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Revisiting post 1, page 1:
A devastating global threat is on its way — one never imagined nor prepared for. It consumes entire civilizations and leaves behind only ruins. It razed Camelot and bombed the Rama kingdoms back to dirt. It strip-mines and enslaves whole cultures. Its hunger is unstoppable; its origins, unspeakable. Now this devouring empire of cruelty-without-limits has set its sights on the treasures of the 21st century.
Like a plague of locusts, the terrifying Sheeda are returning to harvest the Earth. All that stands between our world and these destroyers are the mysterious "Seven Soldiers" of legend. Seven men and women with extraordinary abilities and big problems must lay their lives on the line for the future of humankind. Seven reluctant champions must arise and somehow work together to save the world...without ever meeting one another. How? Where? Who? There's only one way to find out.
I don't think this awe-inspiring horror, and the scale of the threat the Sheeda are meant to pose, have really been evident in most of the 7S books.
Off the top of my head -- 7S #0, Guardian #4, Shining Knight #1 and at a push Bulleteer #3 are the only episodes I remember where the Sheeda even approach this kind of terrifying presence as all-consuming conquerors of humankind.
There is little sense that the characters have had to "arise", let alone "work together" against this enemy so far. They've all gone through an important cycle in their own lives, so in a broader sense I'd accept that they do "arise", but I think it's also fair to say that the blurb above suggests a more specific taking up of arms against the Sheeda.
In an ambitious new storytelling venture, writer Grant Morrison and a group of top artists combine their talents to redefine the super-hero concept for a new century. Entertainers, losers, victims, exiles, wannabes...the stars of SEVEN SOLDIERS are a long way from anyone's ideal of a traditional costumed hero. But they just may be our only chance of survival.
I'd credit the series with success as far as this paragraph goes. Perhaps that's what it's done best -- effectively and swiftly create new niches of superheroism, based around subgenres and unexpected archetypes, and gift us with glimpses into some extraordinary (memorable, complicated, often quite loveable) people's lives.
Who lives? Who dies? Who washes the dishes? Who betrays humankind to its once and future Enemy? Get the answers to these questions and many more
Weeell... I don't know if we'll find out about the dishes, but the three key questions are still waiting to be answered, with I think 29 books down, and only one to go. And it's not as if we have any real idea who should live or die, or turn traitor. There's no obvious clue to any of those answers. I tend to feel there should be, by now; there should be some seed of betrayal in there, somewhere, surely?
The SEVEN SOLDIERS saga comprises seven 4-issue miniseries and two bookend Specials — all which may be read independently but combine to tell a colossal 30-part tale of death, betrayal, failure, joy, loss, romance, triumph and redemption. As a new generation of super-heroes grapples with a harsher, weirder world, Morrison combines dazzling super-hero action and serial fiction with horror, mystery, epic fantasy and gothic pulp to carve out a new corner in the DCU.
Again, to be fair I'd give the series an ovation for its achievements on these terms.
With a gigantic, interweaving cast of characters—many drawn from DC's incomparable history and reimagined by Morrison and his collaborators—Including vampire knights, crippled ex-super-heroes, subway pirates, puritan death machines, liquid nitrogen-blooded assassins, deathless Mafia dons, wounded gods, angry fiancées and talking winged horses, the universe of the Seven Soldiers is rich in wonder, drama and hardcore action.
This groundbreaking mega-series begins with a 38-page complete adventure, SEVEN SOLDIERS #0, that introduces readers to their twilight world and establishes plotlines that will reverberate throughout the entire megaseries.
Hmm. Well, those plotlines have directly touched on the episodes that heavily featured the Sheeda (I mentioned those I could remember, above) and on the Guardian flashback episodes (again, #4) and the Bulleteer report on the last seven soldiers (again, #3), but I'm not sure how much those plotlines reverberate through Klarion, Mister Miracle or Frankenstein (#1-3).
I'm not being too picky, I hope. I think Morrison has built some great characters and casts, and has really scored in creating subgeneric worlds for each title, with a different voice, tone and style for each. Each title is like an immersion in a vivid, detailed story-sphere.
But whether they interlock and overlap as much as (I think) was offered at the start... I'm not yet convinced. |
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