Seven Soldiers of Victory, Vol. 2

Seven Soldiers of Victory #3-4

by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette (Artist), J.H. Williams III (Artist)

Seven Soldiers is an epic tale of life, death, triumph and redemption that explores the nature of heroism and sacrifice. The Bulleteer, Mister Miracle and Frankenstein are each featured in a story that redefines their purpose in the DC Universe. But their stories also interweave with each other's, telling a grander story of a devastating global threat to mankind. Together, these reluctant champions must work together to save the world from the insidious threat of the invading Sheeda warriors - without even meeting one another.

Collecting: Seven Soldiers of Victory 1, Klarion, the Witchboy 4, Mister Miracle 1-4, Zatanna 4, Bulleteer 1-4, Frankerstein 1-4

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

381 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.

In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Reviews

[Rory Wilding · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the mid-noughties, Grant Morrison began an experiment, in which he would assemble a team of obscure superheroes from DC's history, even though throughout the course of this 30-issue metaseries, the Seven Soldiers never actually meet up. Halfway through the series, we have seen the solo adventures of Shining Knight, Manhattan Guardian, Zatanna and Klarion the Witch Boy, so what about the remaining three?

However, before we see the solo outings of the others, there are the last issues of both Klarion and Zatanna, seeing the sense of closure for their arcs, whilst setting up their participation in the final battle. As for Klarion, he returns to his home of Limbo Town for not only confronting the mysterious Mr. Melmoth, but also his people who are willing to punish the young boy for witchcraft. We certainly get more context into the Limbo Town people are connected to the Sheeda, as well as establishing where Klarion's heart lies, which is more mischievous than heroic. As I've said, Zatanna is a great character, but doesn’t have the best solo outings and this arc proves it as despite some nice touching moments such as a magical reunion with her dead father, it is the weakest part of the metaseries.

Continuing the legacy of the super escape-artist Mister Miracle, Shilo Norman became famous for large scale televised stunts, including well-publicized escapes from the second dimension, the centre of the earth, and inside the event horizon of a miniature black hole. Following this recent stunt, he starts having visions of the New Gods who begin interfering in his celebrity lifestyle, continuing the war between New Genesis and Apokolips in the most unusual fashion. Drawn by Pasqual Ferry and Freddie Williams II, Morrison uses some of Jack Kirby's Fourth World mythology and although it sets up Morrison's 2008 big event Final Crisis, he's telling a personal and psychological tale about celebrity and the values of life and escaping death, something that I imagine influenced what Tom King and Mitch Gerads is currently doing in their Mister Miracle comic.

An entirely new creation from Morrison and artist Yanick Paquette – whose art isn't as exquisite as his later collaborations with the Scotsman such as Wonder Woman: Earth One –Bulleteer is based in part on the Fawcett Comics character Bulletgirl, as well as an allegory for superhero fetishism. Married to a scientist who was a little too obsessed with being a superhero, Alix Harrower gets accidently infected by her husband's experiment of a thin metal skin that can bond with collagen, turning tissue indestructibly hard. Despite being an overly attractive woman before and after she gained the "smartskin", Alix pretty much steps into the superhero world by accident and she tries to adjust to it, such as working as a bodyguard to a mermaid movie star at a convention for C-list superheroes. This does tap into what Alan Moore was doing with Watchmen in exploring the psychological reasoning for dressing up as a superhero, but Morrison isn't as cynical as Alix can show compassion towards the pathetic, and despite her powers, there's more to life than just donning a sexy outfit, even if life itself will soon be in peril.

Although you can see the resemblance of Mike Mignola's Hellboy in that a monster is hunting other monsters, as well as the terrible Aaron Eckhart-starred I, Frankenstein, DC's Frankenstein is a Boris Korloff lookalike that is an absolute bad-ass. Throughout four issues, where we see the true origins of the Sheeda as well as Frankenstein's numerous confrontations with Melmoth, the pleasure is in reading the constant monster bashing, drawn with such appropriate grotesque detail by Doug Mahnke.

