 The
Northlanders #1
DC Comics / Vertigo Comics
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Davide Gianfelice
FC, 32 pgs w/ ads
$3.65 CAN / $2.99 US
Not the typical mythical Vikings
by Chad Boudreau
Sven is a dick. That's the thought that kept running through my head as I read
The Northlanders #1, the latest series from Brian Wood, his follow-up
to the critically acclaimed DMZ.
Sven is a Norseman but he's been away from his homelands for a number of years.
When we meet him, he's on the seas off Constantinople. The year is A.D. 980
and some of his fellow countrymen have found him. A bloody battle ensues. Sven
obviously has no love or loyalty to his homelands. A messenger pleads for his
life. He has come to inform Sven that his father has died and his uncle claims
Sven is dead and thus all the lands and riches are his. This pisses Sven off.
Sven claims the lands and riches are his even though he obviously turned his
back on them years ago. "My uncle stole my money," he says to the
messenger just before running him through.
What a dick.
He eventually arrives back on the home shores. As he wanders the familiar lands
he is quick to judge his people and their ways. He's been traveling the wider
world. He's experienced their cultures, fucked their women and drank their wine.
He's a better, stronger man for it he believes. I have to wonder then why he
needs to lay claim to something he walked away from. Oh wait, I know…
…because he's a dick.
The fact that the main character is a dick doesn't mean The Northlanders
#1 isn't a good comic. I'll admit I didn't enjoy it, but I was definitely
intrigued by it. I struggled to find something within Sven that would make him
a sympathetic or likeable character. I found nothing. Yet.
I say "yet" because I think presenting Sven as a dick is part of
Brian Wood's master plan. Being a dick makes Sven a challenging and interesting
character. He's not your stereotypical, mythical Viking. He's more "real",
if I'm able to say that about a fictional character in a fictional story. As
such, The Northlanders is nothing like any other Viking story I've read.
It's very different and it's obvious Brian Wood has taken the time to research
the actual Vikings and their ways of life in order to achieve this. That makes
this first issue a compelling, interesting read.
I don't know where the series is going to go, but if I had to hazard a guess
I'm going to say Sven is going to gradually come to respect and identify with
the Norse-- the people and the culture. That transition should make for some
good reading because Wood has the talent to pull it off. Let's see where this
goes.
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