Brian Wood’s new Viking epic Northlanders mixes the modern sensibilities of his DMZ and Demo with the appeal of a colorful pre-modern era, as in 300. Published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, the ongoing comics series will be released in single issues starting in December. Drawn by Italian newcomer Davide Gianfelice, the series focuses on the action you’d expect from a Viking series, but also the political, social and cultural issues oft the time.
The first story arc follows Sven, an exiled Viking prince who’s spent his recent years as an elite guard for the Byzantine emperor in the 11th’s century’s answer to Las Vegas—Constantinople. “Sven gets word that his father’s been killed and his estate, the settlement he rules up in the wilds of Northern Scotland and any accumulated wealth, is now Sven’s by birthright,” said Brian Wood, who created and is writing the series.
Although he left those frigid homelands for a reason, Sven sees an opportunity to “take his money and run” so to speak, but that’s not so easy. Returning home to the settlement of Grimness, he finds his former family and friends enslaved by his uncle Gorm, who has taken Sven’s inheritance and his brother’s power to put the local populace under his thumb. Therein lies the struggle—does the prodigal son stay and try to help the people and lands he left long ago?
“I like to call him a self-loathing Viking, a guy in the middle of a massive identity crisis,” said Wood. “Sven’s Norse, living in Constantinople, the ‘shining city’, the center of the world at that time. He’s an elite warrior, part of the emperor’s palace guards. He’s a modern guy; he enjoys the mix of cultures in that city. He’s globalized, as much as a person can be. He doesn’t look much like a Viking and that suits him. He doesn’t much care for the culture he comes from, and he strives to transcend it on a daily basis. And that of course [asks] the question: what is he running away from?”
Northlanders comes on the heels of other historical epics like 300 and Gladiator, while bringing with it Wood’s creative style when it comes to interpersonal relationships and broader cultural themes. “Even though Northlanders is set a thousand years ago,” explained Wood, “I do think readers will be able to identify some similarities on the sociopolitical front, from the idea of conflict, of culture wars, of military expansion, dictatorships and the notion of a ‘free’ people. There is also a lot going on, on a personal level, with the characters in the story, as they live in rapidly changing times and struggle to coexist with people so different from themselves.”
Wood’s take on the Viking saga emphasizes these similarities. “The theme of this story and of the series as a whole is the idea of new vs. old, progress vs. tradition, etc. Sven epitomizes... a new sort of worldly wise man living in the middle of progress, and his uncle and his old settlement are mired in the old—old religions, old technology, old superstitions and old ways of looking at things. This was the point Europe was at in history, beginning to pull itself out of the Dark Ages.”
