Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1

By Former Contributor
On 06 November 201416 June 2017
3

by Peter Milligan, Cary Nord

Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel sees the return of Gilad to his own book – if only for a short time – and I couldn’t be more excited.

The story

After centuries of fighting and bloodshed, Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, decides that his mission to protect the Earth is meaningless, and wanders through the Earth without purpose. The Geomancer, disguised as a bird, finds Gilad in a cave and gives him a new mission – to find and protect a child which will be the savior of the Franks from an invading force. Gilad isn’t happy with his new task, but after arguing with the Geomancer, decides to take on the quest to save the child.

Those of you who followed the original Eternal Warrior ongoing series may be familiar with the subject matter as we have seen Gilad grow tired of his mission to protect the Earth before. I was a little apprehensive to see this plot point be rehashed in this new miniseries, but really, it makes sense. It must be very difficult for Gilad to be engaged in battle for thousands of years, never seeing the world truly get better, and I sympathize with his idea that humanity may never truly progress beyond being a violent and destructive species. Why would the Earth wish to protect a group which actively seeks to destroy the Earth and themselves?

There isn’t much in way of dialogue in this book as a fair portion of the story is told through Gilad’s inner monologue, but I found the story to be quite interesting. We don’t yet know who the child is, but looking into the history of the area at the time, the most likely suspect is that the child Gilad is tasked to protect is Otto I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who defeated the Magyars referenced in this book in 955 AD. I love the amount of research that must have gone in this book, and am really enjoying seeing how closely tied Gilad is to actual historical events we know of today.

The art

Could there be a more perfect art duo for this type of story than Cary Nord on pencils and Brian Reber on colors? Every week I am amazed by the art talent at Valiant and this book puts two of its greatest talents together in one place. Nord’s pencils in this issue are nothing short of legendary, with epic battle scenes and beautiful landscapes throughout accentuated by Reber’s large array of tones and colors which make this book a beauty to behold.

Overall

Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel #1 offers a great look at Gilad’s past and the Valiant universe’s history. If you’re a fan of swashbuckling adventures, you really can’t go wrong with this book. With an interesting story, and beautiful art, Eternal Warrior: Days of Steel is highly recommended.