"Last Days of the British Empire" by Warren Ellis (writing), Mike Wolfer (art), Juanmar (color) and others
Rating: Worth multiple reads.
I'm prejudiced, here. Warren Ellis is in my top 3 favorite authors; therefore, pretty much anything he writes goes into my pull box. (The other two? Peter David and Neil Gaiman.) I've been following this books since "Strange Kiss" and have greatly enjoyed William Gravel's evolution from black listed mercenary to King of Britain's Magicians.
This is the issue when It All Falls Apart. "Bible Jack" comes back with a vengeance, literally, knocking off the Minor Seven in less time than it took Gravel to do, back in the early parts of this story. Bible Jack takes aim at Gravel, attempting to destroy even person or thing that Gravel finds precious.
My only quibble with Gravel is that each issue feels too short. It's not; it's normal comics length. The style in this comic has the art telling the story as much as the words, which means that pages turn themselves quickly. This is a very visual book, much more so than a normal superhero book or a mystery book. With this story, I tend to read each issue two or three times, then put it away. When the individual story arcs are complete, I did the comics out and read the entire story from beginning to end.
(Episodic television? It would work quite nicely. I could see this as a BBC show, if they could somehow scrape up an adequate effects budget.)
The Minor Seven characters get two to three pages each to get destroyed, and most of that is the aforementioned visual stuff. The fight scenes don't have - and don't need - witty banter, threats, or bragging. They are quick, brutal, and violent - as I'd imagine real fights to be. Bible Jack does a masterful job at ending each person's life in an appropriate way, considering their individual magical powers.
I'm greatly looking forward to next issue's conclusion of this story. It's going to be a lot of fun, because Mr. Ellis did a wonderful job of setting up Bible Jack as being a disturbing, worthy adversary. Could the titular character be taken down? Perhaps...
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