Claremont and Byrne return for the first story to bring Red Sonja into the MU. Only not really. Technically, Sonja stays in an alternate universe and is body-swapped with Mary Jane. She and Peter are at a party at the daily bugle…
…Where JJJ gives the staff each ten bucks. The Christmas bonus is a running gag. Check out the tag below.
Also at the party, Peter Parker wears a Charlie Brown sweater. That’s so brilliant, since in the 1960s and 1970s they were always talking bout the Parker Luck vis a vis relationships, and Charlie is a known loser. Plus, it’s another cross-over type thing in this story. See, I tagged this story as a publisher crossover even though Marvel was doing Conan/Sonja stories at the time because those comics are not in the 616 universe, but now I have an excuse to say it’s also a Peanuts reference.
Oh, and Superman is in this, too, for the third other-universe crossover…
Oh, and he’s got a man purse, too. So much to write about in just these first few set-up pages.
Peter gets called out for a story and MJ comes along.
Mary Jane is maybe the hottest woman in Marvel side-character history, and she’s always drawn back to Peter Parker. Of course, bringing her back here was essential to the plot, as what happens next is that Red Sonja possesses her body to manifest in the Earth 616.
Must be the red hair.
The villain is Kulan Gath, a sorcerer from Conan’s comics that will end up being an X-Men villain.
Kulan Gath captures the heroes.
Nice. Chain mail bondage!
And kudos to Claremont for having Sonja continue to speak in her own language. It’s a good comedy point, but it also makes sense.
The heroes win, of course. It calls comes down to an amulet.
The heroes get it, and Red Sonja goes home.
It’s beautifully drawn and well written, albeit mostly irrelevant.