Viking Moon #4 // Review
Things are looking particularly dangerous.. There was a beast that attacked her. The native man Longono’s father was a wolf-like beast...it had attacked her. Longnon had saved her, but he had sentenced them both to death for doing so. Now they’re on the run in Viking Moon #4. Writer Joe Pruitt and artist Marcelo Frusin continue a compelling historical fantasy series featuring Viking explorers encountering Native American werewolves. A series March is boldly through. It's pen ultimate issue with an immersive style that continues to feel like a very pure and consistently atmospheric rendering of the basic premise..
It doesn't take long for Longnon and his Viking allies to encounter another one of his nation. The man carries a bow and warns him. Bringing foreigners into the area could bring feath to them all. Nevertheless the woman is under Longnon’s protection. If she is harmed, he will kill the man with the bow. The old one who walks among them may have betrayed them. Certainly, it appears to be that way. However, he states that he has found a way to save them all. Getting everyone to trust him, on the other hand, it could be a bit tricky.
A traditionally with this sort of storytelling, there might be more of a desire to lay down way too much backstory for it to stand up on its own. Thankfully, Priett is only including in the script of those things that are absolutely necessary in order to bring the story forward. There are a couple of different plots going on in and within the series that are more or less pasted perfectly to the length of the series. The tone of ancient horror finds a perfect perch on the page and inhabits it quite dramatically.
There doesn't seem to be a specific cultural identity to the Native Americans of this particular book. Since the culture isn’t exactly a center of the story, this is only a slight problem. teepees shown in the art would not have been historically native to Northeast North America. That is a bit of a distraction from an otherwise entertaining visual package. The art is immersive. It's compelling. The colors that he Frusin choosers have a very earthy quality about them. The werewolves look really cool. It all feels very well executed on a technical level. It would just be nice to see it lean a little bit further away from traditional pop cultural “Indian” imagery.
The fourth issue delivers the backstory that is necessary in order to fully render the background of the story before launching forward into the final issue. It all feels more or less perfectly balanced. Nevertheless, the overall tone seems to be lost somewhere in the past. The series would've been much more at home and a pop culture that would've embraced more generic concepts like Indians and Vikings and werewolves. In order to really embrace the sophistication of modern audiences, it really needs to have more of a grounding in the actual cultures presented. It wouldn't be that difficult to render an actual identity to the Native Americans culture in the series. There are certain elements of the philosophy and values of the Native Americans. That would be really interesting if they were drawn into the series. As it is, they just come across as being kind of generic.
