Northlanders vol. 4: The Plague Widow

Note to whoever wrote the text to the back cover of this volume:  Vikings trying to survive the winter while a plague ravages the countryside isn’t “survival horror” unless there’s some actual horror.  Usually involving zombies.  In Raccoon City.  But I digress…

This fourth volume of Brian Wood’s ongoing saga about the struggles of Vikings to survive in the harsh wilds and to adapt to the changes occurring in the world around them is another solid addition to the series.  Hilda, the titular widow, finds herself caught in the crossfire between Gunborg, a corrupt village official, and Boris, an outsider with some interesting theories on disease.  Boris also has the chief’s ear so when he states that the settlement will be able to survive the plague by sealing itself off from the outside that’s what they do.  Now all seven hundred villagers have to work together if they’re going to survive the next seven months.

If my statement about Hilda being caught in a crossfire didn’t spoil things enough already, then let me say this:  they don’t.  Slowly the village starts to unravel with Gunborg advancing his own agenda at the expense of everyone else.  Wood convincingly depicts the struggles of all involved to survive, with Hilda’s efforts to make sure her daughter survives naturally being the most compelling.  Still, I would’ve liked to have seen more done with Boris since he represents the voice of science and reason in these dark times.  While he’s an interesting characters, he ultimately comes off a mechanism designed to advance the plot than a fully-formed character.

I also would’ve liked to have seen more done with the cast of the village.  While we become intimately familiar with Hilda, Boris and Gunborg’s struggles, we never get an idea of how the rest of the village is coping or what they think of the actions of the main cast.  It makes the community feel less alive as a result.

Wood is joined by artist Leandro Fernandez for this arc.  After his multi-volume tenure with Garth Ennis on “Punisher MAX,” he has become an artist whose work I look forward to experiencing.  Here, he proves himself to as adept at depicting scenes of violence and bloodshed in the middle ages as he did in the modern era.  Fernandez also shows his skill in creating moments of quiet calm, just before things go completely to hell.  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing his efforts here and I hope we see him again on another arc before the end of the series.

While I enjoyed this volume, I was also surprised at how much it had in common with a book I read earlier this year.  Stephen King’s “Under the Dome.”  Though the time periods are separated by nearly a millennium, the core premise of a town disintegrating after an opportunistic bastard seizes the reins of power is essentially the same.  King’s story gets the edge because even though it’s over a thousand pages long (in hardcover) he uses every one of them to make his town’s descent feel as compelling, frightening, and believable as possible.

I bring up the length issue here because even though “The Plague Widow” is the longest arc of the series since the first volume (eight issues), it really felt like it needed another chapter to wrap things up properly.  It’s understandable that Wood would want to leave the fate of his cast somewhat ambiguous, but it still feels like a bit of a cop-out after everything we’ve seen of their struggle so far.  Still, we eventually found out what happened to Sven after his story, so there’s hope that we’ll get proper closure Hilda’s down the line.  Even so, this volume still comes recommended to everyone who has enjoyed the series so far.