Chain, Chain, Chain

Here's a quick representation of the evolution of Red Sonja's chain-mail armor from her first appearance in a 1973 Marvel Comics issue of Conan the Barbarian to her look as Queen Sonja from Dynamite Publishing in 2009. Note that as awareness of feminine issues in comic books has steadily increased over the decades, inversely Red Sonja's attire has become ever more spare. In the beginning Sonja wore full upper-body armor. Shortly thereafter she ditched the heavy mail shirt for the famous steel bikini, sporting about thirty pieces of chain-mail per breast.

The chain bikini became quickly popular among creators and readers and was hilariously parodied by Dave Sim in several Cerebus story lines. She is now being portrayed as wearing about six pieces of mail on each breast and looking like some kind of Hyperborean stripper. Not much of an advantage in a fight, really, unless you buy into that 'distraction' meme that seems to be bouncing around the various comic book companies and forums of late. Credit to the artists in one aspect, though. Red Sonja is at least being drawn as less voluptuous and more fighting lean. Costuming aside her body type resembles more her early appearances than those made infamous by Moroto, Boris Vallejo, Buscema and Thorne.

It's 2009 and comic books are not for girls!