What bookends the whole series is the J.H. Williams III-drawn issues as what begins Seven Soldiers is #0, showing the death of the previous team, led by the western-themed hero The Vigilante. After the long set-up for the last battle with the Sheeda as established in the seven miniseries, it all culminates in #1, in which the seven protagonists who never meet, but each have their own participation in the battle, intentionally or unintentionally. As this particular issue spans from 40,000 B.C. to 1 billion and who's counting A.D., Morrison is pulling into multiple directions from past, present and future, and in collaboration with J.H. Williams III, the two creators try out new approaches in comic storytelling, from newspaper articles to children's storybook techniques. What makes Williams an artistic genius is not only in his never-ending experimentation of panel layouts, but also how he can alter his style when it comes to the perspective of each Soldier from the gothic fantasy of Shining Knight to the Jack Kirby sci-fi of Mister Miracle.

After reading all thirty issues of Grant Morrison's experiment in crafting an epic about a superhero team that don't, well, team up, the results are stellar, if heavy-handed as Seven Soldiers of Victory shows how this Scotsman can show new and intriguing angles towards DC's history.

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hardcover is the second of two and completes Grant Morrison’s 30-issue Seven Soldiers of Victory epic. It is collected in the suggested reading order based on the publication date. But because of the modular design of the miniseries, one can read it by title and as long as you start and finish with the bookends, Seven Soldiers of Victory issues zero and one.

Morrison is fortunate to have artists with enough talent to bring out the best of his scripts. Each title is written to suit the strengths of the artists assigned. Doug Mahnke is perfect on Frankenstein, he nails the titular monster and all the misshapen and grotesque creatures he gets to shoot and slice. Yanick Paquette, surprises on Bulleteer. His last assignment on Ultimate X-Men is good but he just gets better here. It helps that he has Michael Bair on inks, but he shows here that he can do cheesecake with his character. I reserve my highest praises for J.H. Williams III, who uses multiple art styles in the finale. Not only does he mimic the styles of the artists on the seven miniseries, he channels Jack Kirby as well in one of the best splash pages in this collection.

This is an ambitious story that Morrison weaves, melding, Kirby’s Fourth World, Arthurian legends, superhero fetishism, James Bond, Hollywood monsters, urban legends and other folklore in a sweeping saga that spans before the dawn of mankind and its ultimate evolution and extinction. It is a tale that traverses time and space and the ending is poetic; the 21st century’s would be conqueror from the most distant future meets its demise from a spear thrown 42,000 years in the past. This is classic Morrison, his heroes triumph in the face of overwhelming odds and always with hope for the future.

[Zachary Whittaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly this is a "review" for both volumes not just the second.

Seven Soldiers Of Victory is an interesting concept and allows Grant Morrison (of whom I am quite a big fan of) to really explore the DC Universe past and present much as he did with his Batman run.
Taking a group of seven characters, some of which are not as frequently used and some who have been completely re-imagined and working with as many artists has he could get his hands on Morrison tells an interesting tale of the coming apocalypse.
Laced with fairytale and Arthurian influence the maxiseries is an interesting one, the fact that it occurs during Infinite Crisis barely seems to matter and a few subtle nods towards Morrison's soon to follow Final Crisis don't go amiss.
Although I found some characters more interesting than others - I'm already a big fan of Zatanna and I thought Bulleteer was perhaps the best overall character to be used - I feel as though all the characters, both main and supporting were well chosen.

The Manhattan Guardian isn't perfect, but he adds an all around good guy feel at times which isn't necessarily a bad thing, although I think Morrison's use of supporting characters and attention to detail added a lot to what could have otherwise been a fairly dull story.

Klarion The Witch Boy is decidedly different, and his history and origin are certainly a unique one, although his story is left a little too open ended...although that can be claimed for many of the characters featured. Which is potentially due to just how much was happening with DC at the time and a completely unsure future for many.

