may be far less mystical than we had been led to believe.

Despite the distractions in this chapter, the overall concept and the gorgeous art will have us coming back to see how the reunion with Sonja and Shoshanna will go -- if, indeed, it goes at all.