Review: Norse Mythology #3 (of 6)

The legends of Norse Mythology have become a popular source of inspiration for a lot of franchises like God of War, Attack on Titan, and of course Marvel’s Thor. However, the latest issue of Dark Horse Comics’ series covering these ancient legends struggles to stand out.

This issue covers the Nordic story of “The Death of Balder”, in which the trickster Loki has fooled the blind god Hod into killing Balder with a mere dart. This begins Hermod’s epic quest to bring Balder back from Hel itself.

Neil Gaiman (And perhaps a few ancient Danish Historians) tells a story that’s fairly identical to the original text. Telling a story that’s already written sounds easy right? However, it means that Gaiman must choose what not to cut to fit the medium of a comic. Although he does a good job of simplifying the story to cover its broad strokes, he does very little to build upon that. Aside from small instances with Thor, we mostly see characters taking action without exploring why they personally desire to do so.

The script, handled by P. Craig Russell, makes a firm attempt at translating the often wordy historical text old these stories into the comic format. Unfortunately, some elements simply do not translate well when word bubbles are trying to fit up to 38 words of dialogue inside them. It’s a tricky balancing act that may still need some fine-tuning.

Galen Showman’s lettering could best be described as living on the edge. There were multiple moments featuring text that was dangerously close to the edge of the panel. At times it made panels feel like they were the product of a rather odd crop edit. The choice to feature instances of white narrative text without boxes was also a bit of a mixed bag. It adds to the atmosphere of dark shots like Hermod’s journey through the night but becomes slightly illegible with bright shots like Balder’s funeral pyre. Had there been just a bit more attention to contrast it would’ve been a solid addition to the issue.

The art by Colleen Doran is a big focus of the issue. The line work features some very solid high points, such as Thor’s armor having each scale beautifully done in detail. And the high point of the issue is arguably its background art. Stunning funeral pyres, the uncertainty of a long night, and the gates of Hel all stand out as incredible pieces of scenery. There’s one panel of a rickety bridge that shows a beautiful amount of detailed hatching that makes it clear how much detail was put into some of these shots.

The coloring of this issue feels distracting, however. Most characters have airbrushed coloring that feels overly saturated. It feels like an attempt to give a more detailed look that just ends up distracting from the actual story. One notable example of this is when Frigg, mother of Balder, calls for someone to journey to Hel to bring back Balder. You can see that her words and expression are intense. However, its impact is lost when her tear-filled eyes seem lifeless while her skin is distractingly glossy.

Overall, it really does feel like this is such an interesting idea for a comic. It attempts to retell a well-known piece of folklore with the visual focused format of comics. It’s just a matter of whether fine-tuning the adaptation process can still preserve the original spirit of the story. Sometimes, the biggest challenge for an adaptation is that it worked so well in its original medium.