Eternal Warrior Awakening # 1 NM Valiant Cover A Robert Venditti Renato Guedes 1st print

Description

Eternal Warrior Awakening #1
Published May 2017 by Valiant
Writer Robert Venditti
Art Renato Guedes
Cover Clayton Crain

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…

NY Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti (Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps.) and acclaimed artist Renato Guedes (Bloodshot Reborn) lead a celebration of the Eternal Warrior’s 25th anniversary here with the second of four standalone specials honoring the most famous Valiant tales ever told! 40 pages, full color.

This is a book set in ancient times, where the Eternal Warrior has lost his memory from an old wound, having nightmares, a wife, a new life as a farmer. A Geomancer shows and reminds him of his history, and sets off a hero’s call to action. Those who are familiar with the Warrior and Geomancers from past Valiant books are already salivating for more, but for new folk, this is a great origin #1 issue set-up. I haven’t read the prior Eternal Warrior books yet, but am familiar with the character from Archer & Armstrong.

What impressed me about the book is that it has a full story in it. We didn’t meet the villain, have the hero brush his teeth and head out like a lot of comics do in their first issue. We have the villain. We have the hero setting out. We have the action. We have the conclusion and then there’s a set up for a larger story afterward. I compare this to Kindt’s X-O Manowar run currently — and with the two, I believe that Valiant Comics have rediscovered the “tell a story in a single issue but leave them wanting more” formula that made old comics great, and not material to wait for trades. I have to think it’s intentional on these writers’ parts, and I’m extremely happy to see it. Applause on that.

With comparing this to Valiant’s Manowar relaunch, I would say that if Manowar represents pulp sci-fi John Carter Warlord Of Mars in all its gloriousness, The Eternal Warrior: Awakening is Michael Moorcock Elric Saga in modern comic form. That’s about as high of praise I can give, and these books have both earned it in its own right. Eternal Warrior really is the pulp action-adventure fantasy that I’ve been craving out of comics for a long time.

The art’s great. Guedes does a wonderful job in expressions, figures, crowd scenes, having to draw camels (I like seeing cool animals in comics, +1!) fight scenes, all sorts of breadth here. The background gets a little lost at points which I’m guessing was a time consideration, and gets filled in with a little bit of aggressive coloring, but very minor complaint on that front for what is near perfect art to compliment near perfect storytelling.

8-5899200333860111

Near mint condition, 1st printing.