Northlanders #50 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Danijel Zezelj (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Massimo Carnevale (cover) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The end of the series and the Icelandic Trilogy.

Review: [SPOILER WARNING] Endings are hard.  Even with properties we love, the endings often aren’t what we wanted: The Sopranos, Lost or Wood’s own DMZ series.  It isn’t so much that the ending is poor; it’s that we loved the series for years and want the ending to be great (The Wire, Y the Last Man, etc.).  We so badly want it to be a cherry on top that takes the property to a higher level.  Some of it is selfishness; we want to say that a property that we followed over the years – where we invested the time and the love – has transcended to “GREAT” and we can strut around and act like we knew all along that it would be that kind of series.

It’s sad to report that this ending is quite good, but not “great”.  It provides a very suitable ending to the Icelandic Trilogy, but it isn’t really the capstone to the series that it could have been.  Perhaps that makes sense?  Northlanders has never been about an over-arching “story” like 100 Bullets or Planetary, but has instead been a collection of unconnected story arcs.  Maybe hoping for a final issue that laced everything together with a bow was too much?

Enough with the wishing for what might-have-been…  This issue does have some very strong moments.  What it really sells, as circumstances become dire for the Haukssons, is that they’re still out there.  Even though this issue doesn’t have a very happy ending for our main characters, given the importance of family and ancestors in this story arc, it’s hard to dismiss the importance of a pregnant, yet still fierce Freya escaping into the wilderness or old-man Hauksson similarly making a break for it.  You get the sense that if we could convince Wood to let us watch the denizens of Iceland for just a few more issues, you’d see Freya’s grandson plotting revenge and a way to reestablish the Hauksson name.

Northlanders #49 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Danijel Zezelj (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Massimo Carnevale (covers) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: A young buck tosses the clans of Iceland back into warfare.

A few things: 

1. Tight and classic story. – As I mentioned last month, I have a hard time commenting on the episodic structure of Northlanders because I bought the first 47 issues off eBay and inhaled them.  But, once again the story in this issue would be very “new reader friendly”.  It’s just a classic story of a clan patriarch being put out to pasture so that the upstart son can go start a war with another clan/gang/group.  But, what really makes this issue sing is the wonderful way that Wood and Zezelj handle the upstart’s wife, Freya.  She is smart, strong and respected by the men, and she’s a little afraid of what will happen if her husband’s war goes poorly – He will die a “glorious” death on the field of battle while she will probably die beaten and raped inside a burning house (or some other horrible death).  In many ways, she is the real power of their relationship because while her husband only understands how to attack, she understands subtlety and she plans ahead.  It reminds me of how someone once told me that women are better horse riders than men because men are accustomed to overpowering things with brute force. So they try to do the same thing to a horse, only you cannot overpower a 1200 pound animal… Women, on the other hand, are accustomed to using guile and leverage because they haven’t lived their lives just overpowering things, so they are better equipped mentally and physically to deal with a horse.  That’s kinda Freya, she’s doing all the work behind the scenes to help her husband in his struggles.  Throughout this series, the women of Northlanders have really stood out and Freya is a wonderful addition to the cannon.

2. Wonderful art from Zezelj. – Again, I just love Zezelj’s work.  Returning to the theme of Freya, I think it’s Zezelj’s art that sells he power and capability.  Here she is, the small woman in a land of hard men and she is getting things done.  Surely any of these guys could beat the hell out of her if they wanted to, but they better kill her because she’s going to get right back up and maneuver someone else into burning down your damn house and killing your family.  She’s a complete bad ass and it almost all comes from the art.  There’s just something about the way Zezelj draws faces with the slightly sunken eyes and cheeks that tells you that Freya is a hard woman.  But, it doesn’t stop there. Zezelj is nailing all the other scenes in this book: the wind-swept rocks, the battles, etc.  Kudos also to Dave McCaig for coming up with colors that set the theme for this issue: Lots of blues and grays.

Northlanders #48 – Review

By: Brian Wood (writer), Danijel Zezelj (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Travis Lanham (letters), Massimo Carnevale (cover) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: In this long-form story about the early history of Viking Iceland, one family leader tries to become an honest businessman, but can that ever really happen?

Three Things: 

1. Great series in hindsight. -Who knows why, but I’d always had a blindspot when it came to Northlanders.  This despite the fact that I enjoy virtually everything from Vertigo.  Consider that remedied!  I picked up most of the issues in one batch on eBay (see, THAT is how much I prefer single issues to those yucky “trade” things) and inhaled them…  As in I read the whole thing over the course of a week.  This has been a great series and even though it ends in a few issues at #50, it deserves some attention here.  This series is really a collection of independent story arcs that tell various tales about the people of the north.  Some are basic crime dramas that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ed Brubaker Criminal story, but others have been like the Plague Widow arc that showcased a city that shuts its doors to keep out the plague and the mayhem that ensues behind the walls.  Great series!  Check it out even if you must buy the yucky trades.

2. Compelling, self-contained story. – Don’t be too put off by the subtitle on the cover that says, “Part 7”.  This issue is completely accessible to a new reader because it jumps forward in time from the last issue.  And, that has been the pattern for this story arc that began with the first Vikings coming ashore in Iceland and has followed them through clan warfare, the formation of a city and society and the arrival of Christianity bringing us to this story.  As I mention above, this issue’s story could feature in any modern-day organized crime story.  Basically, you have the male leader of the family who wants to sit on the sidelines of this round of clan warfare and profit by picking up the pieces in the aftermath.  He wants to “go legit” like Michael Corleone in Godfather 3.  But, we all know it never works out that way as he comes into conflict with his son who is more eager to defend the family honor.  We’ve seen this story before, but that’s because this clash between wisdom and bloody emotion is timeless.  Wood handles the conflict very well, gives us a slightly surprising ending and in so doing, shows us how the Icelanders have changed and become a little less savage over the course of this story arc.