Northlanders vol. 6: Thor’s Daughter and Other Stories

In order to be better than the previous volume, all Brian Wood would have to do is offer up a main story that isn’t completely ridiculous.  That is accomplished here with “The Siege of Paris.”  It’s not the best story in the series or even the title one, but it is the longest at three issues which show the battle through the actions and narration of Mads, the viking in charge.  Simon Gane provides the art, and delivers an appropriately prickly version of Cameron Stewart’s cartoonishness as seen in the savagery that dominates the proceedings.  Mads is an engaging narrator and has a satisfyingly complex relationship with Abbo, the monk he liberated from virtual slavery and now works as his chronicler.  However, the story is undermined by the fact that the actions Mads takes to break the battle’s stalemate come after months of battle, when it appears that they could’ve, and should’ve been done much sooner.

Two other stories fill out this volume with “The Hunt,” with art from Matthew Woodson, being the better of them.  It’s a man-against-nature story about a hunter who tracks a deer across the wilderness in winter and winds up confronting his failures in life along the way.  This story builds to a satisfying anti-climax as he gets what he wants in a way that renders his efforts almost meaningless, while the title story “Thor’s Daughter” probably would’ve been better off if it had the three issues given to “Paris.”  Here we have the (almost) always interesting story of a girl, the daughter of a murdered village chief, struggling in a patriarchy to secure her birthright and save her home from invaders squeezed into one issue.  What’s here is good, but I can’t help but think that it would’ve been even better to see her struggles over a period of months or even years — especially with the fantastic art from Marian Churchland.  That said, we have three stories that are all better than “decent” and no supernatural tomfoolery — I’d call that a win..