Northlanders, Other Side, Pride and Joy

Northlanders 1-2

Here’s another Brian Wood title that I didn’t follow to the end.  He’s a lot like Brian K Vaughan. I’ll start most of their titles on the strength of a good premise, but almost never make it to the end.  What is it about Wood’s work?

Northlanders has strong art by Davide Gianfelice, a strong villain who’s easy to root against, and a prodigal son returning to his home.  Mix in a hermit archer who takes pot shots at our hero and a childhood friend who’s “all grown up,” and you’ve got all the ingredients for a rollicking good time.  So what relegates this to “borrow it from the library” status instead of “buy on sight”?

My first hypothesis is that I don’t care whether the protagonist succeeds or fails.  Sven comes back to his childhood home not to regain the mantle of leadership he inherited from his dead father, but to claim the associated gold that comes with it.  It’s not the most inspiring of motivations, so while I’m interested in finding out how Sven’s story ends, I have no investment in the outcome.

This theory pans out for DMZ, another Brian Wood series that I stopped buying before the end.  It’s something that I’ll keep in mind when evaluating other comics.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

The Other Side 1-5

This early work by Jason Aaron reads like an older, darker version of The Nam.  Not that The Nam didn’t smartly deal with the ambiguity and horrors of the Vietnam War.  But there’s an extra tinge of madness to this story that sets it apart.

I can’t say that I liked seeing the mental unraveling of Private Everette.  The ghosts and the talking rifle felt a little too obvious. I thought that his inopportune call for a ceasefire for the sake of a butterfly was a far more effective way of demonstrating the mental strain he’s been under.  The gradual discoloration of his eyes was also creepily effective.

That rim of red is such a nice touch.

Vo Binh Dai’s parallel story on the Vietnamese side is even more tragic.  He spends most of the five issues just getting from his village in the north to the fighting in the south, marching for months and enduring malaria and countless hardships.  All of this only to die moments into his first battle.

I prefer more fighting and fewer nightmare fever dreams in my war comics, so The Other Side fails to make it on my list of favorite war comics.  But it’s still a finely executed comic that effectively illustrates why war sucks and the incredible sacrifice that those who fight in them are forced to make.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice  

Pride and Joy 1-4

One of the first Garth Ennis stories that I remember reading.  I loved it when it first came out, then was bitterly disappointed when a friend of mine savaged what she considered a horribly cheesy ending.  Revisiting it twenty years later, I’m still entertained. The seemingly omnipresent menace of Stein is still creepy, especially at the end of the first issue.  Ennis’ knack of having his characters tell spellbinding stories is in full display.

The conflict between Jimmy and Patrick, is a lot more problematic.  The conflict makes sense - The blue collar, macho dad can’t connect with his bookish, emotionally sensitive son.  I can sympathize with both characters But both go out of their way to come across as annoying when displaying their differences.  Jimmy is almost cruelly dismissive of his son’s softer personality. But Patrick doesn’t help matters by crying at the drop of a pin.  And what kind of idiot kid takes the time to berate his father while being chased by a psychopathic killer?

Patrick’s final exchange with his dying father (“You’re crying.”  “You’re not.”) suggests that Ennis feels that Jimmy’s “my son needs to toughen up” philosophy is the one that he agrees with.  In this particular instance, I’m in his corner. Patrick’s whiny attitude was in serious need of correction. But as a general outlook on life, I’m disappointed that that’s the message Ennis chooses to espouse.  

Regarding the final line of the story, I concede that it’s pretty cheesy.  But that’s not why its emotional impact has lessened from the first time I read it.  It’s that Patrick never appreciated anything his father did until Stein killed him. Even while Jimmy was trying to save his family, Patrick focused on the sins of his past, berating his father right up to the moment he got shot.  (A ton of sentence construction errors in that last sentence, forgive me.) Patrick’s outburst of pride at the end doesn’t feel earned. Jimmy may have deserved that honor, but Patrick didn’t.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice