Valiant’s constant effort to keep their lineup of series new and innovative is one of the many refreshing things about the company. “War Mother” was an excellent spinoff character from previous crossover series “4001 AD” that has been exploring the aforementioned future setting and character. The start of the series has been of middling quality, but I have faith that the team are just building up synergy. Let’s see if this issue is evident of that.
Written by Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by Stephen Segovia
Colored by Andrew Dalhouse
Lettered by Dave SharpeAtomic assault! As the monstrosities of 41st century Earth besiege her new homeland, War Mother must lock and load for a no-holds-barred fight to the death against the Cleansed! With the clock ticking toward zero, the fate of Ana’s people – and humanity’s last best shot at restoring order to a world gone awry – now hangs in the balance… Out of the pages of BOOK OF DEATH and 4001 A.D., New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (ARCHER & ARMSTRONG) and explosive artist Stephen Segovia (NINJAK) blast ahead for the thrilling climax of War Mother’s first-ever, much-demanded solo series… and herald the coming of a new legend for the Valiant Universe’s apocalyptic future!
“War Mother” #4 serves as a pretty good resolution/denouement to the opening arc, having Ana work almost detective like in figuring out the mystery of the mansion. It’s an idea of the character that Van Lente has had running through the first few issues, but now feels more harmonious as Ana has resolved her problems with what’s essentially her AI butler. Van Lente establishes through the conflict with Ana and her doppelgänger what the clear idea behind her character is, as a kind of matriarchal Batman that proactively seeks to protect her tribe. It makes the narrative work with clarity, and sets up future storylines to make more sense than the first few issues did. The difference is, Ana’s human side, her ‘mother’ side, is more prevalent and makes her more sympathetic. Ana’s effective, but we see the worry residing within her that she might not succeed, making her more desperate and more willing to go further than the typical vigilante as she almost completely obliterates the Montana house.
Van Lente uses this as an interesting springboard for future stories in the 4001 AD universe. While this may be the end of the “War Mother,” and Van Lente ties up all Ana’s plot threads pretty well in this arc, there still seems to be plenty of plot seeds left for other writers to explore in this setting. But it’s a shame as in this issue, Van Lente has essentially downplayed Ana’s role in the overall Valiant universe. What started as a thoroughly interesting character has essentially been stripped down, becoming simply Mother and dropping the War after this issue. It’s a good show of character development in Western comics, which doesn’t happen too often, but I just feel like we never got enough time with Ana to let her speed off to this phase of her life so quickly.
The real draw for me is how Van Lente builds upon the already interesting world of 4001 AD in the Valiant Universe. We get a lot of worldbuilding on how the technology functions with Flaco the AI and the smartgunk that the mansion AI was using to shapeshift the house. We also get a little bit of outside perspective on how the architecture and landscape of Earth looks in this era, with the mansion building looking like an overgrown 21st century office building, and The Grove evolving once again into a harmony of almost Grecian architecture and post-apocalyptic overgrown flora. We’ve never had such a thorough look into the Earth below the floating Human society in this era of the Valiant Universe, and it’s one of the things that makes it, and the characters it houses so compelling, so hats off to Van Lente for making it an exciting playground.
Valiant’s house art style seems to embody a good balance between the Hollywood style cinematic art and a modern sketch heavy classic art style. Stephen Segovia represents this well. The linework has a smooth, sleek inking style that amps up the futuristic setting of it. Extrapolating that further, Segovia has a good eye for combining the excess of 90s futuristic weaponry with modern Star Wars like aesthetic. Ana carries a ridiculously proportioned rifle that is satisfying as much as it is impractical, but Segovia draws it with a very 21st century sleekness to it. You get this in even more excess when we see Ana’s doppleganger transform all her limbs into guns. Again, it’s excessive, but it’s so much fun to watch and without the hacky crosshatching of 90s Marvel.
Continued belowIn terms of emotive facial work, Segovia does a fantastic job at bringing Ana to life. There’s a lot of panels where Ana’s face is cast in shadow, emphasising the ‘War’ aspect of her title and bringing out the badass within, but there’s an equal amount of moments where she looks refreshingly normal. When Ana is monologuing down to the transformed Sylvan doppleganger, she looks at her full of spite and anger, losing her cool somewhat. But in the following page, she’s gripped with fear; when talking with her husband she looks calm and intrigued, and when talking to the new Sylvan about ‘mature ideas,’ she looks wry and mischievous. However, I can’t say that a lot of the other cast have the same amount of complexity or depth. Most of the characters — the doppleganger, Ana’s husband and the captured children — only really get one emotion that’s repeated ad nauseam, being either anger or fear or a mixture of both. It’s a shame because it almost feels like Ana is interacting with a dollhouse, but I’m glad Segovia goes to the effort of fleshing her out.
In terms of coloring, Andrew Dalhouse goes for a more muted palette, still using lots of shiny lighting to convey the futuristic element of the issue, but feeling overall gritty. The most we get for this issue is a swab of dark blue and purple hues that mainly appear whilst the conflict with Ana’s doppleganger goes down. The coloring is at it’s most exciting when it challenges this, when Ana bursts into a room to save the captured kids, she’s highlighted by the superheating of her gun melting the wall. It does however make the ending resolution more satisfying, as the palette becomes bright and vibrant once again. It’s the most satisfying as we see the Grove change and become more encumbered by vegetation, with the final panel switching from dark blues to a bright, optimistic green palette. It’s an interesting way to build the reader up, and is subtle yet effective in conveying ideas to the audiences.
“War Mother” #4 concludes an interesting spinoff on an excellent character spawned from a just-okay crossover. It sets up an interesting status quo for the future universe of Valiant, while bringing together and progressing the plot threads of Ana, our titular character. It may not be the most interesting of conclusions, but at least Van Lente, Segovia, Dalhouse, and co. work to give it a solid resolution.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – A mellow conclusion for one of Valiant’s best characters that sets up interesting things for Valiant’s 41st century future.