Shining Knight is of pure Arthurian influence and it works brilliantly, a character out of time with a somewhat Thor like feel at times, but it works and helps build backstory, or perhaps forward story in a good way.

Zatanna is a strong character, and delving into her history is an interesting read, but that's nothing new, she's always a great character to utilize even if only briefly, just take a look at Books Of Magic or Identity Crisis. Seeing Zatanna as a teacher of magic is always a nice touch too.

Frankenstein is another strange one, his first issue perhaps also his best, although his almost Hellboy like design is intriguing sometimes it comes across as if his arc is a bit unsure of itself, but perhaps that was just from my point of view.

Mister Miracle is reinvented and gets to lay the ground work for the appearance of the New Gods in Final Crisis exactly the way you want him to, and along the way makes the character feel very human, and although it gets a bit confused at times the character adds a different dimension to the story that I can really appreciate.

Bulleteer I really felt was the strongest link in the whole series, and learning of the complete lack of follow-up for her is quite a disappointment, the exploration into those with superpowers that you just don't hear about and the lower echelon of the superhuman community all felt like the kind of series that should have flourished in the mid-2000s DC comics world. It was a great opportunity for Grant Morrison to do exactly what he does best and dig up DC's forgotten moments and investigate the side of comics that there just isn't enough of, and frankly I think that was my take away from the whole series.

Seven Soldiers Of Victory is a great read in spite of the fact that it will probably never be anyone's favourite series of all time but because we see the lesser known heroes take centre stage, some great artists do what they do best and Grant Morrison gets to open every hidden door in the DCU that he can find, he gets to play with villains that are very much his own, histories that might as well be, characters old and new and for one brief moment he isn't working with a title everyone is expecting great things from, he's doing something that ultimately doesn't matter to the overall DC master plan. If DC had let Morrison continue with theses Seven Characters or even bulk up some of the supporting cast with some prequel books I think we would have seen some great things, the Newsboy Army book was there waiting for him! and I'm always going to appreciate repeated uses of Slaughter Swamp and the non-speaking Booster Gold cameo was very much appreaciated, he is afterall "the greatest hero you've never heard of".

[Abraham Thunderwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the hell did I just read? It was cool using what some would unkindly refer to as C list superheroes. I was trying to tell one of my friends what these books were about but it sounded like some kind of fucked up fever dream, more than usual even for comic books. Good times. Good weird times.

[Matty Dub · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is for both volumes.

This is my favorite superhero work from Grant Morrison. It’s such an ambitious concept that they executes so well, I can’t help but to be in awe of the craftsmanship in this book.

Seven minis, four issues each with two bookends. While the first issue can be a little obtuse and confusing, the following 28 issues build towards the climax with a clear and concise narrative that’s almost unlike Morrison. The last one-shot wraps everything beautifully.

These minis are complete and independent stories and that don’t require the others to be enjoyed but they are collected in a specific order that enhances the experience. You start with Shining Knight, Guardian, Klarion and Zatana. Each getting one issue before moving to the next series. At first there are just little hints that they share common themes but by their last issues, when the three other series roll out, it becomes obvious that they are fighting the same threat. Well, all except one. Frankenstein and Bulleteer are but Mister Miracle seems completely independent until one of its last panel when Darkseid drops a bit of exposition.

The baddies are Sheeda (Sidhe) led by Gloriana Tenebrea. They are coming to cull the earth, something they do every once in a while and only a team of Seven Soldiers can stop them. Throughout history they hunt any team of seven which explains why to be victorious, we need Seven Soldier that don’t know each other, working towards a common goal unknowingly.

It. Is. Executed. So. Well.

I can’t say enough, Morrison is a damn genius. The art is generally stellar too. Bianchi on The knight is at his best, creepy Cameron Stewart’s cartoony style is great on the Guardian, Ryan Sook on Zatanna is perfect as is Frazier Irving on Klarion. Doug Mahnke was born to draw Frankenstein, Yannick Paquette’s art is beautiful on Bulleteer.... this leaves Mister Miracle, which mostly looks like vomit. One great issue by Pascal Ferry is followed by three by Freddie Williams II and others and it’s soooo ugly.

