Writer – Micheal Fleisher
Artist – Jan Duursema
Inker – Tom Mandrake
Colours – Jerry Serpe
Letters – John Costanza

Michael Fleisher along with the new art team of Jan Duursema and Tom Mandrake deliver one of the most exciting issues in recent memory as many of the long-running plotlines have finished up with new dangers awaiting our hero and his companions. Jennifer and Power Girl are all busted up after their fight with the demon, yet none the worse for wear and Tara is back home which is a good thing, so in all, everything looks to be quite peaceful. Of course, the moment that Travis gets a moment’s rest, things always tend to take a turn for the worse and it does so here when Redmond, the CIA agent who has been turning into a monster of late, finally finds the man he was looking for. Tensions are running high when Redmond confronts Morgan and instead of talking it out, Redmond transforms into the feral beast that he more closely resembles and lashes out. The book is packed full of action as man and monster face off and add to that the overall eeriness of the setting as Skartaris is experiencing an eclipse – something extremely rare, and it is a very compelling story to say the least. The eclipse is a big deal, though Morgan fails to see why. Tara knows that it means bad news, as do all the residents in Shamballah who have locked themselves away until it sees itself through, but what makes it even stranger is that said eclipse does not seem to be going anywhere. When you factor in the cliff-hanger that Fleisher leaves the book on, our heroes are in for a load of trouble and not from Redmond. Issues such as this one make for the best stories in The Warlord. The big quests are good, but they tend to go on for far too long no matter the author and manage to wear out their welcome. These short little story arcs are fantastic though and it would have been nice to see more of these types of stories over the course of the run.

4.5 out of 5