Seven Soldiers of Victory vol 4 (DC/Vertigo – Morrison /Mahnke / Williams / Paquette / Bair) I’m taking a break from sifting through the Motor City stuff to tell you about this trade I read last weekend. Last Christmas break I read Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol 1-3 and was spellbound and could not wait for the fourth volume to be available. In this series Grant Morrison, through his character development and unexpected plot lay-out once again proves is one of the greatest storytellers of this generation . The story opens with an interdimensional, time-travelling dark-fairy alien race looking to enslave earth and all of it’s citizens, the only problem is that according to the prophetic beliefs of this race, a group of seven will stop them. So, they travel throughout history killing heroic groups of seven. As it turns out, The Seven Soldiers of Victory (Bulleteer, Zantanna, Frankenstein, Klarion, the Manhattan Guardian, The Shining Knight and Mister Miracle) are able to stop the alien race, but only because while they are working together in the common good, sharing their clan destined goals, they only have a slight glimmer of who each other is and hardly interact with each other at all and never in a large group. Morrison does an incredible job of telling each of the stories in a different way, using a different voice and style. You really start to care about some of the D-list characters (one of Morrison’s many talents). This four volume set of trades is a collection of the 30-part series (yup seven four part series and a bookened on each side). The only criticism I have of this wonderfully drawn epic is the quick and abrupt conclusion. This is the same criticism I bring to Stephen King novels… great set-up, great characters, lousy ending. Even with the less than par ending, this series is worth the read for any DC/Vertigo or Grant Morrison fan.

Series Grade: A-

Vol 4: C+