One last note, I really like how Morrison handles Fourth World characters, it��s a good primer for Final Crisis.

[Javier Alaniz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven Soldiers of Victory
Grant Morrison's ideas and words.
JH Williams III, and a bunch of others did the art.

Grant Morrison has reached the comic book promised land. That glorious place where a comics creator can approach either of the Big Two comics companies (Marvel and DC) with any idea he has and be given free rein to do whatever he wants. There are not many creators in this echelon. Currently Brian Michael Bendis has achieved that status at Marvel and is happily playing with the Marvel Universe like it was his own private box of toys. Grant Morrison is DC's equivalent. After having written the greatest Superman story ever (All Star Superman), creating giant year-long, company-wide crossovers, and pumping out successful runs on Batman, Justice League of America and a host of Vertigo titles, Grant Morrison now has carte blanche to tackle anything in the DC Universe. While that's great for him, for the average reader, it has it's downsides. As with Bendis over at Marvel, even visionaries with great ideas need editors, or someone to second guess them now and again, lest their visions become sprawling inchoate ramblings. Worse is the effect that their relative fame and lack of oversight has on what they're allowed to publish. Frankly, the writers and publishers are so used to seeing gold come out of their mind that even when they drop a big pile of crap, it looks like gold. Too often the legions of comics fans buy it all up and perpetuate that belief. That's not to say that 7 Soldiers is crap. It's not. It's pretty good in fact. But with a little more editing and just a bit of restraint by the writer it could have been much, much better.

The basic idea for the book is one that Marvel and DC have been mining for years now. Revise and update some old overlooked character from the company's history, in an attempt to make them a marketable franchise again (see: Sandman, Animal Man, Agents of Atlas, et al). Being an enthusiast of DC history, Morrison decided to do this project less out of a burning desire to tell a specific story and more because "he needed a challenge." So 7 non-traditional superheroes are dragged from the depths of the DC library and pulled together under the banner of one big story called 7 Soldiers of Victory. Each of the 7 characters is given a 4 issue miniseries, which loosely tie together in one overarching plot in which they must save the world. Each miniseries is done by a different art team which further separates and isolates each character from each other and the unifying story, and the books are ordered not by each characters' mini-series but by release date. Supposedly this lets you best see the underlying elements tying to the story together, but I think it fails to do so well, mostly just feeling disjointed and confusing instead.

The biggest problem with this book is that all 7 soldiers are not created equal. The Guardian, Klarion the witch boy, Frankenstein, and The Shining Knight are all fun, well written, interesting concepts, with art that is compelling and adds tremendously to the appeal and excitement of their story. Zatanna has great moments but has to work too hard to connect all the disparate elements of the meta-story; she has no cohesion or reason to her own tale. She's just kind of kicked around from one major plot point to the next. And finally The Bulleteer, and Mr. Miracle. Both characters connection to the overarching story is tenuous and unnecessary. The Bulleteer is bland, boring, and has the stupidest costume I've seen in a super hero comic trying to take itself seriously. Mr. Miracle has inferior artwork, often looking amateurish. If both characters were left out entirely, the series overall becomes MUCH better. But unfortunately Morrison's devotion to the history of the DC Universe forces his hand. There was an old book DC put out called 7 soldiers of Victory, so this story has to be about 7 soldiers. Even though inexplicably an eighth character called True Thomas plays a more important role in the story than most of the 7 soldiers themselves.

In the narrative Morrison uses an image of the Miser's coat, a bunch of separate patches sewn up to be a garment, as an analogy for this 7 soldiers story. Except it doesn't really work. Sure there are a lot of different patches here. But they don't really function the way they're supposed to. The seams are too apparent, there are too many holes, and too many patches. If this story were a coat it wouldn't have sleeves or buttons or a collar. I guess you could call it a coat if you wrapped it around yourself. But you'd be lying. It's just a bunch of material, some really good, some bad, thrown together and called one thing. This is not one story, but 7 or 8 (maybe 9) stories put together indelicately, in the hope of being greater than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately it is not. And to make matters worse Morrison's goal of re-launching these characters as viable franchises in their own right has mostly failed. Frankenstein and Zatanna are the only two characters that DC has been able to launch in their own titles. It's unclear whether either will be good enough to last.

