Written by: Brian Wood
Art by: Garry Brown
Publisher: Image Comics
I feel like there’s been an uptake in joyful misery this 2016. I’ve already read and praised two novels that are pleasurably devoid of all things happy, and it seems Black Road is going that same route. It’s a good comic, but goddamn is it bleak.
Issue 2 starts off with some trope-filled, “let’s fight so I know how much I need to protect you” between Magnus and the girl he’s escorting (and whose name I don’t know off the top of my head (seriously, names rarely get said in comics)). It ends somewhat trope-ishly too, with the girl being a bit more capable than we first expected. It’s not a strong way to start a comic, but once it’s over, events take a nice upswing…or downswing as the case may be. This comic, as I mentioned, isn’t one for being happy.
Both Magnus and that aforementioned girl get some nice development here, the former in backstory and the latter in showing us just what she’s capable of. There’s a dark chill over all of it, even when Magnus is remembering the good times—he’s a Viking, so the good times are kind of filled with death and mayhem.
I suppose I like it, on the whole. I still find it strange enjoying a story that’s so ankle-deep in…I don’t want to say misery but you know, the thing before misery. Like if misery is a Pikachu, then this is the Pichu. But yeah, I do like this.
Dark and gritty seems to be the name of the game these days and maybe has been for the last half a decade or so. Sometimes it’s annoying, but Black Road sells it. This comic isn’t dark and gritty because it wants to be; it’s dark and gritty because it needs to be. Religious conversion is filled with blood. Magnus is the product of his time period and culture.
It all comes across as very real.
The artwork is as good as it was last issue, maybe better. The battles and blood we get here look great and flow from one scene to another, and the between bits of moving and talking all look great too. I like this comic’s heavy use of black and shadows throughout. It makes the colors pop, but it also makes the Black Road look all the more dangerous.
I’m curious to see where this comic goes, because minor tropes notwithstanding, I really have no idea what to expect. Maybe that’s why it’s captured me like a Pokemon.
