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Space invaders battle the She-Devil with a Sword in 'Mars Attacks Red Sonja' summer crossover
In a cosmic clash of epic dimensions, the She-Devil With A Sword takes a stab at an insane invasionary force of bubble-headed aliens with Dynamite's summer crossover series, Mars Attacks Red Sonja: Angry Red Planet #1 — and SYFY WIRE is launching an exclusive peek inside the premiere issue landing in comic shops on August 26.
Written by the Eisner Award-winning creator, John Layman (Chew, Detective Comics), and injected with wild artwork from Fran Strukan (The Shape of Elvira), this mad matchup chronicles the lost tale of the time when malicious Martians invaded Hyrkania during the Hyborian Age. Chew and Strukan are joined by colorist Valentina Briški and letterer maestro Taylor Esposito to unravel this untold masterpiece of interplanetary terror.
How does the swinging steel and savage bravery of Red Sonja stand up against the advanced weaponry and super-science of the big-brained baddies? Let the best warriors win.
Mars Attacks Red Sonja #1 also showcases a wealth of brilliant variant covers by Lucio Parrillo, Dustin Nguyen, Arthur Suydam, Luca Strati, Barry Kitson, and Alan Quah paying homage to the classic Mars Attacks trading cards.
Layman has previously written both Red Sonja and Mars Attacks and he was dying to mash them together. He's a massive fan of both properties, and the idea of blending hyperactive sword & sorcery with ultra-violent retro sci-fi was irresistible to him.
"Dynamite has teamed me up with Fran Strukan, who is doing a dynamite job (no pun intended) at bringing this crazy mishmash of disparate worlds together," Layman tells SYFY WIRE. "Valentina Briški is rockin’ the colors and I’m re-teamed with my old Charlie’s Angels collaborates, Taylor Esposito on letters and Matt Idelson serving as editor extraordinaire."
"Obviously, Mars Attacks Red Sonja: Angry Red Planet is going to give you everything you’d expect —and more— when you send Mars’ angriest invaders to the sword-slingin’ era of Hyborean Age Earth. But the vicious and violent Martians may meet their match when up against Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, so they're going to need to bring every weird resource to the table. Sure, lasers, flying saucers, giant monsters and rampaging robots, but also weird science, strange genetic engineering, barbarian Martians— and dare I mention their greatest and most terrible weapon of all… GREEN SONJA!?!"
"This book is very special to me," Layman adds. "I wrote 15 issues of Mars Attacks for a different company some years ago, which were some of the most fun comics I’ve ever had a hand in. Super exciting to return to Mars Attacks, especially with my friends at Dynamite doing them now. Coming back to Red Sonja means ever more to me, though. I wrote a weird crossover, Red Sonja/Claw, many years and decades ago, one of my very first gigs as a comic book freelancer.
"Now, as I reach the end of my twilight years and wind down a long, successful comic career, returning to Red Sonja for an even weirder crossover feels like coming full circle. It’s my hope that I live long enough to see the final issue come out, and I’ve left instructions to be buried with the trade paperback. That’s how much I love this comic!"
Now charge into our eight-page preview of Dynamite's Mars Attack Red Sonja: Angry Red Planet #1 in the full gallery below and circle your calendar for its imminent invasion on August 26.
