Seven to Eternity Volume 1: The God of Whispers

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A word on the art in Seven to Eternity. It is not as radical and diverse as the art in Decorum. Instead, it is conventionally pleasing along the lines of a craftsman like Jim Lee or Travis Charest, and a pleasure to look at. Jerome Opena hardly lets the side down. But it is the colours of Matt Hollingsworth which steal the show. Lurid, vibrant, and striking, Seven to Eternity offers a masterclass in colouring. Wowzers! For some reason or other, I shit the bed on collecting these single issues as they came out. When I finally decided that I wanted them, they were like a bazillion dollars for first prints. The story draws heavy on one’s choice and beliefs while having a villain that you as the reader can somehow get behind and see how right he is while also caring for protagonist Adam Osidis who’s name has been written wrong in this world but for his own personal reasons looks to gain from it without making any sort of deal with the devil.

Seven to Eternity, Vol. 4: The Springs of Zhal - Goodreads Seven to Eternity, Vol. 4: The Springs of Zhal - Goodreads

In Seven to Eternity, Spiritbox is not especially unique in being both dead and alive. The lines between life and death in this comic are blurry. The main cast visit a swamp haunted by the malevolent ghosts of the dead goblin civilisation, killed by the Mud King upon his ascension to power. We also witness the occasional and very compelling appearance of a huge, Lovecraftian creature who catalogues the dead, giving the suggestion that the afterlife is in fact a library. And like all other Mosak knights, Osidis has a special power, in his case, to launch fragments of the souls of his deceased relatives as weapons. This enables the shade of his father, Zeb, to determine whether or not Osidis has indeed listed to the Mud King’s offer, and judge him. An interesting concept but we think this misses the mark and indulges in the politics of the day. The Mud King is charismatic, cunning, and even if he did not have his powers of corruption would have been a formidable player. The God of Whispers is no opportunist con man. If we had to draw a parallel to an American politician, it would be to Teddy Roosevelt: ambitious, mad, and focussed. But, really, it is a long bow to draw to find an analogy between an American politician and a fictional fantasy character who can leech into the souls of those he rules. For once all of Remender’s cynical beliefs work in a story that has a strong throughline, and he doesn’t drop the ball at the finale. This is *very* cynical indeed, just full-on nihilistic grimdark fantasy that never lets up. The pontificating is on point in service of the tale, and the conclusion is as dark as it gets. The problem for the reader is that it is easy to fall in love with the worlds of Seven to Eternity. Care and innovative thought has gone into its creation and execution. We resent the curtain being drawn across the set. Otherwise, Mr Remender has a technique of slowly building up a story and then allowing the moving pieces to suddenly crash into each other, bringing about a conclusion. Seven to Eternity’s conclusion has nowhere left to go save for an exclamation mark of doom, fire, blood, and familial vengeance. There, like a classic Shakespearean tragedy, the play is done. The “Superhero” Trademark: how the name of a genre came to be owned by DC and Marvel, and how they enforce it

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This observation has much merit. Both The Dark Tower and Seven to Eternity are fantastical, desperate quests with strongly Western frontier themes of vengeance, struggle, and redemption. The shadow of famine through failed crop raising on a desolate prairie haunts the characters at the beginning of the story. Doesn’t that sound like all of these true believers we see running around these days? The January 6th insurrectionists? The armed white men “protecting children” from drag queen shows? The people pushing the “stolen election” lies? And on the left as on the right, the rush to judgement to believe *any* accusation of wrongdoing without any evidence? The Purity Police who wield cancel culture like a weapon to destroy people’s careers? Seven to Eternity was a nice surprise. Beautifully illustrated, it tells a dark tale of a strange world. The Mud King is psychically linked to millions of people under his control but that’s not enough – he really wants Zeb Osidis to become his slave as well because... uh… When Zeb is killed for defying his wishes, his son Adam must seek mercy in the King’s citadel of Zhal or his entire family will be massacred. However his pa’s not the only dissident in the land and a rebellion is stirring against his Royal Muddiness!

Seven To Eternity (Volume) - Comic Vine Seven To Eternity (Volume) - Comic Vine

While the literal material itself is outstanding, it is the publication schedule that has hugely affected my reception towards Seven to Eternity. Readers have waited for so long just to see the end of the series. I have almost lost my interest reading the series. Well, another title with extreme highs, yet also full of missteps, preventing it from being a solid piece through and through. The artwork is truly well done. But it is the story and the complex plots that intertwine the stories of all the characters. The conflicts are done well and are a believable basis for ill will. It is a complex story and as you read you realize nothing in this plot is easy. By the end I was wondering who the good guys were. The God of Whispers is an excellent and complex character. Eschewing brute force he relies on exploiting inner frailties. The bargain he offers is interesting as it changes from person to person. He is truly insidious and Remender does a great job with the individual characters. Of all the villains we have encountered in the genre of comic books, the Mud King ranks amongst the most complex and the best. This is Othello’s Iago, rendered as a god.Remender has a nagging nihilism in most, if not all, of his creator owned work, so much so it becomes a drag to read. However, Seven to Eternity might be the first time it actually works in the books favor, as this is a tribulation for the party involved. That's not to say it breaks new ground, as most if not all the major story beats I could see coming or at least predict closely to say "ah I knew it, you fool". Needless to say, Opeña's art is phenomenal throughout, brought to life by Hollingsworth's impeccable colors. I strongly believe that the story itself is solid, with the characters well-written. The character interactions, especially between Garils and Adam Osidis are believable and relatable. The ending isn't something new but very much fitting to the overall message Seven to Eternity wants to convey to its readers. And so we come to admire the admire the villain, yet despise the ostensible hero. That alone is quite a feat of writing.

