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Ci sono diverse origini del personaggio, la prima raccontata da Roy Thomas nel 1975, la seconda da Brian Reed nel 2008 e la terza da Gail Simone nella serie del 2014.
In quella di Roy Thomas, Sonja vive insieme alla sua famiglia nelle steppe occidentali Hyrkaniane durante l'Era Hyboriana. Un giorno vengono assaliti da una banda di crudeli mercenari: i suoi genitori e i fratelli più piccoli muoiono uccisi, la loro casa bruciata e Sonja viene violentata dal capo del gruppo. Sopravvissuta e desiderosa di vendetta, le appare la dea Scathach che le offre delle impareggiabili abilità guerriere con l'unica condizione di non giacere con alcun uomo che non l'abbia sconfitta in un duello leale. Sonja accetta e diviene poi un'avventuriera vagabonda. Con il tempo la sua reputazione cresce e viene conosciuta con il nome di Red Sonja, per la sua capigliatura, il suo carattere fiero e il sangue dei suoi nemici.
First Origin (1975)
Nel 2008 Red Sonja muore nell'albo 34 della serie principale e negli albi successivi lo sceneggiatore Brian Reed racconta di come il suo spirito si sia reincarnato e abbia iniziato a rammentare la sua vita precedente una ventina di anni più tardi. Nel 2010, quando Eric Trautmann diventa sceneggiatore con l'albo 51, questa linea narrativa viene abbandonata avvicinandosi alla prima versione.
During the Hyborian Age, a red-haired girl named Sonja lived with her family in a humble home in the western Hyrkanian steppes. When Sonja had just turned seventeen years old, a gang of cruel mercenaries killed her father Ivor, her mother and two younger brothers, and burned their house and all their possessions. She survived, but at the cost of her own virginity after she was brutally raped by the leader of the group, leaving her in shame.
Nel 2014 Gail Simone rilancia la serie e il personaggio rinarrandone le origini rimuovendo sia lo stupro che gli elementi sovrannaturali: Sonjita è la figlia di un capovillaggio Hyrkaniano che rimane l'unica sopravvissuta di una razzia compiuta da dei predoni ai danni del suo villaggio. Fuggita nella natura selvaggia, riesce a vendicarsi degli assalitori uccidendoli uno ad uno con le sue abilità di cacciatrice. Catturata successivamente da degli schiavisti è costretta a combattere per la propria vita in un'arena dove apprende le sue abilità guerriere e ottiene il suo soprannome Red Sonja.
Answering Sonja's cry for revenge, the red goddess Scathach appeared to her, and offered to bestow upon her unparalleled skill in battle on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat. Sonja gladly accepted the offer. She grew to womanhood as a wandering adventurer, and as she journeyed her legend grew as well. She became known as Red Sonja, due to her flame-red hair, fiery personality, and uncanny ability to spill the blood of her enemies wherever she went.
Un'altra novità introdotta da Gail Simone è la bisessualità di Red Sonja, ripresa anche in seguito come da Luke Lieberman nel 2020.
In this version, Red Sonja lives with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes. When she is 21, a group of mercenaries kills her family and burns down their house. Sonja attempts to defend herself, but cannot lift her brother's sword. She is raped by the leader of the group. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scáthach appears to her and gives her incredible fighting skills, on the condition that she never lie with a man unless he defeats her in fair combat.
https://www.cbr.com/reed-on-reinventing-red-sonja/
https://www.cbr.com/red-sonja-the-road-ahead-with-brian-reed/
Rebooted Origin (2014)
In the new Red Sonja series written by Gail Simone, the character's origin story was retold, removing both the rape and supernatural elements of her story. In the reboot her original name is revealed as Sonjita rather than Sonja, and she was the daughter of the chief of a Hyrkanian village. The village was attacked by vicious raiders and Sonjita's family and the rest of the villagers were slaughtered, leaving Sonjita the lone survivor. But she was not caught or raped by the attackers, nor was she ever visited by the goddess Scathach. Instead, Sonjita escaped into the wild and relied on her own hunting skills to track down and kill the raiders one by one. She was then captured by slavers and forced to fight for her life in an arena for three years, through which she gained her unrivaled fighting skill and became known by her 'arena' name: "Red Sonja."
In 2016, author Gail Simone indicated that Sonja was bisexual during her run.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/GailSimone/status/751546828722573312|author=[[Simone, Gail]]|title=Untitled|date=July 8, 2016|access-date=June 30, 2020|publisher=[[Twitter]]|archive-date=March 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305151759/https://twitter.com/GailSimone/status/751546828722573312}}</ref> In 2020, the series ''Red Sonja: The Price of Blood'' by writer Luke Lieberman and artist Walter Geovani corroborated this, depicting Sonja as having slept with a woman.<ref>''Red Sonja - The Price of Blood'' #1 (2020). [[Dynamite Entertainment]].</ref>
== Armatura bikini ==
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