Solid, Straight Up Storytelling

Some of the top Valiant talent came together to usher in this return of War Mother, and I was happy with the result. This TP includes War Mother #1-4 and 4001 A.D.: War Mother #1. It provides the reader with a solid background, a nice story arc, and the promise of more interesting developments to come.

The whole project, of course, turns on how you feel about our heroine. In this appearance she is smart, dedicated to her people, and lethal. She also has a sense of humor, a touch of heart, and a real personality. Ana is a strong heroine, tries to balance all of the demands made on her, and follows a strict and honorable moral compass. She is a unique character, genetically designed to play the role of War Mother, and every choice comes back to matters of duty and responsibility. (Actually, as I think about it, this is pretty much a gender bending retelling of "Wagon Train", with Ana as the trail boss. And I guess that isn't so surprising.)

Anyway, this isn't all, or even mostly, angst and darkness. There's some of that because drama and conflict keep the pages turning, but for the most part this is ripping alt-world adventure. The setting makes a reasonable degree of sense within the larger frame of the story, (post apocalypse tribal society eking out survival on an unfriendly world peppered with old and dangerous tech and weird enemies), the action makes as much sense as you could hope, and the dilemmas and choices posed by leadership and responsibility give the action angle some weight and direction.

There is passing reference in the blurbs to War Mother's "sentient sniper rifle". In fact this sentient sniper rifle gets all of the funniest deadpan throwaway lines and ends up as one of the more appealing and entertaining sidekicks I've encountered in a while. If you like the banter in Lente's "Archer
& Armstrong" that's more or less what you get here. And any book whose second best character is a talking rifle is going to be a good book.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

From the world of 4001 AD comes the story of War Mother. War Mother is the protector of her tribe and the grove where they live. She is made from inorganic material and because of that only she can go beyond the grove to scavage for the plastics and materials the tribe needs. Life is good and although she risks life and limb to scavage, she knows her tribe comes first and it does until one day she clashes with the tribal chief.

With the chief dead, War Mother is now in charge but the grove is dying. When a signal is received from a building deep in the forest it seems as if the people of the grove might have a new home and a chance to start over, but War Mother decides to check the place before the people move there. When War Mother goes to the new home an awful and violent being awaits her. With her trusty gun besides her, can War Mother survive this battle and lead her people to safety?

This is a good comic from the Valiant world especially if you like Rai or 4001 AD. This world was fairly new to me but I was able to get into the story quite quickly. The artwork is clear and bright as with all Valiant comics and the story is really interesting. It ends with a cliff hanger which will lead to the next comic issue. I have read Rai and some issues from 4001 AD but I didn't enjoy them that much. This book gripped me from the start and I shall definitely read the rest of the series.

A must for all Rai and 4001 AD fans.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I received a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. War Mother was beyond my expectations. The illustration of it only accentuated the story and pushed details to the service that one may otherwise overlook if they were reading a regular book. Ana, the War Mother, is in charge of bringing back the non-organic items her family need in order to service. They live in a world where foreign matter/DNA could spell trouble and not everyone can just go out and do what the War Mother does. Ana was designed to not be able to carry anything back inside her body. Because of this design, she is the only one that can withstand the environment outside of the compound her family/tribe have taken root. Sylvan, their leader, has strict rules for a reason. Bring nothing living back. Ana has followed this direction almost to a fault. It is when she happens upon a child stuck in debris that fell out of orbit from New Japan that she has to break the rules, just this once. Sylvan doesn't see her side of the coin and she is forced to choose between the child and her family. Not liking the odds, Ana makes a new choice for herself. Ana's choice has created a whole new role for her in the compound. She is their War Mother, harvester of non-organics and she is now their chieftain. A message is discovered at the same point that Ana realizes she cannot sustain the organic part of the compound like Sylvan did. He was part of it, connected to it. Ana decides to go and seek out New Montana and figure out if it really can sustain her people the way they need. Once she gets there, her automated assistant, Flaco, notices some differences in the structure. Ana gave the all good signal to her family and then everything goes to hell. Ana is captured by some kind of crazed system searching for individuals who meet the correct guidelines to live in New Montana. The creepy sentinels won't stop until they make sure that Ana has met their standards. Problem is, their standards are from a time that doesn't exist anymore. Ana is in a race to save her compound and warn them before they arrive so they aren't deemed monsters by the sentinels guarding New Montana. I don't want to give away too much but this was a really intense read for me. I couldn't get through it fast enough but also didn't want it to end. Amazingly done.

I really didn't care for this. The art was pretty good, but the story was mediocre at best. I think it struggled for a couple of reasons: one, the main character (the titular War Mother) and her sentient gun were ridiculously overpowered in combat. Two, the world building was rather vague and didn't answer any of the questions I had about it. It was vaguely reminiscent of something like Horizon Zero Dawn or some other post-apocalyptic story in which humanity is sent back to a sort of tribal social structure, but all of the reasoning of this post-destruction Earth was very confusing and unclear. I had a hard time following anybody's motivations because the world continued to feel very alien, even as the story came to a close.