This has been a very good week for Valiant comics. They are all starting to improve on many levels while building their own identity. As you can imagine, Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 has been the best of the bunch so far, and mostly because of the great story.
It follows a very logical path while setting a fast pace with many well done action scenes. There’s not as much evolution as one would expect, but that’s because this issue needed to be centered on action from a story perspective.
The quick scene we get in the afterlife was a good recess from all that and it presents a good starting point for the secondary plot. Some may say that focusing on a dog and not on the children could be a wrong choice since their scene is the strongest one, but I think that nowadays many have more empathy for pets than humans in many respects.
I’m still thinking that the general idea here looks like Assassin’s Creed’s, and despite that, there’s still a good amount of originality to the whole issue. It adds some tension in the right spots because readers will be waiting for something obvious, and will end up paying close attention to everything going in more detail waiting for that impact.
For me, Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 was faster than the past issues with more active and dynamic action and with a better script that was balanced between action and stillness. I don’t know if duality is a trending topic in the industry, but in case it is, this comic has its own style so it doesn’t seem like we are reading something that has been done before.
Starting with the art and coloring, I feel that, although it keeps the style from the past issue, it has improved in terms of shadows and lighting. Last issue needed more, well, more blacks; more dark colors (and I’m speaking of quantity, not quality) with some additional shadows here and there and Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 fixed all that.
The intro pages along with the final one had some drawings that really demand respect and admiration. The art was impressive and the colors down right amazed me. The use of matte colors sounds like a predictable mess, but in this case it worked well and does not look bad in any way.
The many panels in Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 add a real cinematic aspect to each page, and with some imagination it may even look like a TV show is playing out inside your head.
With all of this, the target audience for Wrath of the Eternal Warrior may be more specific because of the bloody scenes we have. I didn’t feel tired of them, in fact, quite the opposite! The colors and the contrast helped so it bothered me less than it normally would have; I’m surprised with that.
If you like brave warriors, some honest feelings, great action, and an already defined style in writing and art, Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 is definitely the kind of comic you will love and follow.
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