Written by: Brian Wood
Illustrated by: Riccardo BurchielliIn the middle of all the blood, all the burned churches, all the scorched land, all the fouled water, all the dead bodies, all the stinking battlefields, all the smoky skies, all the hate and pain and anger and prejudice, Erik and Ingrid encounter a moment of such pure and shining happiness that it overwhelms them entirely. Is it too late for redemption? “Metal” concludes here!
This is my first time ever attempting to review Northlanders. I am a big Brian Wood fan, but I find Northlanders the hardest of his books to discuss because it’s not as straightforward as his other comics. Check out my thoughts on the latest issue behind the cut.
Northlanders is one of the more interesting Vertigo books that I read, at least in terms of story. While most Vertigo books tell a story from beginning to end, Northlanders doesn’t. Instead, it’s a series of thematically related pieces that all focus on vikings throughout history. This story, more than any other Vertigo story, is truly about the characters, because we are only ever given limited amounts of time to connect with any given protagonist. In the case of Metal, we have five issues.
Of course, what makes Metal stand out from the rest of the pack are two things (to me). The first is the inclusion of Riccardo Burchielli on the book (finally!), as the book has a rotating cast of artists for the different stories. Burchielli is notable of course from his collaboration with Brian Wood over in the Vertigo title DMZ, which is my favorite Vertigo ongoing, so the art bar was high. But Burchielli hit it in the art department like a champ, with his terrifying villain Rob Zombie Black Karl absolutely dominating his sequences. Burchielli really knows how to give a character presence within a book, and no one is more dominating than Karl as he thrashes about the page, ripping characters through walls and more esoteric landscapes.
The other thing is that this is the first Northlanders story to actively involve magic. All of the stories up until now have been grounded in the reality of the time that the story was taking place, with a strong sense of history playing out across the page. It was as if you were reading a historical comic book, or at least one that felt like an adaptation of a classic epic like the story of the Trojan War. With Metal however, as much as metal is a very solid and very real element, the story moves beyond that and focuses on – as far as I can see – two inherent influences. On the one hand, the story is very musical, and the title, setting, and characters (especially Karl) lead one to think of heavy metal. It’s akin to the Phonogram back story in which one Phonomancer transformed himself into a warrior via a Mastodon CD. The story and character interactions, especially the final fight sequence between Erik and Karl, play out in a very choreographed fashion that lends itself to the unheard music of the story.
Meanwhile, on the other hand the story balances itself with a healthy helping of Norse mythology turned reality, which no story had done up until now. We have characters breaking the barriers of reality, growing into giants, and talking with their Gods directly instead of the typical shouting at the heavens. The magic is alive in this issue, and it influences the events at the forefront. At the beginning of the arc, I questioned if the reality of the magic in the comic was indeed reality, or rather a side effect of any number of outside influences. However, as the story begins to progress, you see how Wood is able to reinvent the story per arc, and how Northlanders is this wonderful and ever changing beast which still always holds true to it’s Norse roots.
The wonderful thing about this story is that at it’s core, this is actually the closest to what Brian Wood was most known for to me: young teenage characters in love with arms up against the world. While this isn’t Demo, New York Four, or anything of that sort, the story does hold up ideals from tales like that in a unique fashion. It’s hard to read the book and not be reminded of other sorts of star crossed lovers, including various ones that Wood has written throughout his career. While this doesn’t so heavily revolve around the same kind of hipster kids that a book like New York Four does, the themes of identity and a lack of place in the world still hold true – even in the snow and desolate landscapes provided by Burchielli (as opposed to the scenic locales from Ryan Kelly).
So to say that Northlanders is a comic worth buying is to put it lightly. At surface value, you have a great Viking story, full of swords clashing and enough to read while blasting a Mastodon record. Once you start to sit with the book, and think to yourself about what Wood is really trying to say, you’re treated with an incredibly rich comic that ultimately pays for itself in a way few other comics do. You don’t need lots of annotations and notes to follow this – you simply need a few minutes to stop and think.
Final Verdict:: 9.6 – Buy
