ETERNAL WARRIOR: ETERNAL EMPEROR VOLUME 2: ETERNAL EMPEROR PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Diego Bernard,Robert Gill,Greg Pak | 112 pages | 08 Jul 2014 | Valiant Entertainment | 9781939346292 | English | New York, United States Eternal Warrior Vol 2 | Valiant Comics Database | Fandom It is bar none, the best Eternal Warrior story ever told. He has been trying to reach this point for so long, it is effectively heartbreaking to see it stripped from him as the story progresses. Pak has scripted a cinematic experience; a Mad Max by way of The Lord of The Rings that kicks off with a scene very reminiscent of the beginning to Princess Mononoke. That is to say, it is instantly alluring, begging you to explore this unfamiliar setting with a Gilad that is twenty times more likable than his more rage-driven, conflicted younger self. At its heart, Eternal Emperor is a quest of reflection and acceptance that Pak has operatically structured. After a mechanical beast attacks his small village community, resulting in exposing all who dwell there to fatal levels of radiation, Gilad and his granddaughter, Caroline who was exposed as well , venture forth in search of medication. We follow our protagonists from one place to another, unraveling the mystery of what this world is and how it came to be, as it plays out like a fairy tale a horrifically violent one, sure or more accurately, The Wizard of Oz. These four issues are poetic in their simple, straightforward presentation of a formidable grandfather-granddaughter tandem moving from point to point to accomplish their stated objective, meeting allies and foes along the way, but ruminating under the surface until the very end is the ultimate futility of their quest, and what it means to come to peace with it. Robert Gil ensures that this, the greatest Eternal Warrior story ever told, is also the best looking Eternal Warrior story ever drawn. Its ornate backgrounds, the elaborately detailed horror of the cities and the vivid lushness of nature are all so convincingly alive and real. Nothing is obscured under the weight of heavy inks or enveloped in shadows, no; everything is flayed open sometimes quite literally for your eye to absorb. Long ago, the Viking warrior Mog has a wife Nin a woman with one green eye and one brown eye and three sons: Gilad, Ivar and Aram. Mog discovers a special herb he believes is connected to the gods. Calling it the Bloom , Mog shares it with their young sons, who begin growing rapidly and show increased physical abilities. Consuming the plant regularly, Mog gains a form of immortality and begins to hear voices he thinks are gods telling him it is his destiny to dominate Earth. When Nin shows concern for him, Mog decides she is jealous of his power and stabs her fatally. To save his mother, Ivar pushes her into the river where the Bloom plant was found. Mog destroys his village in a rage, then continues pursuing murder and conquest over the centuries. Eventually, he gains enough control over his rage to act clandestinely when he must. Nin, transformed by the Bloom, repeatedly confronts Mog, becoming his Immortal Enemy. Reaching adulthood, Mog's sons realize they are ageless and nearly invulnerable. Working against threats to humanity, they become known as the Eternal Warriors. As the centuries go on, the three Eternal Warriors occasionally choose those they deem worthy to become immortal as well, sharing the Bloom with them. Those chosen become known as the Forever Family , and together they and mortal allies work in secret to fight evil and influence humanity for the better. The three Eternal Warriors also earn individual titles among the Forever Family. Ivar, who discovers how to fold time and travel through the sub-dimension of "netherspace," earns the title Timewalker. Gilad becomes known as Warmaster. Ivar later implies he was also the man called Judas Iscariot in the New Testament , and that he kept only one of the 30 pieces of silver as a reminder of the betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth. In the modern-day, the Eternal Warriors have a hidden community in the Palazzo base in Rome that includes the Forever Family, several human allies, and the Neo-Vals, the last surviving descendants of the original Vikings. One of their own betrays the other immortals, destroying their bodies so catastrophically they do not survive. He considers using a powerful "Harvest Device" to wipe out all life on the planet while he, the Forever Family, and their allies remain hidden and safe. Then they will emerge and restart society on Earth. Believing this plan is too extreme, Aram defies Gilad and disrupts the operation. The brothers eventually soon work together again against threats such as the corrupt