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What Does Robert Venditti Say About Wrath of the Eternal Warrior?

This November, in the cataclysmic fallout of the sold-out Book of Death event, New York Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti and visionary artist Raul Allen are forging a major new milestone for the Valiant Universe’s unbreakable immortal in Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #1 (SEP151652)– the first issue of an all-new ongoing series drafting Gilad Anni-Padda into a daring crusade to the far end of existence...and stranding him in a hostile alien landscape unlike anything he’s ever faced before.

Torn from the world he once protected, can history’s deadliest soldier survive a realm far older, far deadlier, and far more ruinous than anything he’s ever encountered? The journey begins here as series writer Robert Venditti prepares for the launch of Valiant’s latest tentpole series and details his long-term plan of action for Earth’s Fist and Steel.

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #1 (SEP151652) is in comic shops November 18.

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PREVIEWSworld: Currently, you’re handling the Eternal Warrior in Book of Death, Valiant’s cataclysmic event. Will Wrath of the Eternal Warrior be a direct extension of the story that began there? Or is this a brand-new starting point for the character? 

Robert Venditti: We’re taking the success of Book of Death, and the visibility that’s being put onto the character, and spinning that off in a new direction that is consistent with what came before and is also a completely fresh jumping-on point.

It’ll definitely be a continuation in the sense if you’ve read Book of Death or if you’ve followed any of the Eternal Warrior’s previous appearances, it’s going to build on top of that framework, but it’s also not a continuation – no prior knowledge of the characters of the Valiant Universe are required in order to read this story.

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David Lafuente Cover A (Wraparound)
(SEP151652, $3.99) 

PREVIEWSworld: You’ve tackled Visigoths in X-O Manowar, alien invasions in Armor Hunters, and now dark futures in Book of Death. What makes Wrath of the Eternal Warrior different from the other Valiant series you’ve tackled to date?

Robert Venditti: Everything. I think there’s a tendency to compare Eternal Warrior with X-O Manowar, because they’re both characters born of history. But they’re actually vastly different, and the series is really going to put that on display. With every project I take on, I’m really trying to do something different that will challenge me and help me grow as a writer, and I would not be doing Wrath of the Eternal Warrior if I felt that it was going to be treading any of the same ground that we’ve seen in X-O Manowar – except to say that it’s going to have that same level of epic storytelling. Everything we do with Eternal Warrior will involve conflicts and adventures that are unique to him alone, and not anything where you could replace him with another character and have the same story.

PREVIEWSworld
: To your mind, what drives the Eternal Warrior? What is his purpose and what keeps him going?

Robert Venditti: His mission is the same as it’s always been: to protect and safeguard the Geomancers, the ancient line of mystics who speak for the planet. In tandem with that, he’s also someone who guides and shapes human history as a force for good.  And his mission is going to continue to be just that, but we’re going to see exactly how much he has to sacrifice and the things he could have – things any one of us would want – but doesn’t because he chooses to fight for the rest of humanity. I think that makes him extremely noble and heroic in his own right.

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PREVIEWSworld: In the aftermath of Book of Death and the dawn of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior, what is the Eternal Warrior’s new mission? What has changed for him?

Robert Venditti: His new predicament – and where he is about to find himself at the opening of the series – is going to be his biggest priority. His main goal is to get back to Earth, and not just look after the Geomancer, but look after our world as well. He believes in humanity. He believes in what we can be. He’s spent his entire existence trying to mold that into something better, and he’s going to continue to do so, but he’s not going to be able to do that from the location where he finds himself at the opening of this series.

PREVIEWSworld
: With the Eternal Warrior removed from Earth and his usual environs, what kind of a supporting cast, if any, will he be encountering as his new quest begins?

Robert Venditti: Someone who has been around for thousands of years would have thousands of years’ worth of people he’s met, befriended, and fought against. One of the great assets of a character like Eternal Warrior is the ability to go back into history and see him not just in the present, but also who he was in prior times and how he evolved into who he is today. You’ll certainly be seeing all those characters – not just in terms of who he is friendly with, but also who his antagonists are and were. So really, he has a supporting cast as large as his lifespan. It’s a pretty extensive group of characters and we’ll be getting into a lot of them in the very first issue.

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Raul Allen Cover B
(SEP151653, $3.99)

PREVIEWSworld: To date, we’ve seen important locations beyond Earth like the Faraway, the planet Loam, and New Japan. What can you tell us about the setting of the new series and how important will it be to the Valiant Universe going forward?

Robert Venditti: All I can say is that it’s completely different from all the ones you mentioned. This is absolutely a setting we’ve never seen the Eternal Warrior encounter before and one that has never been seen in the entire history of Valiant. We’re building some new concepts and adding some new locations that are going to be sticking around for a very long time.

PREVIEWSworld
: What grounds your interpretation of a character like the Eternal Warrior? Is this new series rooted in fantasy? Mythology? Superheroes? Action? Or all of the above?

Robert Venditti: I don’t know – when you say fantasy, I think dragons and elves. There definitely isn’t going to be any of that. I would say that my approach to the character is going to be very rooted in history, but also building out the mythology of who he is and what it means to be immortal, and what exactly you have to go through and endure in order to be the Eternal Warrior. It’s going to be a look at immortality that I don’t think we’ve seen before, certainly not with any other character inside the Valiant Universe. We’re going to hit the ground running from the very opening pages of issue #1.

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PREVIEWSworld: Raul Allen has done phenomenal work on many Valiant covers in the past, but will be taking on full interior duties here for Wrath of the Eternal Warrior. What is he bringing to the page so far?

Robert Venditti: Every Valiant artist I’ve been lucky enough to work with so far brings their own brand of uniqueness to the page, and Raul is no different. He is wholly unto himself, and it’s really a joy to see what he does with the script. He approaches every page like it’s an individual art piece worthy of standing on its own, but then also works with twenty-one other art pieces to make a finished comic. It’s an approach to art that’s really exciting and fun to be on the inside of, and see how these things develop. The attention he brings to everything – whether it’s character design or setting design or layout of the page or composition of the panels I’ve really never had an experience like it. It’s a joy.

PREVIEWSworld
: Wrath of the Eternal Warrior is not your only upcoming milestone in the Valiant Universe. What is on the horizon for X-O Manowar in the buildup to issue #50?

Robert Venditti: What our readers are going to find is that the larger architecture of the series, all the way through those fifty-plus issues, is that they are all individual pieces of a much larger whole that all works together. Some of those threads were buried down pretty deep, but we’ve known all along that these things were going to be coming back around. My hope is that as we go towards #50, we’ll see all of those behind-the-scenes threads finally brought out into the light in a way that is satisfying and surprising to the readers.

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