Warhammer 40,000: Sisters Of Battle #1 - Marvel Comics

WARHAMMER 40,000: SISTERS OF BATTLE No. 1, October 2021

Announced in May 2021 by its publisher as “the start of the next phase of Warhammer comics at Marvel”, Issue One of “Warhammer 40,000: Sisters Of Battle” probably lived up to most Games Workshop fans’ expectations with its “no-holds-barred action, mystery, and daemons galore.” Indeed, the twenty-page periodical doesn’t even manage to last a mere handful of panels before it’s portraying a Magistrate and his fellow legal experts being flung to death from atop a high-rise building; “Your heresy will not go unpunished. Repent while you still can. Save your soul. You are about to die.”

Surprisingly however, Torunn Grønbekk’s narrative doesn’t concern itself with a large swathe of the Adepta Sororitas though, preferring instead to simply settle upon the self-contained exploits of eight Sisters of Battle, as they seek to free an Inquisitor’s acolyte from the chaotic planet of Siscia. Such a limited number of characters may well disappoint those hotly anticipating reading about the Ecclesiarchy's massed armed forces pitilessly subjugating a large-scale heresy using all the vehicles and wargear at their command. But it does mean that the Norwegian author is better able to imbue a few of the elite group with some pleasing personality.

In addition, it soon becomes evident that every casualty is going to be crucial to the success of Canoness Veridyan’s covert mission – an element which really helps to ramp up the tension once the team encounter their first potentially deadly obstacle in the shape of two men carrying Stub Guns, and are forced to dive for what scant cover the tunnel within which they are racing along can provide. This sense-shattering shoot-out also gives Grønbekk a terrific opportunity to contrast Novitiate Ghita from the rest of her fight-savvy comrades-in-arms and demonstrate just how much the female Progena of the Schola Progeniums relies upon her faith in the Emperor to see her safely through the day.

Similarly as rewarding are this comic’s layouts by Edgar Salazar, whose ability to imbue this “all-new action-packed adventure” with plenty of dynamism helps enormously with its storytelling. The expressions on the various combatants’ faces are particularly convincing in presenting people’s emotions, with the almost blissful look upon Battle Sister Elsbeth as she suicidally ignites a grenade whilst in the spine-breaking clutches of a multi-tentacled chaos spawn, disconcertingly haunting most of this book’s audience for quite some time afterwards.

The regular cover art of "WARHAMMER 40,000: SISTERS OF BATTLE" #1 by Dave Wilkins