There is a lot of death in this month’s books from Valiant Entertainment. This year’s big event book kicks off in Book of Death #1 where readers are promised a glimpse into the demise of the entire present day roster of characters. This debut primes you for a lot of grisly and gruesome things to come for everyone.
WRITTEN BY: Robert Venditti
ART BY: Robert Gill with Doug Braithwaite
PUBLISHER: Valiant Entertainment
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: 15 July 2015
Gilad Anni-Padda, The Eternal Warrior, has always protected the Geomancers, mystics who speak to the Earth. Sometimes, he is more successful than others. A new Geomancer named Tama has come from the future with a book foretelling the end of their world.
Not every hero agrees that Tama being in the present is a good thing. Writer Robert Venditti wastes no time showing us why as more and more horrific scenes of nature attacking and killing humanity begin cropping up wherever The Eternal Warrior and The Geomancer run to and from.
As with any major event in the Valiant Universe, the big hitters team Unity is dispatched to assess global threating events by MI-6 Head Neville Alcott. Along with G.A.T.E. boss Colonel Jamie Capshaw, the decision has been made to bring both Tama and Gilad in for answers and containing an out-of-control superhuman. With this move, Venditti sets up a great setting concisely which leads to some great payoffs already.
This book already feels like it has the potential to be something great. Sides are being chosen and lines are being drawn. As with all good set-ups, not all the players are shown in the first chapter. Something else is at work here, making things not at clear cut as some would believe.
The present day scenes are neatly done by Robert Gill with Doug Braithwaite supplying the grimier and grittier moments to come from the Book of Death. Braithwaite’s pages especially shine through as the epic teases of battles to come are his playground. The truly scary pages come from Gill as we see there is something creepy and crawly at work against The Geomancer and her protector. The forest of corpses and the raining of scorpions are fiercely unsettling.
If you like fights, heroes fighting heroes, scary things and want to know how an entire universe of heroes will die, then Book of Death #1 is right up your alley. It combines epic crossover in all the good ways with a What If / The End slant. This has all the makings of another instant classic from the always entertaining Valiant Universe.
Score: 9/10
Mr. Steele enjoys all things comics and imagination-based. Using his lifetime of comic-fu-dom for good, he imparts his knowledge for the universe to enjoy and for you, dear readers, to pass it on.
Twitter: @mrbradysteele