organization Blackworks, whose leader Donald Kelvin discovers Mog. The father of the Eternal Warriors uses Blackworks resources to wage war, demanding leadership of the Forever Family and domination of Earth. To fight Mog, Ivar frees his imprisoned mother Nin. After several battles, Mog is defeated and the Eternal Warriors decide their efforts to help humanity have caused as much harm as good. They disband the Forever Family and go their separate ways. Six thousand years ago in the ancient Mesopotamian city-state of Ur, Gilad Anni-Prada is a normal man with two older brothers, Ivar the engineer and Aram "the strong," and a younger sister Vexana. A fearsome warrior, Gilad spends time with wild beasts in order to learn their ways of hunting and killing. One day, the three brothers journey into the strange realm of Utnapishtim, also called "the Faraway. They take the machine but Gilad is fatally wounded. Ivar and Aram return to Ur and Vexana is grief-stricken, leaving Gilad's deathbed and fleeing the city. Ivar believes the Boon can restore Gilad and activates it with Aram. The Boom drains the life force from the thousands who inhabit Ur and a massive explosion occurs, the Great Cataclysm. All those in Ur and the surrounding areas are killed, the city now in ruins. As a result, Gilad is not only resurrected, he and his two brothers are now immortals with enhanced bodies and minds though the scars on Gilad's face remain. The three brothers eventually go their separate ways, with Ivar becoming the Timewalker and Aram later adopting the name Armstrong. Vexana is also killed by the blast but then resurrected by dark spirits that grant her immortality and the ability to warp emotions. Seeing her home destroyed, Vexana worries her survival means she might be responsible for the Great Cataclysm. She leaves, her grief blocking out much of her memory and warping her mind. She becomes the War-Monger, a self-styled "agent of chaos" sparking conflicts around the world. At times she comes into conflict with her brothers but does not recognize them. Gilad Anni-Padda becomes one of the greatest warriors on the planet. Over time, he regularly works with Earth's Geomancers who tell him of threats he must stop. The Geomancers insist that without Gilad's help, Earth will fall out of balance. In Ancient Mesopotamia, Gilad leads his forces against cult followers of the death god Nergal. Gilad's daughter Xaran joins the battle. Against her father's wishes, and arguing that it is a weakness to not use the methods of their enemies, Xaran not only kills soldiers but also targets the cult's women and children as well. When her brother Mitu tries to stop her, Xaran kills him and then battles Gilad next, who seemingly kills her instead. Following this, Gilad continues to fight for the Earth alongside the Geomancers, but now has grave misgivings. By the Middle Ages, Gilad wonders if his actions and battles have all been meaningless. In in Iran, Gilad joins forces with his brother Armstrong against the Null, a cult that worships entropy and nothingness. Along with many warriors and agents, the Null has a living algorithm "an ancient artificial intelligence" that infects the mind of a person, destroying their personality and using the host body to become a deadly agent. This entity that constantly infects new host bodies is called "the Immortal Enemy" by the story, though Gilad refers to it as "the Last Enemy. When a Geomancer tells Gilad to kill a woman and her child because their lives will lead to a rise in evil, he refuses. Abdicating his post as the Fist and Steel of Earth, he decides he will choose his battles on his own terms. During World War I, Gilad becomes the leader of "Unit Y," a task force made of British and American fighters that took on special missions deemed too risky or dangerous for standard military units. During the war, they fought War-Monger, imprisoning her in a sealed tomb though an earthquake freed her twenty years later. With the exception of Gilad, the entire team lost their lives towards the end of the war, sacrificing themselves to stop a mustard gas weapon. After returning home, Gilad suggested that the Unit Y program not be abandoned and might be needed in the future. Later similar groups are known simply as the "Unity" team, and there is another group later called "United. Gilad continues fighting evil, working for MI-6 for a time to protect Alan Turing, and later attempting to protect JFK from assassination. When his brother Armstrong and the young warrior Obadiah Archer stop an evil cult called the Sect from reactivating the Boon, a Geomancer is killed in the process. Sensing the death, Gilad attempts to take vengeance on Archer and Armstrong before being convinced to stop by the new Geomancer.