It is a time before civilization…

On the brink of carving out victory in the most violent battle of his life, Gilad Anni-Padda suffers a devastating injury. He awakens weeks later in a strange land, nursed back to health but with no memory of his past. A tribe has shown him compassion in an age of cruelty, and he will return their gift in kind. Now the real violence will begin…

Full disclosure: I am a big fan of both the Eternal Warrior and Robert Venditti. One has become one of my favorite comic book characters over the past year, and the other is one of the most exciting writers in comics right now. Venditti’s Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior was one of my favorite series of the past year, so when I heard he was coming back to the character, I was super excited.

And the comic almost delivered on the first pass through.

Eternal Warrior: Awakening #1 feels very reminiscent of Venditti’s previous take on the character in that there’s a nice build in the narrative of the comic, with a story taking place millennia ago. Venditti builds a solid done-in-one story here using a fractured timeline style of story telling (like that description? That’s my pompous way of saying he uses flashbacks), and like that series, you need to give yourself time to digest the comic before you make a quick judgement on it; the story is actually a lot better than I initially thought.

Artistically, Renato Guedes is mostly solid throughout the comic, and he brings the spectacularly bloody fight scenes to life with an energy that’s visceral. The few moments where I felt the art slipped are purely down to personal preference and warrants less time to talk about than I’ve given to them when compared to the otherwise top-notch work from Guedes.

At the end of the day, if you’re a fan of Gilad Anni-Padda then you’re going to want to read this. If you’re not, and you want to learn a little about the immortal warrior, then read this. Hell, if you just want to read a good comic, then this one-shot will allow you to scratch that itch.

Story: Robert Venditti Art Renato Guedes Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review, I will also be picking up a physical copy