Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel 1

Swords! Savagery! Steel! Valiant’s immortal champion returns with an all-new adventure from master storytellers Peter Milligan (Hellblazer) and Cary Nord (Conan)!

The Eternal Warrior…Gilad Anni-Padda, the Earth’s Fist and Steel…is forever charged with guarding the Geomancer and securing the Earth’s safety. After completing another brutal mission, the Earth’s undying guardian is approached with a cryptic task: find and save a baby — in whose hands might rest the fate of an entire people. But the Eternal Warrior is no nursemaid…and, to complicate matters, a thousand Magyar invaders want the baby dead. At the edge of civilization, can history’s most expert killer keep one precious life alive?

So, we’ve got this “Eternal Warrior” here, who’s been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years following this master plan set forth by the Geomancer.  For as long as he’s been in the employ of the Geomancer, Gilad Anni-Padda has been nothing short of a killing machine.  But now, after so much death, he’s grown tired of what seems like a never-ending battle.  Gilad begins to question this plan that the Geomancer has which shows that he’s more than just a mindless weapon.  So then you throw a baby into the mix and now Gilad may have found his new purpose in life, to become a guardian instead of a warrior.

Interesting concept of the Eternal Warrior, the overall story was just a little too vague for my liking.  I mean, why should I care that this guy has been fighting for hundreds of years?  Yes, you have to have some mystery to keep the reader coming back, but this was definitely a one-and-done type deal for me.  Objectively though, you could draw some Christian parallels with the whole child prophecy.  I mean the Geomancer could be seen as a reference to God guiding Gilad to protect this child, like God led the shepherds to Christ.  I don’t know, maybe I’m stretching a bit here, but don’t worry this isn’t turning into the “Comics for Christians” page, just going on what I know.  You also get quite the healthy dose of violence with this issue, but that’s to be expected with a title like Eternal Warrior.

Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel would be a great find for anyone who likes the tales of the battle-born soldier, or if you’re a fan of the original Eternal Warrior series. In either case, this beginning to the three part mini-series is a nice addendum to the ongoing adventures of Gilad Anni-Padda. Not the most attention grabbing series, in my opinion, but it gets the job done. For more info on where to pick up this issue, visit the Valiant website, or the Valiant Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.