Warhammer 40K Sisters of Battle comic is trapped in the game’s past

I’m not sure if you knew, but in the bleak darkness of Warhammer 40,000’s far future there is only war. Despite the billions of deadly soldiers who continue that war, the camera often stays on the Space Marines. Over the years, they have become the protagonists of a variety of millennial counter-genocide attempts. But there are also nuns, very, very violent nuns, and this week the nuns who fight have their own comic.

Is called Warhammer 40,000: Sisters of Battle, and it’s really not what I expected at all.

Who is creating Warhammer 40,000 Sisters of Battle?

Torunn Grønbekk, best known for her work on The mighty Valkyries, is handling the writing. Artist Edgar Salazar (League of Legends: Zed, The rise of the black panther, Venom) is in art, while Arif Prianto is in charge of color. Games Workshop has one hand on the ball, of course, as does Kieron Gillen, whose “thank you” is the same font size as the other people listed here on the cover. He recently hit the Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar, the first joint Marvel / Games Workshop project, fresh out of the park.

What is Warhammer 40,000 Sisters of Battle? about?

This is a book about heresy on the planet Siscia, which has been overtaken by the agents of Chaos. That means blood, blood and death, and little old ladies who spontaneously transform into giant purple tentacled things and eat people’s heads. Pretty standard stuff for 41 millennials.

Recently, Canoness Veridyan, a beloved character from ancient Warhammer lore circa 1997, and a squad of troops from the Order of Our Lady Martyr arrived on the scene. They dress in black armor with red accents and, like all Sisters of Battle, have a preference for flamethrowers. They tend to get the job done, and the art in this issue really … sizzles.

Are there any required reading?

Absolutely not. The comic is designed to be an introduction to the world of 40Kand overall it does a good job.

It is a good book?

It’s very safe, very routine, almost liturgical in its strange way. There’s actually no main character yet either, but hopefully that will change in issue 2 now that the cast has been scaled down a bit by the aforementioned purple beast.

It’s just that it’s a bit disappointing to read a story that, so far at least, feels very safe.

Games Workshop has been going through a very slow and very public transformation lately. Traditionally, its franchises have been the exclusive playground of wealthy white men, and GW’s expensive products, as well as its artistic assets, have echoed that message. Nowhere is it clearer than in the canonical depiction of the Sisters of Battle: sexy, brave women in elegant armor and enormous military resources.

But things have been changing, as I said. The Astra Militarum, also known as the Imperial Guard, has become increasingly diverse over the years. A recent short story in White dwarf The magazine was very concerned with talking about all the uniformed women fighting and dying on the front lines. Meanwhile, the powerful Space Marines have become more colorful, with Black and brown faces appearing among the ranks of even the iconic blue-armored Ultramarines. Messaging on social media has also been progressive and welcoming. “Warhammer is for everyone,” the company said last year during the Black Lives Matter protests, and it felt good to hear that.

I was hoping more of that would shine around here with Sisters of battle. But not yet, at least. They are well-trained, pious, and very attractive women who just follow orders, kick butt, and die beautifully on every panel. And that’s okay. Even the somewhat tacky alternate cover with art taken from John Blanche’s second edition reference book, with Canonness proudly presenting her four-inch adamantine and ceramite heels for the camera… that’s fine. It’s okay.

But the Sisters of Battle feel more important than ever to the 40K franchise. Here is a group of highly capable women who fight and die on the front lines, in the most dangerous war zones in the galaxy. It might be the ideal way to attract more women to the hobby, and I imagine that is why the Sisters have been featured so prominently in the last couple of years. They have appeared in an extensive novel published over a year in White dwarf; in one of the last books published for the eighth edition; in a fabulous new line of all plastic miniatures; and in the CGI trailer that helped kick off the ninth edition of the board game: a breakthrough that served to elevate the faction, a breakthrough that first placed them in recent memory shoulder to shoulder with the mighty Space Marines, locked in battle against the scum xenos. of the week.

There may never be female space navies Never more, but the Sisters are the best option. GW knows. I was hoping this comic would help raise them up and give them a little higher profile, a little more agency. So far they are only here following orders.

We’ll see if that changes as the series continues to unfold.

A panel that appeared

You will never see a Space Marine in mourning, probably because they are literally made so they don’t know fear. Seeing a sister shed a tear for her fallen comrades stayed with me. It was a good death and a worthy sacrifice, unfolded into a splendid, cinematic battle, and I appreciated the story that lingered there in its aftermath.