I can't recommend buying 7 Soldiers in its' collected editions. I can recommend the individual 4 part mini-series of Frankenstein, The Guardian, Klarion The Witch Boy, and The Shining Knight. None have been collected as mini-series on their own so you'd have to buy the individual comics. mycomicshop.com is my usual spot for single comic purchases.

[Eric Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this volume went down in quality quite a bit. Not to say it was all bad, but the remaining three storylines of Mr. Miracle, Bulleteer and Frankenstein were not near as good as the first four.

Mister Miracle's story was the worst and so confusing. Grant Morrison does a new take on many of the characters. Darkseid is just a human dude, as are all the other denizens of Apocalypse and New Genesis. (Except maybe it was all just in Shilo's head? Unclear). Also, is Shilo Norman a replacement for Scott Free or an alternate version of him? I was so confused as to what happened to the OG Mister Miracle.

Bulleteer's story was the most interesting of the three, and quite good as far as character development.

Frankenstein started out strong, with each of his issues being anthology stories, but they started to feel repetitive and by the end didn't add much to the story overall.

The final issue, which ties all Seven Soldiers together, was mostly done well, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed by the contribution of Guardian and Klarion. It also felt quite jumbled and rushed.

Overall, this volume felt like Morrison at his worst, for at least half the time. Full of lengthy and noncoherent dialogue, mixed with too many ideas coming together and resulting in something that did not live up to the first half of the story and the excellent premise.

[Richard Guion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second volume covers the final issues of Zatanna and Klarion, plus it has the arc of Mister Miracle, Frankenstein, and Bulleteer. As a long time fan of Zatanna I found the conclusion of her story to be pretty sweet. Throughout most of the issues I had to flip back and forth to the other books to put together various mysteries. The scene with the Newsboy Legion kids and the Time Tailor in Guardian #4 had big ramifications throughout the other series, you learn more about Melmoth, and the little girl Zatanna is protecting. Frankenstein is hilarious, the artwork by Doug Manhke is perfect for it. I thought Bulleteer took this idea of a sexy superhero to a meta level, offering some commentary on men, fans, superhero fights scenes and more.

The only series that didn't really work for me was Mister Miracle. Morrison hit an artistic jackpot in all the other title but this one, the artwork was very uneven. There is one scene where you see ghosts of the New Gods and you can barely recognize them. I think they should have gotten Cully Hammer to draw this title and it would have worked better. The other problem was the choice Morrison made in having Shilo Norman as Mister Miracle. I thought it was a perfect choice as this character was a kid sidekick to the original Mister Miracle back in Kirby's run. But to have Shilo as the super-escape artist with no memory of Scott Free, Big Barda, etc., no mention of his past at all, seemed like a wasted opportunity.

The conclusion to this series was very interesting with a mixture of storytelling techniques. There is a two page sequence where you are reading a newspaper from the Manhattan Guardian, complete with a crossword puzzle. There is also a metatextual element, which Morrison loves to use, involving the Seven Mysterious Men of Slaughter Swamp, who bear some resemblance to DC writers in the past.

Not sure how this series will play with people who aren't long time fans of the DC Universe. DC fans know about Slaughter Swamp's connection to Solomon Grundy, for example, which makes the final scenes go over the head of anyone who doesn't know.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, look, Mister Miracle is great and the Bulleteer is great and the finale is a fantastic exercise in technical virtusoity with amazing art, but Frankenstein just steals the whole show, the big lumbering monster chasing gothic horrors with his unforgiving unflinching unstoppable angsty melodramatic poetry and it's brilliant.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find that I did not enjoy this compared to Book 1. I was really excited to read this after the first book. The characters I enjoyed reading about were Klarion, Zatanna, The Guardian and Bulleteer.

