Could've sworn I already blogged Red Sonja #2; what the hell...

This was the same year as the other one? Come on! From 1983, Red Sonja #2, "The Sea That Steals!" Plot by Christie Marx, script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Ernie Colón and Alan Kuperberg, inks by Alan Kupperberg.

While this was Sonja's second #2 at Marvel, this was also the last issue of this series: they may have thought reformatting to longer stories was the way to go, and why not see if they could get a first-issue bump again...within a year of the last one. (I don't think Dynamite plays the first issue card as often; but Sonja has definitely had a ton of first--and second--issues in the years since!) Sonja is working as bodyguard for an Aquilonian diplomat and his daughter, and has also picked up Zora, the red-haired survivor of a cult who claims Sonja was her sister. There's also a pirate who turns out to be the diplomat's brother, and a creepy statue and demon, and an unnecessary continuity patch. Yeah, it's another plot-heavy one. In the end, the daughter goes to live the pirate's life with her uncle...which is portrayed as a happy ending? And that pirate didn't exactly have a heart of gold, even if he treats his niece well; but he gives her a new name: Valeria! Which doesn't line up, and I'm surprised Thomas didn't catch it: even just in Conan stories from Thomas himself, Valeria and Sonja were closer in age, but this would've been at least a ten-year difference.

I don't know if that next issue blurb lined up with her actual next issue; but odds are even if it didn't that story probably ended up somewhere, Savage Sword of Conan maybe. Marx also had a lot of TV writing credits, and I wonder if the supporting cast here wasn't originally intended to maybe be around longer than two issues.