Written by: Brian Wood
Art by: Garry Brown
Publisher: Image Comics
There’s always this little pause from me when I crack open a story and see religion as a big forefront. I’m not against using God as a major plot point or motive for a character—almost all of my favorite books have something to say about religion—but I do know that it’s a hard thing to handle properly. It’s easy to crutch on it or treat it a little too crassly, which just comes off in poor taste regardless of your stance on God.
Black Road then, is a comic that’s heading into some very rough waters, though as of the first issue, I think it’ll wind up being one of the good ones.
Christianity has hit Iskfold in the only kind of way conversion realistically spreads: with extreme levels of violence. Like the Pagans before them, this Viking town is being shown a new faith at the end of a sword. Convert or die. Priests and their churches are spreading like a bad disease, and with them come pain, suffering, and poverty.
It’s a dreary, desolate place, and one Magnus finds himself walking through. I like Magnus. He’s an interesting character, a sword-for-hire that could be off doing the Viking thing and enjoying the spoils of plunder, yet he isn’t. No, he’s stuck on Christianity, fascinated by both the hypocrisy of the religion and the structure of it.
It doesn’t help that he’s afraid his Gods have gone silent.
Magnus takes a job escorting a priest up the Black Road, a long, dangerous channel north where some of the most heinous crimes have been committed. It won’t be an easy journey, and it won’t be safe one, and the big question here is: Why take the trip at all?
The answer is hinted at here and there, but obviously it’s one that’ll be the core driving force of this series. It’s an excellent foundation though, one that actually means something and gives Magnus a lot of depth in a short amount of space. I get some of why he’s doing this sure, but I’m not certain I buy some of his own internal monologue. I’m eager to see where he goes as a character.
Artwise, the comic is very good. There’s simplicity to some of it that only helps sell the desolate nature of the whole thing. It reminds me of Wolf in a way, though with better use of white space. There are some wonderful panels with very little on them because Garry Brown has the confidence to show a lot with a little.
There are also some wonderful uses of darkness/shadow as well.
Black Road #1 is a beast of a comic, one that dives headfirst into the darker parts of Christianity while also treating the whole subject with a ton of respect. Complexity is everywhere, from the characters to the world to the artwork itself, and I’m damn excited to see where this goes.
Also, it reminds me of Amon Amarth which kicks ass.
