Vikings #1 –
Titan Comics
Written by Cavan Scott
Art by Staz Johnson & Richard Elson
Colors by Rodrigo Fernandes
Letters by Rob Steen
Cover by Shane Pierce
As the first scripted series for the History Channel, Vikings burst onto the scene as a breakout hit. Ragnar and his group are now in their 5th season, and there have certainly been some changes. Those characters now come to the page with this new series from Titan Comics. Now let’s see if this book should pillage your pull box.
The story centers a lot around the relationship between Ragnar and Floki, who seem to have different ideas on where their focus should lie. We also see Queen Aslug struggle to rule the people of Kattegat while her husband is away. In both stories, something happens that could have a big impact on what may happen to certain alliances going forward and the strength of leadership. It’s hard to go into too much detail without revealing major plot points, but we see something happen with Rollo that certainly is a catalyst for the “quest” that will being in the second issue. There’s no real mystery, we know who they’re looking for and why, the mystery is in what they might find.
Scott was clearly wanting to set an unease tone here, and he definitely accomplishes that. While some time is spent in the first few pages explaining who the key characters are and setting the stage, everything from the middle of the story to the end feels a bit rushed. I also felt like the male characters were definitely written better than the female characters, and failed to capture the strength of Lagertha and even Queen Aslaug. The art was fairly average, but was quite strong in the pages of Queen Aslaug’s story. True fans of the show may feel a bit more attached to this story, but as someone who is not an avid watcher of the series (yes I have watched and am familiar with the characters), the second issue really needs to give me a significant reveal to stick around for more.
RATING: PICK UP