The portal to the demon world continues to open, and Hadiyah has still yet to convince the legendary Great Warrior to join in her quest to close it. Leo also finds herself learning more of the Great Warrior’s past as secrets are revealed and some of the most adorable action is executed. This is Madeline Flores’s world and it’s fantastic.
Written by Madeline Flores
Illustrated by Madeline Flores and Trillian GunnWhile Leo and Hadiyah butt heads over Great Warrior’s responsibility to the realm, the mystery behind why Great Warrior doesn’t want to fight the demon currently threatening her world deepens.
I don’t think there has been any other hero so reluctant to answer a call to action than the Great Warrior. Since Hadiyah first showed up at the start of this series, the Great Warrior has had a red-flag-raising reluctance to join in this epic quest to close the demon portal. Over the course of the series, we’ve learned thousands of years ago, the Great Warrior was actually the hero who separated the demons from the human world and I think it’s here that we realize we don’t know all that much about the Great Warrior herself. We’ve seen the villagers blindly trust her and throw parties in her honor, we’ve seen her hold her own in a fight, but we’ve never seen anything to give her motivation, or, more accurately, to explain her lack of motivation. In this issue of “Help Us! Great Warrior,” Madeline Flores answers some questions and turns up the investment level to 11.
For all the craziness and insanity, “Help Us! Great Warrior” has struck me as a remarkably quiet book. Yes, it’s brimming with energy and action, and you feel the images moving and breathing on the page: the characters spinning and the monsters stomping. There are dynamic and vibrant action sequences as the Great Warrior jumps into the melee. (This time for real reasons, not because some obstinate beast knocked a slice of cake out of her hands.) And there’s the foreboding sense that the world is ending, but overall, this book seems quieter, more intimate, and I think that helps sell this book’s heart. Flores obviously grew up reading a lot of manga, watching a lot of anime, and playing a lot of Final Fantasy, so the battles aren’t so much superhero slugfests, but these, like, far more choreographed numbers with the characters in frequent ballet stances holding their weapons.
As the series gets further and further in, Flores seems to grow more assured in her storytelling capabilities. “Help Us! Great Warrior” has always been charming, but I feel it’s sometimes struggled to break out from the single-page comic strip gags of its initial run. Now, Flores throws in 30 Rock ready side-flashes, some really fun match transitions, and an overall keen sense of staging and pacing. The Great Warrior’s simple bean-like design helps make the more elaborate demons all the more terrifying with their reptilian snots and smoky eyes, and it helps sell the danger and horror of these things.There’s a cartoon vibrancy to the story, a focus on movement and gorgeous backgrounds; the ink lines are thick and brushy, but they also compliment Trillian Gunn’s color scheme, which favors a lot of watercolors and dream pastels-inspired work. It all comes to help make this book so friggin enjoyable.
Since Flores’s layouts hinge toward larger paneling and her hand-lettered font eats up a lot of the page space, so she needs to find all these ways to characterize her cast, which she finds through their movements and interactions with each other. They’re expressive and kinetic and for their relatively simple designs, she takes the time to have them in unique postures and poses. The rando meat berry peddler waves his arms around in an entirely different way than the Great Warrior herself, and you can feel where they’re both coming from.
The most, maybe the only, disappointing thing about this book is that goes so fast. Each issue, so far, has taken me less than ten minutes to get through, and Flores’s chapter stops hit right at the moment the book seems to truly be settling into itself. I guess you could call it investment in the story, but I think Flores’s rhythms and beats would benefit from a longer canvas. She lets herself build up to these moments, to these big reveals, or all the characters coming together for a boss battle, but then page 22 comes around and she has to abruptly end it.
But other than that, this book has proven itself to be not only incredibly charming and fun, but clever and energetic as well. Flores is throwing everything she can to make this as enjoyable and fantastic as possible, and for the most part, I think it’s truly paying off.
Final Verdict: 8.2 – Funny and chipper and animated, “Help Us! Great Warrior” has some wonderfully delivered action sequences, great gags, and a satisfyingly melodramatic twist. A small gem of a book.
