For five millennia, the Eternal Warrior has shaped history at the end of his sword. He’s razed empires, toppled civilizations, and broken armies as an immortal soldier in service to the Earth.

But now, the Eternal Warrior has been torn from the world he once protected and finds himself stranded in a hostile alien landscape unlike any he’s faced before. Separated from his earthly environs, can history’s deadliest soldier survive a realm far older, far deadlier, and fare more ruinous than anything he’s ever encountered? Beyond Earth lies eternity…
Let’s get one thing out of the way before we start the review proper: there will more than likely be spoilers for Valiant‘s Book Of Death event contained within this review, so if you haven’t read that but you’re curious about this comic, the Cliff’s Notes version is buy it. The opening chapter is interesting, if not perfect, but I’m willing to bet that we’ll  soon have one awesome series on our hands.

Alright, there may be spoilers from here on out.

Wrath Of The Eternal warrior is scripted by Robert Venditti (who also handled Valiant‘s summer event, Book Of Death), and I would be lying if I said my expectations were already sky high for this series before even picking up the advance review copy that I was fortunate enough to read. Does the first issue hold up to my expectations? Well, not really. It’s a solid opening issue, and an interesting look at an immortal character, but there was something missing for me, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.

After the events of the superb Book Of Death, The Eternal Warrior has become one of my favourite comic book characters currently being published, so although this comic didn’t quite meet my stratosphere level expectations, that doesn’t mean it’s no good. Indeed, Robert Venditti is on fine form here, scripting an issue that asks more questions than it answers which makes perfect sense for the opening chapter in Valiant‘s latest ongoing series, and in all honesty is exactly what I expected.

Venditti is joined this issue by an extensive art team of artists Raul Allen & Patricia Martin, art assistant David Astruga with additional colours by Borja Pindado (I’m going to refer to them as The Artists or the Art Team from here on out for simplicity’s sake, and because I don’t know who was responsible for what). The layout of the panels in this issue after the story hops back to before are deceptively simple; indeed there are three pages here that have an identical layout of two rows of five panels and a single large one at the bottom that depict some remarkably interesting art. The scenes within those pages are actually quite simple, the Art Team do a wonderful job in showing just how content Gilad is to enjoy the smell of cooking, or the sounds of loved ones approaching. Those pages are very subtle, but they convey a side to the Eternal Warrior that is seldom seen (at least one I haven seldom seen), and adds another layer to an already interesting character.

That Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior #1 didn’t meet my expectations doesn’t disappoint me as much as I expected, indeed I’m actually surprised by just how much more I enjoyed the issue when rereading it as I was writing this review. Robert Venditti and the Artists have delivered a solid issue that visually is packed with a lot of content across some simple (and yet all the more interesting because of that simplicity) panel layouts that allow the Art Team to really pace the story very well. As an opening chapter to a new series, Wrath Of The Eternal Warrior #1 does exactly what it needs to do: it makes me want more.

Simply put, this is a comic you must read if you have any interest in the Eternal Warrior.

Story: Robert Venditti Art: Raul Allen & Patricia Martin
Art Assistant: David Astruga Additional Colours: Borja Pindado
Story: 8 Art: 9 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy a FREE copy for review, but I had already added this series to my pull list.