Combat magician and occult detective, Bill Gravel, returns to Blighty after a year spent killing terrorists in Afghanistan - only to discover that he’s believed to be dead, his place in the Minor Seven (an elite group of magicians) has been filled and his most treasured magical item, the Sigsand Manuscript, has been divided up among its members! Gravel doesn’t like that and sets out to get back what’s his - with lethal force!
Warren Ellis and Mike Wolfer’s Gravel, Volume 1: Bloody Liars is inconsistently entertaining - sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not, and it goes up and down like that throughout the book.
Gravel himself, like the other characters, isn’t a remarkable creation and is your stereotypical tough guy protagonist. Ellis/Wolfer fumble his motivation too. I can understand his basic drive of getting back his stolen stuff but why is it important for Gravel to be in the Minor Seven in the first place - does it stop him using magic or from doing his job (it doesn’t seem to on both counts)? And why is the Sigsand Manuscript so precious anyway - what does it do? No clue. It’s hard to get too invested in a story without knowing why a character is doing the things they’re doing.
The revenge storyline isn’t original and feels a bit like Kill Bill with Gravel methodically working his way through the Seven. That said it’s not unenjoyable to read as some of the encounters are compelling and fun, though some are less so. The magic angle adds an interesting dimension too and is inventively used - with the graphic gore and violence (that’s how you know it’s an Avatar book), it’s like reading an adult Doctor Strange comic!
It is a bit overlong though at eight issues, especially as it becomes quite formulaic very quickly. You realise soon that Gravel is unstoppable and each of the Minor Seven will inevitably fall. Gravel fights one magician, then the next, and so on until the numbers are down. And the ending is somewhat anticlimactic too.
I was delighted to see Ellis’ Captain Swing artist Raulo Caceres was on this one, though he only draws the first three issues. Caceres’ art is beautifully detailed and his pages are absolutely stunning. Oscar Jimenez takes over when Caceres leaves and, while Jimenez’s art isn’t bad, it lacks the wow factor.
Gravel, Volume 1: Bloody Liars isn’t among Warren Ellis’ best Avatar books and it didn’t do enough to make me want to continue with the title, but it’s a decent comic and might be worth checking out if you’re an Ellis fan and see it in your liberry.
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