Moments ago in Seattle at Image Expo 2016, Rick Remender announced ‘Seven to Eternity,’ a blisteringly ambitious take on the fantasy genre illustrated by Jerome Opeña and coloured by Matt Hollingsworth (Tokyo Ghost, Wytches). The project chronicles the adventures of a dying knight, Adam Osidis, who sets out to slay the insidious God of Whispers — a musical demon deity who manipulates humanity and conjures snake-wolf hybrids from the earth. Like the inhabitants of this new world, Zhal.
In it, 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 between joining a hopeless conjuring of magic users in their desperate bid to unleash their world of the evil God, or accepting his promise to give Adam everything his heart desires.
Before their time at Marvel Comics, Jerome Opeña and Rick Remember began working together at Image Comics ten years ago on titles such as ‘Strange Girl’ and ‘Fear Agent’ so it is very fitting their return tell the tale of the ‘Seven to Eternity.’ All those years ago they began debating the doing of an epic fantasy tale at some point, should the planets ever align. A unique take on the familiar genre full of action, unexpected twists, entirely unique characters and a villain who might end up stealing the show. It has taken them a decade to get it together, but the wait was worth it.
The series marks the fifth original property Rick Remender has recently erected at Image Comics, following the surreal sci-fi dystopias of ‘Black Science,’ ‘Low’ and ‘Tokyo Ghost’ and the 1980s grindhouse Bildungsroman in Deadly Class. ‘Seven to Eternity’ is also an Image Comics reunion for Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña, who worked together also on the comic books ‘Punisher,’ ‘Uncanny X-Force’ and ‘Avengers: Rage of Ultron.’
During the past decade, they have collaborated on diverse projects and fine-tuned their strong nerd skills to a point where what they produce here will eclipse their previous collaborations and consume all evil in the universe and give a new pony to every child. This is without question Jerome Opeña’s best work to date, and when you add super champion of colour jive, Matt Hollingsworth, once their powers are mixed into the art cauldron, something new and terrifying is born, a new level of sequential science.
It has been a long time coming, so it is surprising that Rick Remember and Jerome Opeña are seeing a project they have been developing for years finally become a reality. Having Matt Hollingsworth join up with them makes it even more exciting, and they hope readers will enjoy what we have all been tirelessly working on.
‘Seven to Eternity’ #1 will score comic book stores on Wednesday, September 21st, 2016. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, August 29th, 2016.