Like the previous book, the issues collected are layed out chronologically. From earliest published till latest. Here is the content page:

Klarion the Witch Boy Part 4: Burn, Witchboy! Burn
Mister Miracle Part One: New Godz
Zatanna Part 4: Zor!
Bulleteer Part One: Ballistic: How the Bulleteer Began
Frankenstein Part 1: Uglyhead
Mister Miracle Part 2: Drive By Derby
Bulleteer Part 2: Who Killed the Seven Soldiers?
Frankenstein Part 2: Red Zombies
Mister Miracle Part 3: Radio Bedlam
Bulleteer Part 3: 21st Century Schizoid Supermen
Frankenstein Part 3: The Water
Mister Miracle Part 4: Forever Flavored Man
Bulleteer Part 4: Bad Girls
Frankenstein Part 4: Frankenstein in Fairyland
Seven Soldiers of Victory Part One: The Miser's Coat

I thought I would enjoy Mister Miracle's arc as he is mentioned briefly as Big Barda's husband in Batman and Superman: Supergirl. But I found his story confusing. In Part 3, he is beaten to a pulp, burnt and tortured. That was gratuitous. I felt bad for him. It is not a good sign when I was flipping forward in hopes of seeing characters I did enjoy and hoping that issue would end fast. The art was not that good either.

I did not care much for Frankanstein but I enjoyed meeting the Bride character. Would love to see more of her. I did not care much for him as I did not know this character and most of the others I was aware of before I started on the series. I found I started to like the character only towards the end and the combined issue. The first few issues used language that felt so chim I had to reread it a few times to try and make sense. I suppose it is logical that the character would think that way since he is very old.

I mean Bulleteer was new to me but I still liked her. Her arc explores what it is like to have powers and yet not be a superhero like the Justice League. It gave some insight into how powers can make a person do wrong things or become an obsession. The truth on her husband was sad though.

I realized that the main villain is a female and that felt exciting. There is alot of female representation. Different women characters and motivations. Which I liked and feel that we should show more of.

I did not like that the ending felt open and cliff hanger-ish. I don't really get a clear picture of what happened and am confused because the last issue is titled "1" so is there a issue "2"?

I was not surprised by what Klarion did, he never felt like a typical hero maybe an anti hero. His youth and naivety made me underestimate his ruthlessness. There is hints on what Justine will be and whether Mister Miracle is alive or not. I was again confused on how Zatanna's father tied into the story and it is pretty obvious that he is the one who somehow takes over Cyrus Gold. Is it penance? A punishment?

But overall I found this to be a well crafted and very unique way to bring a team of people together but they never actually meet. Some of the art was soso. The other negative is that the storyline and how it all relateds can get confusing and there are questions left unanswered which I do not like.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I bought this, I thought it was the whole series, not just volume 2. But it doesn't matter all that much since it's mostly unrelated stories. There are seven main characters who each get 4 issues and then 2 bookend issues. These 7 characters in some vague way all fight an invasion of evil "fairies" who come from a billion years in the future. But the thing is that none of them really meet any of the other characters, though many are in the same city during a "Battle of New York" not all that dissimilar from the Avengers movie. Anyway, this was written by Tony Laplume's hero Grant Morrison who I've said in the past can be either fairly mainstream and insightful or weird and off-the-wall. Mostly this is the latter. The Mister Miracle parts are sort of a prelude to Morrison's later Final Crisis, the unnecessary "Crisis" event only die-hard fans give a crap about anymore. The Bulleteer parts get a little icky as one woman's husband surfs a porn site for teenaged superheroes (underage?) and is trading emails with a woman who's really 26 but looks forever like she's 16. The Frankenstein parts were almost the most normal. That's not unexpected with Morrison

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection did not do much for me. The most interesting of the seven characters were more prominent in Seven Soldiers of Victory, Book One so they were not as prominent in this volume. Others might enjoy this more than I did, but it felt like a bit of a slog.

