Gravel #0
Gravel #0
Writer(s): Warren Ellis & Mike Wolfer
Artist: Raulo Caceres
Publisher: Avatar Press
So per usual one day I randomly started looking at what was stocked indie-wise in a comic shop….lo and behold I saw a cover that looked a little rough and had the name Warren Ellis on it, so of course, I picked the mother up.
First off, after finishing this title…I just gotta say….ads put at the end of a comic are, and will always be, a good thing, fuck DC and fuck Marvel, if you want a good story that doesn't have it's flow ruined with ads about cars or some other such nonsense indie titles are where it's at. Now that I got that outta the way, this comic is good. I'd go so far as to say really good. Warren Ellis begins the issue with a prisoner on camera ala terrorists doing a video-tapped execution. Just as they are about to slit the prisoners' throat some invisible force starts beating the friggin crap out of them. I am talking smashing skulls, blood flying, etc, etc. The unseen force tells the prisoner to get going, that the way should be clear all the way back to his camp. We see a cigarette lighted in one panel, dialogue dripping with darkness as he takes care of the last terrorist. This is our hero, Gravel.
Sergeant Major William Gravel, SAS is a "Combat Magician" one of the minor seven in Britain originally, who has come back to find himself ousted from the group of magicians replaced by some punk named Simon Shiranian who looks like a Dracula reject. Apparently while Gravel has been away busting heads Simon found some magical hoo-dad to elevate his status in the magician community and take the presumed-dead Gravel's place in the minors.
Ellis writes a tale that is both filled with interesting characters and a plot that moves along at enough of a pace that each turn of the page has your mouth watering. Magicians lately have become more and more common place in comics and I think it's safe to assume that they are likely to become this year's new "zombie" craze but, that is not to downplay the worth of this comic. Ellis in combination with Wolfer writes a nice little preview issue of a promising series to come.
The art is reminiscent of scenes from Robertson's work on The Boys and yet has a bit of a stylized feel seen in Mignola's BPRD. I don't entirely love this style of art but, I am at the same time not exactly hating Caceres style either…I imagine it'll be like She-Hulk to me, eventually it'll just grow on me
So, my overall feel on it is read this sucker. I am not saying this is the greatest thing I've ever read, cough Green Lantern cough, to get out a "great" from me would require either Geoff Johns or large amounts of liquor and even then its iffy but, it is Ellis and if the man's previous work, (Nextwave, Transmetropolitan, Global Frequency, etc) indicates anything, at most you'll get an interesting story, at least you'll get a dark chuckle. So ends my semi-incoherent ramblings. B+
