Red Sonja #12

For one year, over twelve issues, Red Sonja has matched wits with the conqueror Dragan The Magnificent. Whittling away at Dragan's armies as they are forced to track Sonja and men across the Hyrkanian steppes, Red Sonja #12 offers a conclusion to the arc featuring a trap by the Hyrkanians and a final face-to-face between Sonja and Dragan.

I'll admit to not following the contest of wills between the two warriors that closely as late, but I did want to check to see how writer Mark Russell and artist Mirko Colak brought things to a close. There's some good action here, as well as nods to Sonja not just as a warrior but as a general who knows when to attack and when to parry and allow her adversary to blindly wander into her trap.

The comic closes with some parting words by the doomed Dragan whose curse prevented him from abandoning a land he truly wanted very little to do with and in the end led him to his destiny at the end of Sonja's blade. For fans.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]