Mister Miracle was heavy on Jack Kirby New Gods lore. Most of the allusions were lost on me, so I could not appreciate it to the fullest. Frankenstein had one interesting introductory chapter, but then it involves time travel (or surviving) deep into the future that just seemed to jump the shark for me. The Bulleteer played with some interesting ideas relating to fandom, conventions, and trauma but it did not really capture my fancy either.

The ending is odd too, partially based on the constraints of the story. The Seven Soldiers never really meet, intentionally. This allows them to avoid detection, targeting, and annihilation by the Sheeda, but it also leads to a very murky climax.

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absoultely stunning work. Morrison's writing is at their best here, providing a stimulating and fresh approach to DC comics properties that is absolutely engrossing.

A fantastic concept beautifully executed, with stunning artwork by different top-of-the-line artists that fully flesh out Morrison's vision and wild concepts.

Morrison is known to sometimes screw up the ending to their complex, rich tales, that' s thankfully not the case here. Morrison provides a fantastic conclusion tat brings together the disparate elements of the previous issues, closing the saga with a trippy, but beautifully executed ending that is not overly cryptic as some of their work can be at times.

Definetly one the the best DC Comics series I have ever read. Fantastic stuff.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

New heroes were introduced here which was kind of weird since this is technically the 2nd half of the series. Ending wasn't what I expected. It felt like the authors just created this comic book to set offshoots in case they get their target traction. In a way, you can call this series a gauge of interest. Some fans see this as a window for them to get to know more about the characters and I respect that. I think it kept the characters relevant and gave rise to great runs that feature a couple of heroes like Zatanna and Mister Miracle. I'm giving it a four but it's a close call. If there's a 3.5, would've given it that.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most Grant Morrison thing EVER, actually.

So... gnostic. So esoteric. So steeped in silver age nerdiness.
You better like GM a LOT before undertaking this, and a vague memory of alk the reprints in those 100 pp. Brave and the Bold from the 70s would help.
The Kirby is thick tonight.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of ambitious, for its own good

In the end, thobsecond volume tries to wrap up the experiment that was seven soldiers, and frankly, its a well drawn comic series with a messy script. Editorial helped Morrison later to put his ideas in order for later collaborations, and this stands as part of his process of growth during this period.

[Evan]

An intriguing experiment, to be sure - I’m not convinced I completely understood all that, but I didn’t feel my time was wasted. It all kinda comes together eventually. The Frankenstein and Bulleteer minis were my favorite.

[JP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a mess of a book.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of creativity. Great art on THE BULLETEER.

[Loki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't quite live up the promise of the first half, but it's still damned good if a little chaotic in the final chapter.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inventive and fun. Occasionally a bit over-the-top, but isn't that what comics are for?

[_Liebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

grant morrison introducing the best main characters in the back half, extraordinarily welcome

[Brent Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second half of this series didn’t disappoint. You want weird? It’s got it. You want disturbing? It’s got it. You want cool. That’s here too. Did I entirely understand it? No. But I did enjoy it.

[Benjamin]

While this meta-series started out promising, it doesn't really hold up at the end. It's an interesting experiment: seven interlaced stories, with one over-arching plot about an invasion of alien-fairies that turn out to be the last descendants of humanity. People who like Morrison will do the work of annotation that's required to mine certain meaning out of this story (cf. this site). But for the rest of us, Morrison demands a little too much and delivers a little too little.

Case in point: in the story of the Guardian--an ex-cop who becomes a superhero--we get a story about a couple torn apart by professional life, i.e., his girlfriend is bothered by the danger of his superheroics (Guardian #3). How does they deal with this conflict? In the final issue of the storyline, the Guardian saves and gets the girl in maybe one page. So it's a cliched story that isn't really investigated in any way. Honestly, this story gets such short shrift that it's almost like Morrison got bored of it and just wanted it to be over.

