What's wrong with Eternal Warrior?

[markie7235]

The Eternal Warrior, or Gilad, was one of my favorite all time Valiant characters from the 90s. I loved how every issue started off with some ancient historical event that Glad was involved in before transitioning to how it's relevant to the current day story. Some of my favorites were definitely Eternal Warrior 1 and 27, and also Eternal Warrior 4...4 was in my opinion a near perfect story with awesome historical story that transitioned to a good modern day story, capping off with a cool introduction of Bloodshot. The character showed strength, wisdom, and a battle field awareness that made for a cool character. But what set him apart was the old history and modern story in each issue.

However, with the relaunch, the character just feels flat. The stories lost this mix of history and modern the original stories had. The character now feels like a Neanderthal in modern times, almost like X-O, as though his long years have done little for him in terms of knowledge and wisdom. He seems more like a brute with sometimes moments of great stupidity, terrible at protecting Geomancers, and often referenced as "stanky". He just seems very one dimensional, aside from the brilliant Book of Death mini and Eternal Warrior 4001 in issues 5-8.

Maybe it's just me, but just seems like this character has lost his way and has been relegated to nothing more than a support character with no real relevance of his own. Kinda like Shadowman, who outside the first 9 issues of his relaunch has been a lacking character that feels more overcome with anger management problems. Really hopeful for the new Shadowman series, and would like to see a new Eternal Warrior series that returns to the characters roots of what made him so compelling in the original Valiant.

Wondering what other people think about Gilad VEI compared to VH1, the character as a whole, or the new VEI EW stories.

[DirtbagSailor]

I recommend reading Wrath of the Eternal Warrior from start to finish. Not only is it a fantastic read, but it also is some of the finest Gilad we have seen.

[markie7235]

I recommend reading Wrath of the Eternal Warrior from start to finish. Not only is it a fantastic read, but it also is some of the finest Gilad we have seen.

Actually did read this one, and I thought it was a fairly good story line. I still feel like it missed some of the appeal of the originals. That said, I think it did a good job of further exploring the origin of his immortality.

I thought the EW relaunch had potential in 2013 but it just abruptly ended in issue 4, then started the EW 4001 story in issue 5. Not really sure what the point of issues 1-4 we're, and though a bit slow in developing, we never got to see where it was going or what the point of it was.

[DirtbagSailor]

I thought the EW relaunch had potential in 2013 but it just abruptly ended in issue 4, then started the EW 4001 story in issue 5. Not really sure what the point of issues 1-4 we're, and though a bit slow in developing, we never got to see where it was going or what the point of it was.

Several of LaRosa's (unpublished) covers after issue #4 depicted Gilad in the same age/style as issues 1-4. Issue #7's (unpublished) cover depicted Gilad's daughter Xaran as well, and appeared to be in-line (or continuation) with the story from issues 1-4.

However, several of the (published) covers had been re-drawn to depict Gilad in 4001 A.D., and Issue #7's (published) cover had replaced Gilad's daughter Xaran with his granddaughter Caroline.

I suspect that the push to introduce 4001 A.D. (see also Rai) was more important than continuing the original story arc from issues 1-4, so the story was quickly wrapped up (with a few loose ends) and never revisited as things progressed after the fact.

[Zhuge1]

The Eternal Warrior, or Gilad, was one of my favorite all time Valiant characters from the 90s. I loved how every issue started off with some ancient historical event that Glad was involved in before transitioning to how it's relevant to the current day story. Some of my favorites were definitely Eternal Warrior 1 and 27, and also Eternal Warrior 4...4 was in my opinion a near perfect story with awesome historical story that transitioned to a good modern day story, capping off with a cool introduction of Bloodshot. The character showed strength, wisdom, and a battle field awareness that made for a cool character. But what set him apart was the old history and modern story in each issue.

However, with the relaunch, the character just feels flat. The stories lost this mix of history and modern the original stories had. The character now feels like a Neanderthal in modern times, almost like X-O, as though his long years have done little for him in terms of knowledge and wisdom. He seems more like a brute with sometimes moments of great stupidity, terrible at protecting Geomancers, and often referenced as "stanky". He just seems very one dimensional, aside from the brilliant Book of Death mini and Eternal Warrior 4001 in issues 5-8.

Maybe it's just me, but just seems like this character has lost his way and has been relegated to nothing more than a support character with no real relevance of his own. Kinda like Shadowman, who outside the first 9 issues of his relaunch has been a lacking character that feels more overcome with anger management problems. Really hopeful for the new Shadowman series, and would like to see a new Eternal Warrior series that returns to the characters roots of what made him so compelling in the original Valiant.

Wondering what other people think about Gilad VEI compared to VH1, the character as a whole, or the new VEI EW stories.

I definitely agree that Greg Pak's run left something to be desired. It started off interestingly enough with the daughter, the various factions (Houses) and champions (swords), but didn't really wrap up and seemed completely disconnected from his introduction in the second Archer and Armstrong arc. The next volume fast-forwarded a couple of thousand years and that storyline (Eternal Emperor) was, to me, quite good. I would have liked to have seen either of those initial storylines built upon as both left good opportunity for continuation, but unfortunately no one has ever picked up and ran with them (although, that said, I have seen where someone in the Unity section of Kindle Worlds on Amazon seems to have written quite a few stories that branch off of the first EW volume by Pak; I haven't yet read them, but am tempted to given that all of the KW stuff is now part of Kindle Unlimited).

[kinggirlfriend]

DAYS OF STEEL is a nice 3-issue mini that is set entirely in the past.

He guest stars in X-O Manowar (can't recall the issue numbers?), which also has a flashback tale that shows their shared past.

