CREDIT: Valiant
Rating: 5/5 – A Fitting Ending for an Amazing Series!
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
In a recent review I talked about how I’ve been catching up on pretty much the entire line of Valiant books. I stepped away for a bit, but came back around the time the first Divinity series came out. Slowly but surely, since I’m reading so many other books, I’ve been getting up to date with all their series, but have also read the recent new Valiant books like Britannia and Savage, both of which I loved. Over this past week I caught up on the Eternal Warrior series just in time to read the final issue of the series, number fourteen. After reading this series and this final issue as one complete run, I’m sad to see this go as I can officially and convincingly say it’s my favorite Valiant series so far.
Writer Robert Venditti has crafted an amazing story that shows just how the Eternal Warrior lives his immortal life, balancing his sworn duty to do everything he can to protect the earth, while being there for his family who he must constantly leave to accomplish his role as protector. In this final issue, which also happens to be the fourth part of a storyline called “Deal With a Devil”, we see him trying to make it “home” with his oldest son, while fighting off an army full of demons. It really isn’t much more than that, but if you’ve been reading this series, then you can feel the importance of Gilad Anni-Padda making it home safely and getting through this intense struggle. Not only does the writing imply this, but so too does the art by Robert Gill.
The writing and the art work together to make this my favorite Valiant series. Gill’s pencils are wonderful and he definitely goes out on a high note here! The opening few pages show the Eternal Warrior walking through “hell” with chains wrapped around his body so he can pull the giant decapitated head of a demon. There are certain pages and panels where you can see the tremendous effort this is taking on his entire body as he struggles to take one more step. These scenes are just as strong as the scenes involving him fighting a group of demons and both show just how difficult a time he’s having trying to get his son to safety. And while there very few backgrounds in the art which usually bothers me, it works tremendously here as it allowed my eye to focus on Gill’s impressive character work.
Now that I’m caught up on this series, I wish that it wasn’t ending. Venditti and Gill have made me love this character and although I definitely want more, this story and series ends in a satisfying way. Although Gilad Anni-Padda will be showing up in other Valiant books, I wish his solo adventures could continue as this is definitely one of my favorite series of 2016. If you haven’t read Eternal Warrior, I highly recommend that you do so. Now that this series has ended, you can get the full and complete story that has had multiple high points throughout its fourteen issue run. Eternal Warrior has ended for now, but I’ll definitely be reading the series when it starts up again!
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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