Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #535900 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Spectacular Seven Save Civilization!!!! (Warning - GM modified superheroics)
Yes, more dense than a supermassive black hole, Grant Morrison destroys the universe of comics yet again with Seven Soldiers of Victory, an epic story about what it really means to be a real superhero. For those not-completely-obsessive comics fans who fear that a series that focuses on seven fairly old and/or obscure characters from the hitherto forgotten corners of the DC Universe might come across as being just another attempt to relaunch some old and slighty daft-looking costumes, throw aside those preconceptions - this is way more.

Morrison himself has described the concept of Seven Soldiers as being essentially a superhero version of a celebrity reality TV show, with various long-ignored and slightly useless costumed adventurers from yesteryear suddenly being dragged back into the limelight after years away and finally being given a chance to shine. And shine indeed they do, as Morrison begins to weave a typically complex web of a story that plays out across seven separate and interconnected character arcs. In descending order, this first volume introduces us to Shining Knight, a Tolkien-esque fairy-battling warrior accompanied by his talking horse Vanguard (and no, somehow this isn't at all silly) - The Manhattan Guardian, basically a new character in an old costume, whose name becomes fairly self-explanatory - Klarion the Witch-Boy, a sinister turquoise-skinned Puritan living in strange nether-kingdom - and Zatanna, a washed-up stage magician and former JLA-er, in therapy trying to cure her spell addiction.

This first collection sees Morrison skilfully balancing four wildly different storylines and sets of characters while at the same time laying the groundwork for the over-arcing story that will draw these disparate individuals together - some of this involving the Sheeda, an insect-like race of faerie-folk who certainly don't have humankind's best intentions at heart. And, staying away from any spoilers, I'm not giving anything away in pointing out that none of the seven core characters ever meet one another. Indeed, the premise is remarkably similar to the TV show Heroes - with the main difference being that Heroes is, while a perfectly decent show, almost completely devoid of any original ideas it hasn't nicked from the sort of comics Morrison and co. have been turning out for years.

While I admit to being a diehard fan of almost anything Mr. Grant has ever done, at times the maestro can be guilty of just having too many ideas and concepts for his own good - just witness The Filth, which was so bizarre and brainmangling nobody in creation understood a single word of it - but thankfully right from the off, Seven Soldiers makes sense, and doesn't disappoint. Also, don't worry if you don't possess geek-degree-level knowledge of sixty-odd years of DC history and continuity - you won't need it at all, as Morrison's skill at immediately grounding potentially absurd characters in acute and realistic emotional reality is in full effect here. Also, a couple of moments in this opening volume feel strongly reminiscent of certain moments from The Invisbles; Zatanna's perspective-warping magical journey brings us back to key Morrisonian ideas about time, space,and the multi-dimensional nature of the universe, while Guardian's shamanic underground journey almost intentionally references elements of Invisibles's 'Down And Out In Heaven And Hell' - again, as in much of Morrison's work, many grand notions about the mythic journey of the Hero and the possiblity that one person's actions can genuinely alter and change the world for good or bad are consistently and subtly examined here. Essentially, if you appreciated Morrison's sterling work on The Invisibles and especially Doom Patrol - probably his two most mature and artistically satisfying longer titles - Seven Soldiers at time feels like a fabulously emotive and mystically-attuned continuation of those two works.

And if at any point you find yourself baffled by various twists and turns, it also helps that the art is universally gorgeous throughout all four volumes, with special mention going to former 2000AD stalwart Frazer Irving's fantastically Hammer-Horror-y depiction of Klarion's underground realm. Heck, if you've read this far and you've never read a comic before in your life, buy all four volumes of Seven Soldiers, read them, and learn some new things about how powerful this silly medium of coloured-in picture books can be. As Orion of the New Gods might sum up, `PUNY MORTALS! All hail the GRANT MORRISON! Lo, Surely the MIGHTY POWER of the ASTRO-FORCE floods through his very FINGERTIPS!!!'

But failing al that, the book is surely worth it for some choice one-liners, my favourite coming from apprentice witch Misty Kilgore at the top of Page 205 - `YAAAH! SHAPELESS THING ALERT!'

another ambitious morrison project
I picked this up having read a few other grant morrison books. Whilst i love his style and delivery and the complex nature of his storylines, there is a slight problem after a while.....

you get used to them.

Thankfully this series is a bit fresher and brings somethign new to the table.

It arrived yesterday and i sat down meaning to get a quick sample read in, only to stand up a couple of hours later, having ploughed my way through it.

Like all morrison stuff its not immediately accessible, but if you persevere its worth it.

Total Morrison Satisfaction
I'm a fan of the Invisibles, The Filth, Animal Man and Morrison's X-Men, but I'm always prepared to be disappointed by favourite authors. That made it all the more satisfying to receive this graphic novel for Christmas and to read it with great enjoyment and "Morrison-type" satisfaction. Seven Soldiers is almost a new and "smoothed-out" Invisibles. Many who may have been put off by the almost Burroughs-type behaviour of the Invisibles plotting will not have such a problem with Seven Soldiers. I think it can be enjoyed both by the Invisibles-wierdo type reader (like me!) and the more traditional comic reader.

It just makes me so happy to pick up and read a comic like this.