Glory: The Complete Saga

 Having never been a fan of Rob Liefeld's Image characters, I honestly have no idea how much, if any, of what goes on in GLORY: THE COMPLETE SAGA jibes with the character's past publishing history. What I can say, with certainty, is that writer Joe Keatinge and artist Ross Campbell have truly outdone themselves, delivering a blistering twelve-issue run that gives readers a beginning, middle, and end, something that is a true rarity in comics these days.

 Glory, as conceived by creator Rob Liefeld, was nothing but a shameless rip-off of Wonder Woman, a companion piece to his Superman rip-off, Supreme. Just as Supreme was re-invented by Alan Moore, Glory gets her turn in the sun now, thanks to a brilliant re-interpretation by Keatinge and Campbell. Their Glory is a hulking, scarred brute of a warrior woman, the offspring of the leaders of two eternally warring races; Born to bring peace to the feuding kingdoms, she abandons her birthright, choosing instead to go to Earth and become a champion to humanity. In her absence, the kingdoms she was to unite fall further into ruin, leading to a disastrous battle that finds her homeworld destroyed, billions dead, and Glory herself a wrecked, shattered husk barely clinging to life.

 GLORY: THE COMPLETE SAGA chronicles Glory's preparations for the final battle against the forces that destroyed her homeworld, but there's much more to this book than meets the eye. (What does meet the eye is gorgeous, thanks to the hideously grotesque, yet beautiful, art by Ross Campbell. His bizarre creatures, overflowing gore, and exaggerated anatomy are absolutely captivating, and his work is complimented perfectly by the eye-pleasing color palattes of MS, Shastia Hamilton, Joseph Bergin III, Owen Gieni, and Charis Solis.) In addition to bloody battles, there's also drama, friendship, betrayal, secrets, and the underlying love between family members. Plus, lots and lots of monsters get killed in all kinds of nasty ways.

 There were some parts of this book that didn't quite add up for me...I didn't really get how Glory's human sidekick Riley was necessary in the first place. She plays a huge role in the climax of the story, but I wasn't sure why she was a part of the story to begin with...the way she was introduced didn't ring true to me. But overall, this is a good, solid read that should keep you busy for a while. Clocking in at 336 pages, with tons of extras, including scripts, cover and sketch galleries, and much more, this book is well worth the price of admission.

 Image Comics provided a review copy.