Against all odds, the Eternal Warrior has fought his way to the Labyrinth’s brutal and mysterious center. But his suffering is far from over! Standing between the Earth’s immortal master of war and freedom stands the figure only known as the Dying One…and the masterstroke in his centuries-long plan to unlock the secret of the Eternal Warrior’s immortality! Battered but not beaten, can Gilad Anni-Padda rise once more to fell his greatest foe…or will the madness of the Labyrinth break his mind as well as his body?

The story that Robert Venditti has been crafting over the past ten issues culminates here as he confronts the figure who trapped him within the Labyrinth in an incredibly satisfying issue of Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior.

Since he has escaped his prison within the Labyrinth a couple of issues ago, the Eternal Warrior has been nigh unstoppable as he tracks down the being responsible for killing him over and over – against the odds, the inevitable confrontation between them delivers on the expectations the story has built; not only because it’s swiftly brutal, but also because there are certain things said that may not shock Gilad as much as they should make you, the reader, wonder what is to come in the coming issues.

Through a few well-placed lines of dialogue Venditti cunningly allows readers to get a glimpse into the Dying One‘s motive for having trapped and repeatedly murder the Eternal Warrior, allowing you to, at least in part, understand why our hero has been a rat in a maze for the last four issues.

Visually this is an incredibly slick comic; the fairly standard grid like layout used throughout the comic lends a very old school feel, and allows some very interesting uses of negative space. There’s a great example of this in the early pages of a reeeeeeally slow sequence depicting a trickle of blood fall from Gilad’s axe – a great counterpoint to the frenetic energy surrounding the confrontation between the Eternal Warrior and some hired hands shown at the end of the last issue – when this is collected into a trade, that’s going to be a great sequence to read immediately after said confrontation. A real calm in the middle of the story, so to speak.

Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior is an incredibly well crafted series from start to finish, tying up several threads from across the past ten issues, and laying the grounds for the next arc or two to come. It isn’t an ideal starting point for new readers (try #7 at the very least if you can’t start at #1), but for those familiar with the series – and there’s not enough of you – issue #10 is one of the best released so far.

My expectations were sky high for this comic, and the creative delivered.

Story: Robert Venditti Artists: Raul Allen & Patricia Martin
Art Assistant: Davi Astruga Additional Colours: Borja Pindado
Epilogue: Robert Venditti, Robert Gill
Story: 9.25 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy a FREE copy for review. I will also purchase a copy on 8/17.