Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1
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The good
Great character development and engrossing story. Artwork captures the various situations very well
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The bad
Gilad isn't involved in the action until late
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The ugly
- Total score
Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1 recounts Gilad’s tale from centuries ago when he was tasked by the Geomancer to protect a newborn child from the Magyars. Seeing as how Gilad is immortal, the toll of fighting in wars and dealing with humanity for millennia has been costly on his spirit, and he questions how much of a difference he truly makes. But he doesn’t do this on his own accord, and it’s the Geomancer who defines the purpose of his seemingly endless battles and connects it with a grand plan. However, Gilad has started to question the Geomancer as well, and wonders if the Geomancer truly knows what humanity is like with the violence among other things done to each other. An example of this is a husband and wife fleeing the area due to the invading force but they’re stopped on the road by Magyar soldiers. The husband flees immediately leaving the wife behind for the soldiers to pray on her but instead of killing her one rapes her and leaves her on the road. So Gilad is more than content to seek solace in a cave away from everything until the Geomancer comes to him once again. He wants Gilad to travel to the Land of the Franks because of the invading Magyars destroying an entire culture. But the mission isn’t to beat back the invading army but to instead protect a newborn child, who the Geomancer claims is the savior of this civilization being destroyed. But how will Gilad even find this child, and can the Geomancer’s proclamations be trusted at this point?
Out of all the characters in the Armor Hunters event I felt that Gilad was the least impressive, and almost forgotten in certain cases. Other than knowing he was immortal, there wasn’t anything in particular that stood out about him, and he seemed more like a man out-of-place when one would assume that he would have acquired so many different skills over the millennia. He was impressive in Unity #0, so I wasn’t entirely show how this series would go. On one hand I felt the character had tremendous potential but on the other hand I had yet to see that. However I was glad that the start of this issue was very engrossing as the toll of being an immortal who was reliant on the Geomancer giving his actions meaning was clear. And the questions he asked himself about whether or not the Geomancer was indeed truthful about these events having meaning was pertinent to me because of my introduction to this arrangement and the Geomancer. And I appreciated the fact that the toll these events took on Gilad wasn’t just conveyed through the excellent writing but visually, and the example with the husband and wife set the stage for future events. And I enjoyed the artwork by Cary Nord as the facial expressions captured the emotions in the various situations very well, and the fighting sequences had that large-scale feeling to them. It was interesting to see the people’s different reactions to the invading Magyars whether it was to stand up and fight or flee, and just like Gilad wondered what one newborn child could do to make a difference in all of this, so did I. I may not have known what to expect coming into this series but after reading this first issue I’m now impressed with the story of Gilad, the Eternal Warrior.
SUMMARY
Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1 is a solid start to the series, and the premise is made even more interesting with Gilad’s character development and relationship with the Geomancer. And what was at stake was made clear through Peter Milligan’s excellent writing and the artwork, which captured the gravitas of the Magyar’s slaughter of the Franks. I had some doubts about how exciting this series could be based on him being relatively unimpressive during the Armor Hunters event but he’s truly in his element here, and I’m as intrigued to know the significance of the outcome in Gilad’s mission to protect this newborn. So I can’t wait to get my hands on the next issue.
Release Date: 11/5/14
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Cary Nord
1 comment
Anonymous - November 5, 2014 7:59 PM
The writer is Peter Milligan and the artist is Cary Nord.