Valiant Entertainment 2017
Written by Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by Stephen Segovia
Coloured by Elmer Santos & Andrew Dalhouse
Lettered by Dave Sharpe
Ana — a.k.a. War Mother — is protector of the Grove and its people. As chief warrior and resource-collector for the city, she always had a violent, difficult job. But since the Grove’s cruel ruler, Sylvan, was struck down, things have become tougher. Ana is now the Grove’s leader, but the town has fallen on hard times, with food and resources scarce…
I like this character but I always want her to be someone else, that fighter that I want to call the Warmonger. The eternal chick who fought various teams of Unity over the centuries I hope the right character there. So now that that’s off my chest let’s get onto the issue at hand shall we.
So this ties into the whole 4001 deal, meaning that when it’s set. So there’s still a possibility of tying her to those we saw in Rai. So the world is in total disarray and really is rife for exploration. Leave it to the War Mother to be the one who introduces us to life beyond the grove in this era. So we have been introduced to the Grove but if this is your introduction to the character and her world no matter because Fred does a nice job reminding us all what’s come before and how we got to this place.
This issue opens up a new world of possibilities. From the location that we see her in/at and what that could be for her people is pretty darn nice to see. Fred’s great at this though he can bring you into the story see where the character is going and let you use your own imagination to flesh it all out. Of course you come back because you want to see how closely you came to seeing what he does with it. Of course in order for all that to happen we have to deal with the current situation.
Stephen does a great job on the interiors here. Also the colouring where it’s softer showing us different aspects, ways of seeing what’s going on and the inherent feelings that evokes is extremely well done. The use of page layouts are done nicely and that we see such a nice use of angles, perspective and the utilisation of backgrounds really does wonders in fleshing out the bigger picture here.
Fred also kind of surprised me a bit with this one as well. Before War Mother could take her symbiotic gun and leave the Grove, again, we see how and why she had to leave it. With the events of the previous story become more and more a reality people are ready to leave the Grove. Having never left it’s walls before that’s more dangerous than helpful and more so since the signal they are currently receiving seems to be a new beacon of hope.
Nothing is ever going to be what it appears to be. In comics more so than in real life and there are people, travelers and threatening species more alien and dangerous than most imagine. The creativity and imagination on display all around is what makes this one of those books you should be picking up!