in gail simone's series , sonja's origins are retold in flashbacks. sonja is a young teenager in a hyrkanian village which is attacked by bandits. after her family is killed, sonja lures the bandits into the forest and kills them one by one. no goddess appears in this version and sonja makes no vow of chastity. while she is threatened by the bandits, she is neither raped nor seriously injured. another set of flashbacks shows sonja as an adult, and indicates that she learned many of her fighting skills from a fellow prisoner when she was captured and forced to fight as a gladiator.