Across six millennia, Gilad Anni-Padda has felled zealots and madmen, emperors and tyrants in the course of his duty. But nothing he’s faced yet can prepare him to run the “LABYRINTH” – a miles-long maze of horrors specifically designed to undermine his every strength, enhance his every weakness…and to send him screaming into the darkness of death at every turn. But what kind of brilliant but twisted psyche could have possibly conceived such a monument to terror…and for how many centuries have they plotted to break the mind and body of history’s most formidable soldier?

After the phenomenal prelude found in Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior #5 & 6, the opening chapter of Labyrinth has some lofty expectations to meet, from myself at least. Astonishingly enough, it almost does.

Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior #7 features a return to the art style of the first four issues, and I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t my favourite the first time I came across it, but over the course of the first four issues, it did grow on me. The different art styles between the prequel to this arc and the opening chapter are, frankly, quite dramatic, but the return of the Art Team (consisting of Raul Allen & Patricia Martin, David Astruga and Borja Pindadob) gives the comic a great sense of direct continuation from issue #4, which is helped by the fact that it literally is – you could have avoided the last two issues and still have been fine.

In terms of the story itself Robert Venditti sets a solid pace, while simultaneously revealing relatively little about the motivations of the antagonist (although this being the opening chapter, I’m quite alright with that). While Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior #7 wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous two issues, I honestly never expected it to come close in terms of it’s quality. To be clear; this is far from a bad comic,  and it’s one I think you should definitely read, but I suspect this arc will have a slower pace that the prelude, with the machinations of the antagonist slowly being revealed over the course of the next few issues.

Story: Robert Venditti Art: Raul Allen & Patricia Martin
Art Assistant: David Astruga Additional Colours: Borja Pindado
Story: 7.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review, but I’m picking my copy up on Wednesday anyway.