Seven To Eternity Vol. 1 Review • AIPT Seven To Eternity Vol. 1 Review • AIPT

The Mud King’s driver is complicated and perverse. He wishes to to prove to a dead man that no one is beyond corruption. The dead man is a zealot, Zeb Osidis, someone who scorned the Mud King as flawed and beneath him. Zeb is able to determine who has succumbed to the whispered promise of Garils Sulm, and regards those who have as beneath contempt. To prove that point, the Mud King does worse than corrupt Zeb’s son. Instead, he remakes him as his successor, the one who would unleash ultimate destruction upon the world. The story is full of weak characterisations. Remender’s main characters – Adam Osidis and the Mud King – are both one-dimensional. One’s good, the other’s bad, that’s it. The other five “characters” that appear out of nowhere are even less memorable and underdeveloped – I couldn’t tell you their names, let alone their motivations for fighting the Mud King besides him being the villain and that’s what good guys are meant to do! All 4 issues presented in this volume were an easy 5 stars for me. From start to finish I was completely taken in and carried along with what was going on. Seven to Eternity is EPIC in scope and I am so down with where this story is going!I could go through the book and point out the flawed world-building, annoyingly unexplained plot elements and myriad other problems but suffice it to say, though I can’t fault Remender’s ambitious vision, there’s too much here to take in at once and he’s not a good enough writer to lay it all out well. I’m not saying I need everything spelled out for me or that we should know everything in the first volume, but there are key elements to the plot that we should at least have an idea about to start with and the detail just isn’t there. And this is a problem with magic stories in general: without limitations and anything can happen, it’s really hard to care about any of it. we’re left to ponder whether Remender is crafting a direct stand-in for Donald Trump or merely a manifestation of the cauldron of anger and fear that led to his troubling ascent. Either way, the series can’t be read without the pall of the previous year and the four… years to come hanging over the high-fantasy narrative... Tl;dr: if you can bear feeling dragged by detours once in a while, this story delivers and the art in Seven to Eternity is the at the pinnacle! The 10 Best Movies on Apple TV+, Ranked (November 2023) By Jacob Oller and Paste Staff November 1, 2023 | 8:32am

Seven to Eternity is the Stunningly Gorgeous Fantasy About Seven to Eternity is the Stunningly Gorgeous Fantasy About

The entire Seven to Eternity epic. The God of Whispers has spread an omnipresent paranoia to every corner of the kingdom of Zhal; his spies hide in every hall spreading mistrust and fear. Adam Osidis, a dying knight from a disgraced house, must choose either to join a hopeless band of magic users in their desperate bid to rid their world of the evil god, or to accept the god’s promise to give him everything his heart desires. I have a hard time giving this a actual score, cuz I enjoy parts of it but also feel there are many weak elements. But when I've been unable to enjoy or finish most of Remender's other indie work, the fact that I did finish this and found something to like about it says a lot. As I think about this book, I can’t help but compare it toSaga, by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. In my opinion, I think this book is at or near the same level of excellence. Both stories throw readers into large, complex, actually living worlds. Both stories are about family and responsibility and sacrifice.”I'll stop dancing about it: this is a bleak ending to the series. It choreographed this direction pretty clearly long in advance, but it's still kind of breathtaking on how dire the story is at its end. It's a little too epic in execution to be considered grimdark proper, but Adam Osidis is absolutely a grimdark protagonist. The story, in that sense, is about masculinity and the banality--or maybe pettiness--of evil. The actions of others and Adam's father's pride clearly traumatized Adam, and this story is the slow unfolding of his desire to protect ultimately himself at the cost of all else. And "all else" is more literally everything than I'd usually mean it. Remender has created a very thorough fantasy world to essentially make a point about toxic masculinity; Adam shares a lot with Walter White. I enjoyed it, though I think it maybe didn't quite need to draw out the point so much. The Mud King is, above all, driven. To achieve his objective, the Mud King creates a scenario where his beloved daughter Penelope, trying to rescue him, could be slain? (We as readers do not much sympathise with Penelope – she is a ruthless monster wearing the mask of a creepy doll – but the Mud King grieves for her passing.) Later, he allows himself to be blinded – not an enormous impediment to someone who can see through the eyes of any person who has accepted his bargain, but still, a physical diminishment. Why? The Seven come to realise that the Mud King has his own agenda, and even while he is caged, they are his pawns. Great fantasy often couples escapism with righteous underpinnings: resist the allure of easy solutions, refuse to compromise your morals, never submit to the iron fist of a corrupt leader. As a country, we failed to internalize these lessons. As a protagonist, Adam Osidis may yet succeed. Draw a straight line from Vietnam through two terms of Dubya to the ascent of Trump, and the power of art to affect social change remains as specious as ever. There are, no doubt, readers ofSeven to Eternitywho will miss even the most obvious political references the book lobs their way.“ The world building is minimal which isn’t a bad thing so the book can solely focus on its narrative but I feel we could have gotten a bit more than we did as this whole story is one big road trip moving from place to place and seeing civilisation after civilisation you can’t help but want to learn more. Under all the fantasy trappings are some core themes that help ground the book. The question of principles, and when to bend, is constantly on Adam’s mind, as his father’s unwillingness to compromise is largely responsible for his family’s current state. At what point do you stop fighting fights based solely on principle? It’s a struggle many people can relate to, especially when Adam is tempted by an easy solution. The God of Whispers’ abilities to subtly control people, to pull their strings and spread lies, leads to some interesting questions about power and the concept of truth. I can’t help but see some parallels to the currently political landscape.