Eternal Warrior: Awakening #1
Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Renato Guedes
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: Valiant
A review by Josh Rose
Eternal Warrior: Awakening #1 is one of Valiant’s series of one-shot issues to celebrate their 25th Anniversary, and its a great way to introduce new readers to Gilad Anni-Padda, the Eternal Warrior.
Gilad has been dreaming the same dream for years: Being in battle and falling into a river after being mortally wounded. An amnesiac, he doesn’t know who he is or what his name is. He wakes up and goes out to plow the fields when a crazy old man shows up calling Gilad the Eternal Warrior. The old man is a Geomancer, the latest in a line of mystics who speaks for the earth. Gilad learns that his dreams are remnants of his memory and that he must defeat the leader of the Fell Legion, the one who tried sending Gilad to his death and is destroying the earth with each advancement his army makes.
Robert Venditti does an excellent job introducing readers to the mythology of the Eternal Warrior. He’s immortal, he hails from Ancient Mesopotamia, he’s the Fist and the Steel of the Earth Mother, and he works with the Geomancers to do the Earth’s bidding. Venditti also successfully captures the spiritual beliefs and savagery of war for the era.
The panel layout is easy to follow and the action flows smoothly from the Gilad scenes to the Fell Legion ones. Renato Guedes does an excellent job with the rain and lighting, and the bloody violence throughout ancient Mesopotamia. Aside from the lettering for the thunder cracks which seem cartoony, I think Dave Sharpe does an excellent job with the lettering, although that may be a homage to Eternal Warrior #1 from Valiant’s original run on the character in the 90’s.
Verdict:
Buy It – This is the perfect introduction of the character to new readers. Eternal Warrior: Awakening #1 is full of bloody violence. Its a quick and easy read paying homage to the original Eternal Warrior series.
