Review: Book Of Death #3
The terrible future chronicled in the Book of the Geomancer continues to reveal itself as an unexpected and untold player…Master Darque…emerges to make his bid for control of the Earth’s newest Geomancer! But does the reappearance of history’s most powerful necromancer mean an apocalyptic future has been avoided…or guaranteed? As the heroes of the Valiant Universe fall and nature itself turns on humanity, all that stands between the devastated planet and ultimate evil is the Earth’s undying Fist and Steel himself…Gilad Anni-Padda, the Eternal Warrior!
To briefly recap the previous issues (with only minor spoilers!), which I reviewed here and here, Tama a Geomancer from the future has been erroneously blamed for a series of unnatural disasters where nature will suddenly attack and murder people. The Eternal Warrior believes otherwise and has run off with Tama in order to keep her safe. Convinced the unnatural disasters tearing our world apart are a direct result of the new Geomancer’s arrival, the superhero team Unity were tasked with bringing Tama and the Eternal Warrior in. But that didn’t exactly go according to plan…
Valiant’s Book Of Death continues to be one of my most anticipated comics released every month, and even with my high expectations for issue #3, this comic did not disappoint. With the story now in full swing, it will probably make little sense to those who haven’t read at least the second issue of this mini series (although when the story is this good, why start with #2, and not #1?), so if that’s you then go pick up the other two issues.
If you’ve read any of the reviews I’ve written about Valiant’s comics over the past month or two, you’ll know that I’ve really become taken by the publishers offerings; one could accuse me of simply nerding out over these comics – and this series specifically. If one did accuse me of that, I wouldn’t deny it, I would fully admit to it, in fact. I mention this because it may feel as if I’m repeating myself over the course of the three reviews written for this event series so far.
Robert Venditti has already given us two great installments in this series, and he’s delivered again with Book Of Death #3. His dialogue is again fantastic, and the pacing of this issue is really great. I really enjoyed the campfire scene from beginning to end between Tama and the Eternal Warrior, both because of Venditti‘s writing and also the fantastic art by artists Robert Gill and Doug Braithwaite. The scene is brought to life brilliantly by the colouring work of David Baron and Brian Reber who give a frantic urgency to the art work without loosing any of the detail found in the pencils and inks. The appearance of the series villain is also well done; for those who, like myself, have no notion of just who the villain is, you get a real sense of his power and his evilness from the first few pages, and his opposition to the Earth’s life-giving power is conveyed nicely in a simple panel.
I’ve already mentioned that I’m a fan of this event comic, even going so far as to say that Book Of Death is my favorite event series this summer. The third installment of this series is on sale September 23rd. Book Of Death #3 is a fantastic comic, but it isn’t a standalone story, and you would do yourself a disservice if you were to start reading the story here; the finale isn’t out for another month, so you’ve still got time to catch up.
Although I’m looking forward to the conclusion next month, it’ll be a bittersweet comic for me as it’ll signify the end of the Book Of Death story line that I’ve enjoyed so much this summer.
Story: Robert Venditti Art: Robert Gill with Doug Braithwaite
Story: 9.0 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy
Valiant provided Graphic Policy a FREE copy for review
Last month I 
Valiant’s event story line Book Of Death continues as the Eternal Warrior faces off against his former team, Unity, and it’s awesome.
As an avid comic book reader, I have seen quite a few indie publishers come and go. There are comic book companies Virgin Comics, which actually spawned some excellent titles to NOW Comics, which actually had the first crack at Green Hornet, before Dynamite got the rights, to Malibu Comics and Topps Comics, whom although had some promising titles were bought up by the Big 2.Then there is Valiant Comics, which seemed to go the way of Malibu and Topps, when it got shut down back in 2004, but then in 2005, two entrepreneurs breathed fresh life into the brand and restarted it.