Owen is determined to help Steel fight their old enemy, Gladius. He pays no heed to all the warnings telling him to turn back, but Soren starts to wonder. Is this settling an old score, or is there more at stake? Find out in Barbaric: Axe to Grind #3 from Vault Comics!

BARBARIC AXE TO GRIND #3

Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Nathan Gooden
Colorist: Addison Duke
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Adrian F. Wassel
Publisher: Vault Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 26, 2022

Previously in Barbaric: Axe to Grind: Owen, Soren, and Steel make it to shore and fight a band of Orcs who do not tell them where to find Gladius. When they go to a nearby town, the people there think Gladius is protecting them and will not give him up. While Owen follows a woman who may be able to help him, Steel tells Soren about their first encounter with Gladius. Gladius was more than just an Orc. He drained energy from people to become more powerful and killed with an unholy lust for carnage. Owen is met by the Parliament of Elementals who warn him against killing Gladius. But despite the warning, he decides to persist.

BARBARIAN ON A MISSION

Barbaric: Axe to Grind #3 opens as Orcs attack, but before they get a blow in, Steel joins the fight as a Vampire. Axe gripes that he is wasting too much blood. They still need to find Gladius. But in his Vampire form, Steel can smell him and points Owen and Soren toward a nearby keep. He will stay behind and hold off the Orcs.

Owen, with color commentary from a blood-drunk Axe, tells Soren about the Parliament of Elementals. She wonders about their warning, about Owen’s curse, and about where Axe even came from. Owen remains determined to kill Gladius. He is a Barbarian, and he is direct in his thinking. Then the Parliament of Elementals manifests in a nearby tree, becoming a humanoid tree monster. Axe fights willingly but discovers that trees are not that tasty, at least not until Soren brings it down with her magic and he gets a taste of its sap.

They reach Gladius’ keep and find that he has an enormous number of captured people whose power he is using. Before they can attack, Gladius opens a portal and sends Soren elsewhere. He and lock blades. Owen fights for the sake of a former companion Gladius killed. Gladius fights because now Owen has something he wants. Gladius taunts him that a new darkness is rising. Owen is in the center of everything and does not even realize it. He wants to take Owen’s place. Is it Axe that he wants?

The portal takes Soren do a different spot in the keep where Doxon, Gladius’ witch, fights her and tries to convince her to join them. Their fight takes them back to Owen and Gladius, where Doxon hits Owen by surprise and opens a portal. Gladius holds Owen down and Doxon separates him from Axe. Then Gladius throws Owen through the portal!

ENEMY WITH A SECRET

The art of Barbaric: Axe to Grind #3 is stylish and bloody. Right on the opening page Steel tears a surprised orc in half with many gobbets of blood. But that is enough to set the scene. Owen cannot be killed. Steel is a vampire. Even if it is not all on panel, we know there will be much carnage. This also sets up the battle between Owen and Gladius. The difference is that in their fight, as it wears on and we see that neither is making any headway, we gradually notice that Gladius is smiling. He keeps Owen enraged but setting up this fight was the distraction from his main plan.

I also like the scene where the Parliament of Elementals takes over the tree. We see their distinctive text box first as they warn Owen yet again. Ribbonlike tendrils of yellow-green magic flow around them until they reach the tree, tunneling under the bark to shape it into a monstrous humanoid creature. Once it has a form, it can fight but it no longer has the power of coherent speech. It is a completely different flavor of fight, and it sets up the concept that there is a circumspect third party in the main conflict.

BOTTOM LINE: A DRAMATIC TWIST

Barbaric: Axe to Grind #3 is the end of the story arc, but one that sets up for the next arc. It imparts a lot of history but sets up a deeper conflict. We still do not know much more about Axe beyond his love of blood, but now we can start to wonder about him.

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