Viking Moon #1 //Review
There’s a Viking chieftain named Ulf. He and his small band of immigrants have made it across the vastness of the ocean to arrive in Vineland (now known as North America.) It’s been a longand arduous journey. As one journey ends, another begins. There are those who already live on th land they have come to settle on...and they number in the thousands. Natives may prove to be the least of their worries, however, in Viking Moon #1. Writer Joe Pruett and artist Marcelo Frusin open an appealingly brutal historical horror fantasy story with a very promising first issue.
The natives are naturally cncerned about the foreigners who have come to invade their land. There are others of their type who had arrived earlier. Naturally they’re going to be hostile towards the Vikings. Ulf still holds0out hope of some kind of safe co-existence between them...a hope that is shattered by a single arrow in a tense moment. The Vikings are outnumbered. Nearly all of Ulf’s men fall quite quickly. Then...just as Ulf is certain of his own death, the natives flee. He’s perplexed unti he sees what they have run away from: massive wolves that walk like men which stalk the night.
Ancient Vikings stalk werewolves on the East coast of pre-colonial North America. Vikings, Native Americans and Werewolves. It’s an entertaining combination of different elements that rush across the page with a brisk brutality that allows just enough time with the central ensemble of vikings to provide an emotional connection with them. The natives aren’t given a whole lot of characterization on the page, which is. really some kind of seriously missed opportunity...at least in the first issue. The whole story is seen from the eyes of the immigrants who are suddenly in a much more hostile land than they might have expected.
Frusin provides some very clean images of ancient battle. There’s no need for excessive line work or added detail. It all hits the page with the kind of resonance that really gives credit to the dramatic potential of archaic weapons. Axes and arrows the burst into and through their targets with some impressively powerful visual impact. There’s a stylishness about it that renders ancient warfare the full force of its brutality...which really gives the whole thing the kind of visual power it needs in order to make a firm impression on the page. The idea itself is fun enough, but without the right visual intensity, it’s going to lack
The idea is a lot of fun and it’s been a great deal of fun seeing the story establish itself on the page. There’s a real danger in not focussing on the natives, though. Treat them too much like an abstract ofrce of nature and the whole series is going to falter. A story like this really needs all three elements to hit the page in equal force in order for it to feel well-balanced. Hopefully future issues can take turns focussing on the natives and the “skinwalker” werewolves.
