ADVANCE REVIEW: Wrath of the Eternal Warrior: Risen #1

Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art by RAUL ALLEN

“I dream I am falling through time”

After making quite an impact on Valian’st majorÂ event of the year, Book of Death, Gilad Anni-PaddaÂ is back.Â But back where? Home? Which is where or when?

The book opens up with Gilad warrior-ing, against some evil eternal beast.Â In the midst of battle Gilad awakes to find a loving family far away from the dutiesÂ of the protector of the Earth.Â During this recess like period of the book there are enough clues to give you some idea of who these people are and how they will impact the story, though there is still room for what I hope will become twists and turns.

Writer Robert Venditti clearly loves working on Eternal Warrior.Â Bearing in mind Venditti also writes Valiant’s other warrior book, X-O, there are surprisingly a number of differences between the two.Â Aric is driven by revenge and anger, which has led him into all sorts of scrapes until he has reached a kind of peace with the Vine.Â Gilad on the other hand seem to forsake the peace in order to stand inline against monstrosities. One has hi-tech weaponry, the other an axe.Â Venditti also works some magic in the tried and tested “immortal equals being mopey because all he loves dies” type of feeling as Gilad seems to be resting his bones and spirits.

The art is by Raul Allen aided by Patricia Martin and for the most part works well in the book.Â The more sedate pages carry a certain feeling of warmth within them, which helps in turn to embolden this aspect of the book as the most important bits. By contrast, the opening battle is all large panels and dark reds and black on grey and blues, which emphasises the dark nature of the beast and possibly the state of the battle for Gilad.

As you know, I read Valiant books the first time around.Â Eternal Warrior was always a bit of a favourite.Â Its good to see that he still carries over well into the next-but-same generation of the Valiant rebooted universe.Â The book is a great jumping on point for those who liked what they saw in Book of Death and guest starÂ apparence in books such as Ivar, Time Walker.

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network