Written by Joe Keatinge
Illustrated by Ross Campbell“ONCE AND FUTURE,” Part One
EXTREME’S ORIGINAL WARRIOR GODDESS RETURNS!
After missing for almost a decade, Glory’s whereabouts are uncovered by a lone reporter, but the globe-spanning conspiracy keeping her hidden from humanity could make her return more dangerous than anyone ever anticipated! This first issue of an brand-new saga written by Eisner & Harvey-award winner JOE KEATINGE and illustrated by Wet Moon and Shadoweyes creator ROSS CAMPBELL sets up Glory’s future by expanding on her past in a way promising to shock long-time fans and excite all-new readers!
As we enter 2012, we get to look forward to many things in the world of comics. Amongst those is the Eric Stephenson-helmed Extreme Studios relaunch from Image Comics, taking some defunct Liefeld properties from the 90’s and reinvigorating them with brand new creative teams to reimagine and breathe new life into the line for a new generation of readers.
We’ve already taken a look at the first title of the relaunch, Prophet, and came out of it unabashed fanatics. Today we look at the second title of the relaunch: Glory.
Check behind the cut for spoiler-free thoughts on Glory #23, out next month (February 15th, to be exact).
First things first, as we stray from the review angle and editorialize a bit: Prior to the announcement in October at NYCC, Rob Liefeld’s Extreme properties were not anything I was overly familiar with. Sure, I’d heard the stories and whispers in the winds of these titles and their bygone era, but in my younger and more venerable years I was generally too concerned with what Spider-Man was doing to really pay attention to the larger world around me (much to the chagrin of my local comic guy who hated my boring pull, and my parents who just wanted me to do something else that didn’t involve them paying for it so often).
To that end, the Extreme Studios relaunch essentially provides to me the same open door that DC’s New 52 had hoped to do for an entirely different audience of readers. Where I was familiar with the DC characters and therefore largely unmoved about much of the relaunch, every title from the Extreme Studios relaunch can be approached as a truly brand new comic to me — and I can’t imagine I’m alone in this. With this entire endeavor, Image essentially has the perfect opportunity to revitalize a lost franchise, and has the perfect market to do it in with an audience hungry for new characters and a different kind of story.
I suppose this is where Glory comes in, boot kicked high in the face of some Nazi punk, which now brings us to the review.
In many ways, Glory is the quintessential superhero story that we all know and love: warrior princess helps save humanity in time of need, has lots of crazy and unbelievable adventures, then is lost to the wind. On first read, the book feels somewhat like a song you’ve heard before, with the verse and chorus you remember always loving but haven’t fully devoted a good listen to in some time. And, just like a great song you’re hearing again for the first time, what ultimately helps Glory sing are all the little ticks, tweaks and dit-da-doo’s by the new band of Keatinge and Campbell.
So with Glory #23 (or Glory v2 #1, depending on how you want to look at it), everything old is new again. Glory, for those unfamiliar, is a half-Amazon, half-Demon warrior princess who left home to join the world of man and fight for the allies in the second World War. Having exciting adventures with other Liefeld characters like Supreme, Glory has gone the way of the dodo — which in turn brings us to Riley, and where Keatinge and Campbell’s new/old old/new song begins to swing into focus, as Riley lives in the present and is attempting to uncover whatever happened to the heroine of yesterday. While I won’t say more than this, the future path of the book is quite clear, and it is assuredly a road worth traveling down.
Continued belowGlory is certainly familiar, in a way. Without naming names yet not being overly coy, the name of another famous Amazon princess comes to mind quickly when reading the book; such is the burden from the comparative nature of media and certain somewhat circular elements of stories. Yet, despite all this, Glory – who at first glance seems like an amalgamated archetype – very much comes into her own by the end of the book. What the book does to stray from stereotypes of superhero fiction is give us the personal, human view. The book regales stories of Glory and her relevance almost like a college thesis, never questioning her importance or reality, and with this “tell over show” mentality Glory breaks traditional conventions. Through this, we learn more about Glory than we ever could from simply watching her kick a Nazi in the face (which, to be fair, is plenty awesome), and thus a new star is born out of the ashes of an older one.
All things considered, this first issue is quite a show of force from Joe Keatinge. As his first major issue of 2012, the book finds Keatinge clearly taking everything he learned during his time in comics and using it for good over evil. Abstaining from the atypical and leaning the book in a new direction, Keatinge’s revitalization of Glory is the exact kind of book you would hope to see from a relaunch; it’s the epitome of “new reader friendly” (an ideal oft sought yet a mark so frequently missed), both retelling Glory’s origin and recounting a few past adventures in quaint fashion, as Keatinge finds ways to familiarize leaders with the heroine without dragging the story down with bland soliloquy. In so any words, it is readily apparent that Keatinge understands that it is unnecessary to bring the gods down to us, but rather ultimately more important to bring us to the gods, and through the character of Riley you will ultimately feel more than familiar with Gloriana Demeter and her importance within a fictional universe by the time you put down the book.
Maintaining Quitely-esque figures and lush layouts throughout the title, Ross Campbell’s art mixes with Keatinge’s words for quite an enticing cocktail of a title. The two go great together, with Campbell more than bringing to life colossal demonic battles in unision with the quiet and more poignant scenes. With the cover alone, Campbell proves that he is a man unafraid to turn it up and bring the noise, and he certainly injects the warrior straight into the veins of the book. Yet with Campbell’s art, it is often the little things that ultimately speak the loudest: a wrapped scarf here, a quaint facial expression there, or a tiny yet important moment captured in a brief panel. While the chaos of battles certainly let Campbell show off his arsenal, where Glory ultimately succeeds the most visually is when the real exists in tandem with the marvelous, and Glory’s job as a role model and someone to look up to is most apparent.
As a fan of superheroes always looking for new characters to follow, saying I’ve come out of Glory as a fan is an understatement. If I had to pitch Glory to someone completely unfamiliar with the character, her book and the endeavor behind her return, it would be this: Glory is a book whose heart was always on the tip of your tongue, yet you never could remember the name until the book was in your hands. Now that it is, that same satisfied rush that comes with remembrance and familiarity overcomes you, and you can’t help but be excited at the prospect of a new future, even when the past seems familiar. If this and Prophet are any indication of what Image’s Extreme relaunch will be, things are looking to be quite a banner year for Image Comics — and if this one issue of Glory is any indication of what to expect from Joe Keatinge throughout the year, then look no further for your new favorite Image writer.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Go on. Give it a go. Fuck Wonder Woman, read this!
