As I said on this week’s podcast, I’ve never been that impressed with the Eternal Warrior outside of Unity or event books. It’s not that he’s a bad character, he’s just isn’t always interesting. It took Book of Death to make him interesting and that’s where this story picks up. If you haven’t read Book of Death (particularly the final chapter) and still want to then you should do that before reading this series. Otherwise you’re going to spoil something for yourself. But then not really. The issue begins with Gilad talking/killing a creature called Slather. Slather talks to much and apparently can’t die as well. This opening scene is foreshadowing where the series is going and usually I hate that, but we’re given a hell of a mystery with it so it actually works here.

From there we meet Gilad’s family. That’s right. His family. Without saying too much, this is an incredible sequence that basically takes up the rest of the issue. The opening is a wonderful sequence of Gilad smelling his wife’s cooking and just experiencing being home. Robert Venditti’s writing is brought to life by Raul Allen in that regard because the art does all of the work. It does an amazing job of transporting you to Gilad’s home and the sensory overload that he experiences when he wakes up. It’s some of the finest panels I’ve seen all year and I hope that this level of storytelling continues throughout this series and throughout Allen’s career.

Again, as I said on the podcast, Robert Venditti is doing for Eternal Warrior, what he did for X-O Manowar. Which is to say that he’s making him an incredibly deep character. Gilad has always been interesting to me. He constantly fails at protecting the geomancers, but he keeps at it. It’s just a strange character flaw. You’d think that the earth would just keep bringing back the geomancer when they die rather than EW, but it doesn’t. Anyway, Venditti really nails this first issue. It feels like the first two waves of the Valiant Universe which were all incredible. This first issue instantly elevated this character and made this a series you can’t miss.

That’s all you really need to know about this issue. I could rant and rant about the artwork because it is simply great. Allen looks at home on this series. Venditti has made this a series and character that you don’t want to miss. If you’re enjoying X-O Manowar or Ninjak, then go ahead and add Wrath of the Eternal Warrior to your reading list.

Score: 5/5

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #1 Writer: Robert Venditti Artist: Raul Allen Publisher: Valiant Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 11/11/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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