ETERNAL WARRIOR: AWAKENING one-shot is a tale set far in the past before he received his 3 facial scars. It's also a nice coda to the WRATH series.

UNITY #0 focuses on Gilad during WWI leading UNIT-Y, an earlier iteration of the Unity team.

UNITY #16 is a solo Gilad story that has him ruminating on his long life and a promise he made to a loved one in Japan.

LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER 1-4 Show the first Geomnacer, Tree of Life and the Immortal Brothers as children. This more than any of the other stories feels closer to what Greg Pak was doing in that first arc and seems like an attempt to tie it all together. At least a little bit.

[markie7235]

DAYS OF STEEL is a nice 3-issue mini that is set entirely in the past.

He guest stars in X-O Manowar (can't recall the issue numbers?), which also has a flashback tale that shows their shared past.

ETERNAL WARRIOR: AWAKENING one-shot is a tale set far in the past before he received his 3 facial scars. It's also a nice coda to the WRATH series.

UNITY #0 focuses on Gilad during WWI leading UNIT-Y, an earlier iteration of the Unity team.

UNITY #16 is a solo Gilad story that has him ruminating on his long life and a promise he made to a loved one in Japan.

LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER 1-4 Show the first Geomnacer, Tree of Life and the Immortal Brothers as children. This more than any of the other stories feels closer to what Greg Pak was doing in that first arc and seems like an attempt to tie it all together. At least a little bit.

For sure, was more curious to other people's reactions to how the character has been handled/represented in the VEI relaunches.

Compared to new incarnations of many Valiant characters, Gilad just feels lacking. Examples of new iterations surpassing the originals, I'd reference Ninjak, Livewire, Dr Mirage, Ivar, Master Darque, Faith, and X-O Manowar. Many other characters I feel were done well, these in particular have been outstanding. Gilad however I find has been very weak, and even Jack Boniface I feel has not been done well.

[kinggirlfriend]

DAYS OF STEEL is a nice 3-issue mini that is set entirely in the past.

He guest stars in X-O Manowar (can't recall the issue numbers?), which also has a flashback tale that shows their shared past.

ETERNAL WARRIOR: AWAKENING one-shot is a tale set far in the past before he received his 3 facial scars. It's also a nice coda to the WRATH series.

UNITY #0 focuses on Gilad during WWI leading UNIT-Y, an earlier iteration of the Unity team.

UNITY #16 is a solo Gilad story that has him ruminating on his long life and a promise he made to a loved one in Japan.

LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER 1-4 Show the first Geomnacer, Tree of Life and the Immortal Brothers as children. This more than any of the other stories feels closer to what Greg Pak was doing in that first arc and seems like an attempt to tie it all together. At least a little bit.

For sure, was more curious to other people's reactions to how the character has been handled/represented in the VEI relaunches.

Compared to new incarnations of many Valiant characters, Gilad just feels lacking. Examples of new iterations surpassing the originals, I'd reference Ninjak, Livewire, Dr Mirage, Ivar, Master Darque, Faith, and X-O Manowar. Many other characters I feel were done well, these in particular have been outstanding. Gilad however I find has been very weak, and even Jack Boniface I feel has not been done well.

Ah, gothcha.

I love it! Love all his appearances so for. I do wish they followed up on threads of the Pak run but I can view any inconsistencies as Gilad being in a different state of mind. Because he's been around so long I'd imagine he's run the gamut of different moods, outlooks, etc.

Except for the BWS produced issues, on the whole I far prefer VEI to V1.

[nonplayer]

I recommend reading Wrath of the Eternal Warrior from start to finish. Not only is it a fantastic read, but it also is some of the finest Gilad we have seen.

Wrath or the eternal warrior is the bees kness . I think its one of the best runs Valiant has done to date. Its up there with harbinger wars and armor hunters. I liked it 10 fold to Rai

[WrathOfArmstrong]

I recommend reading Wrath of the Eternal Warrior from start to finish. Not only is it a fantastic read, but it also is some of the finest Gilad we have seen.

Wrath or the eternal warrior is the bees kness . I think its one of the best runs Valiant has done to date. Its up there with harbinger wars and armor hunters. I liked it 10 fold to Rai

These are just the facts.

[SJS4]

FWIW I agree with the OP.

Gilad was my favorite comicbook character when I was a kid. It was the only VH1 series I stuck with till it ended. I even got all the Acclaim issues even though they were terrible.

I had such high hopes when VEI was relaunching...I couldn't wait for them to reintroduce EW.

And then those fateful A&A issues happened. FVL's portrayal of Gilad was laughably bad.

Pak's series was interesting, but then they switched gears after 4 issues. The Eternal Emperor issues were interesting...but then they cancelled the series and I don't think they ever recovered. The VEI version of the character is much more shallow and uninteresting than the VH1 character IMHO.

[markie7235]

FWIW I agree with the OP.

Gilad was my favorite comicbook character when I was a kid. It was the only VH1 series I stuck with till it ended. I even got all the Acclaim issues even though they were terrible.

I had such high hopes when VEI was relaunching...I couldn't wait for them to reintroduce EW.

And then those fateful A&A issues happened. FVL's portrayal of Gilad was laughably bad.

Pak's series was interesting, but then they switched gears after 4 issues. The Eternal Emperor issues were interesting...but then they cancelled the series and I don't think they ever recovered. The VEI version of the character is much more shallow and uninteresting than the VH1 character IMHO.

Kinda my thoughts. Don't get me wrong, there are some good EW stories in VEI, but they lack the interest and depth of the original. He just seems less intelligent and wise compared to the VH1 version.