Review by Andre H.

Stan Lee’s Alliances: A Trick of Light
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield
Afterword: Ryan Silbert, Luke Lieberman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release date: September 17, 2019

A Trick of Light is a self-aware, pop culture snapshot that introduces us to the Stan Lee’s Alliances series. It serves as a love letter to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z with many references to current trends, technology, internet language and culture, classic and modern gaming, and issues such as misinformation and digital privacy. The book further combines many genres and subjects: science fiction, urban legends, politics, ethics, technological singularity, horror, adventure, and cyberpunk and pays its respect to other books and series like Ghost in The Shell, Ready Player One, Harry Potter, Ender’s Game, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, Bioshock, and more.

Red Sonja: 1973
Written by Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Luke Lieberman, Gail Simone, David Walker, and Cullen Bunn
Art by Jonathan Lau, Bilquis Evely, Kewbar Baal, Rod Rodolfo, Rich Buckler, and Ivan Rodriguez
Colors by Marcio Menyz, Arison Aguiar, Bilquis Evely, and Ivan Nunes
Letters by A Larger World Studios
Cover art by Ed Benes and Dinei Ribeiro
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 15, 2015
Cover Price: $7.99

Red Sonja: 1973 is a great anthology book featuring a stellar line-up of creators celebrating the 42nd birthday of the character! Sure, the book has some great writers and fantastic artists, but is it any good? Yeah, I think you all ready know the answer, but let me tell you what I thought of it…

Red Sonja #100
Written by Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Michael Avon Oeming, Gail Simone and Luke Lieberman
Art by Dave Acosta, Pablo Marcos, Taki Soma, Noah Salonga and Sergio Fernandez Davila
Colors by Valentina Pinto and Salvatore Aiala Studios
Letters by Joshua Cozine
Cover art by Ed Benes & Alex Guimaraes, Robert Hack, Andrew Pepoy & Paul Mounts, Ken Haeser and Pablo Marcos & Austin Janosky
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Cover Price: $7.99

Red Sonja #100 is truly the definition of “jam packed”! Dynamite Entertainment has truly gotten the gang back together, and in doing so, we get just about every single kind of Red Sonja story that there is right here in this single comic. In this giant issue, you get sword and sorcery, horror, action, and even a little heartwarming drama. What’s not to love?

Consisting of five different stories, by legendary Red Sonja writers like Eric Trautmann, Roy Thomas, Michael Avon Oeming, Gail Simone, and Luke Lieberman, you get everything you want and more in this comic book. Roy Thomas pens a truly great old fashioned sword and sorcery tale with a hint of mystery. Current Red Sonja scribe Gail Simone writes a very entertaining story about Red Sonja finally meeting her childhood “idol.” Then there’s Luke Lieberman’s (Queen Sonja) story about Sonja, a companion, and a sorcerer that is thrilling, yet very heartwarming. Out of all five stories, there’s not a bad one in the bunch.

Red Sonja: Atlantis Rises #4
Written by Luke Lieberman
Pencils by Max Dunbar
Colors by Mark Roberts
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover by Lucio Parrillo
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 12, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Red Sonja: Atlantis Rising #4 is a good, solid sword and sorcery comic. If you’re looking for classic She-Devil with a sword action, this is where you’ll find it. It does have some flaws, but you can overlook most of them.

Writer Luke Lieberman knows his Red Sonja, and it’s obvious in this book. He knows the character and her universe inside and out, and that helps make this an exciting, fun read. If you haven’t read the previous issues, you may be a little lost at first, but Lieberman does a great job catching you up in a natural way, through dialogue, which is a nice treat when you compare it to the many books that have recap pages or paragraphs inside the front cover. It’s all-out action and adventure, and it flows really nicely.