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Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9
Kareem Ali 3

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9

 

  • The good

    Kalam attempting to travel to world of living

  • The bad

    Aside from action involving generic opponents issue is uneventful and story doesn't progress

  • The ugly

  • Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 continues with Gilad battling his way through the Labyrinth in order to turn the tables on Sovereign. It opens up with Sovereign telling Gilad that he prepared for all possible outcomes since he had millennia to prepare despite Gilad’s threats to break free. Gilad calls Sovereign’s bluff and destroys his containment unit promising Sovereign that he will find him.  Shaken by this, Sovereign has no choice but alert his entire security force to find and capture Gilad. However, Gilad knows what he’s up again and takes out all of Sovereign’s defenses from robots to human security guards. Meanwhile in the afterlife, Kalam makes his way through the forest following the path he’s seen his father take countless times to return to the land of the living. But what is Kalam’s goal in attempting to travel to the land of the living and how can he help Gilad piece together everything occurring with Sovereign?

    Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9
    I feel that sometimes the word “filler” can be overused when describing an issue or an episode, so I’ve become more aware of not just using that word when reviewing an issue. However, that word kept popping up in my head throughout this issue and by the end of it I couldn’t think of any other way to describe it. Coming into this issue I was hoping the story would get deeper and touch on the urgent message Kalam wanted to give Gilad or maybe draw some type of connection between him and the Sovereign in the present day. At the very least I would have wanted Gilad’s wrath to fall on Sovereign and/or his operation in an exciting way. Instead, Gilad was pitted against forgettable pistol and axe fodder throughout this issue.

     

    The beginning was pretty exciting with the exchange between Gilad and Sovereign with the latter’s cool facade cracking showing his fear of Gilad. It increased my anticipation of the action ahead thinking about how one who was immortal in his own way experiencing fear of Gilad’s wrath. After this it was about Gilad making his way through the labyrinth repeating how much he was going to make Sovereign pay. These pages were a breeze and not because it was such an enjoyable read but because so many panels were devoted to just one move so there wasn’t anything to read. And in previous issues Gilad cutting through swaths of enemies felt intense but here seeing him with a pistol and axe against an army felt mostly like a delay in not getting to anything of note. So the entertainment factor here was relatively small.

    Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9
    I felt better when I saw Gilad’s family in the afterlife discussing Kalam leaving through the forest. It gave me hope that there would be some story progression that would touch on the identity of Sovereign and the connection to and need for Kalam when he was a baby. Yet this is all that was shown before it was right back to Gilad. Considering how many issues were dedicated to Kalam’s kidnapping as a baby it makes no sense that it would all still be a complete mystery that hasn’t even given enough hints to spawn speculation about possible answers. That’s probably the most frustrating aspect of this story line since the majority of the potential built up throughout this series feels like it’s being squandered in an unengaging manner, trapping the reader in a story that refuses to progress.

     

    SUMMARY

     

    Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #9 is a disappointing issue that provides no answers or story progression as it pertains to Gilad, Sovereign or Kalam. Instead it only covers Gilad’s trek through the Labyrinth on the way to Sovereign so the conclusion of this issue feels just like the beginning. There is one bright spot with Kalam’s decision to attempt to journey to the land of the living following in Gilad’s footsteps but it’s way too brief and gives no insight into his thinking. Hopefully next issue adds more depth to this story arc because this issue is largely forgettable.

     

    Release Date:7/13/16

    Writer: Robert Venditti

    Artist: Raul Allen, Patricia Martin

  • Rating ( 5.5 )
  • Total score 5.5

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