Although, to be fair, the ending of this book all around feels very rushed, with lots of things left unexplained and/or unexplainable. For instance, Morrison makes a DC-centric joke by having the undead slaves in the Klarion story-line be called "Grundymen" (a reference to Solomon Grundy, DC supervillain and zombie). But how is it that these Grundymen are controlled by a magic sigil? Where did that come from? And, for a less nerdy logical problem, Morrison makes Klarion's people a) descendants of the lost colony Roanoke, VA; b) somehow underneath Manhattan; and c) Puritans. So basically he mixes together the VA lost colony, the New England Puritan colonies, and New York City because that's what he wants the story to be.

I feel like Morrison would be better used if he didn't write down details, but just spoke oracularly about big concepts and let other writers run with them.

[Iain Macleod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool! Re-reading these for the first time since they were originally published as single issues I was able to notice, and appreciate, more about how and why each story and character was linked together. A lot of Morrison's stuff reads as quite dense, especially the final chapter in this particular volume, and I honestly find that refreshing and exciting. There's one or two things in here that I haven't quite figured out and I suspect that I'll be spotting even more stuff the more I try to figure them out.

The Mister Miracle story seems like padding though, and seems to me anyway, to have less to do with the Seven Soldiers and more to do with Morrison's later DC epic Final Crisis.

But even that gets me geeking out to think that all those years ago Morrison was planting seeds for Final Crisis and that certain events from here, i.e.; Leviathan, are now coming to fruition in his current Batman Inc. run.

Camelot, Batman, Frankenstein and The New Gods all part of the same epic, still unfolding story? Cool.

[Des Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept here is incredibly dense, and saturated in mythology, both classic and that of the DCU. Every step of the way, I felt like I was missing something, but then it would be handed to me in the next issue. With concepts so big, there's a bit of a fast paced, or jumpy nature to the individual stories that demand your full attention, but every detail exists for a reason, and what results is an incredibly rewarding comic book experience. All of the art is fantastic, and most of the characters are realized wonderfully, effectively re-invigorating interest in a handful of DC relics. This is some of the heaviest, most difficult Morrison work out there, but get yourself into his headspace and you'll have a totally unique experience you just can't read anywhere else.

[Lindsey Stock · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of Seven Soldiers of Victory remains as entertaining as the first, with every character's story being fun to read. Volume 2 concludes Zatanna and Karion the Witch Boy's individual stories, and introduces The Bulleteer, Frankenstein, and Mister Miracle. It also contains the ending to the overall plot, showing how all of the individual characters come together to defeat the Sheeda, even though they never actually meet each other and fight together. The only complaint I have is that the art in the ending story is confusing at a couple of points, and you have to look at it carefully to figure out what is happening. But overall, this is one of DC's best collections.

[Harold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things start to fall apart quickly in the second volume of this series. The three re-vamped superheroes introduced here are thinly re-imagined. Mr. Miracle is a no-fun revamp of the Kirby character, Frankenstein is a concept in search of a character and story, and Bulleteer is so dull that Morrison spends one issue telling the story of a minor villain, rather than his main character. The four holdover superheroes from Book One barely get any space and the whole epic ends with a big thud, because the concluding chapter is ironic and detached commentary on what has gone before, not a well-developed ending.

[violetDelights · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very ambitious conclusion to the seven soldiers story. This volume is similarly difficult to follow at times but pays off a close reading or rereading. There are definitely some frustrations at times with not knowing what's going on, most notably in the Mr. miracle miniseries. I highly enjoyed bulleteer and Frankenstein here and there's a fun wrapping up conclusion. Overall, and enjoyable and rewarding read if somewhat challenging.
★★★★★☆☆

[Red🏳️‍⚧️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful end to one of the best maxiseries, one of the best stories in all of comic books. You don’t need to read Infinite Crisis, 52/One Year Later, or Final Crisis to enjoy it either. It’s just a wildly excellent story involving obscure characters working together without even knowing it.

Radiant. Stupendous. Beyond belief. This is a perfect Grant Morrison story, right up there with Animal Man and WE3.

Makes me fuckin’ weep.