Written by: Joe Casey
Art by: Paul Maybury
Publisher: Image
As a beer guzzling reveler myself I thought that Valhalla Mad would be a silly and fun dream come true. Warrior gods travelling to Earth for no reason other than to party hard and check up on humanity? Sounds great!
Unfortunately, the idea ends up coming off as a weird gimmick and somehow manages to drag on.
The story is exactly what the summary says it is. Three gods travel down to earth to begin their celebration of Gluttonalia and they begin drinking almost immediately. We do get treated to a heroic arrival involving them saving a plane from crashing (which they technically caused themselves) and that sets up the the discussions of how much Earth has changed almost immediately. Which is understandable. After all, these gods were last on Earth a long time ago. Why would they expect their heroic deeds and sudden appearance to turn into a media circus?
The problem with this is that it sets up a really odd atmosphere that the comic suffers through for what seems like an eternity. The gods are immediately kicked into a celebrity status and their early partying involves heavy demands of explaining who they are and why they’re there. Again, it’s understandable, but as a reader it seems like a poorly constructed reason to toss out an origin story early into the series. Rather than let the series roll as this comedic series in which we watch some gods party their godly asses off, we immediately learn that they are supreme gods from a supreme godly planet where gods are born (or created) that has streams into other worlds/planets. And that these gods watch over these places and help bring peace in times of trouble.
It’s a very cool idea, don’t get me wrong, but I found myself becoming more intrigued with this other world and these gods rather than wanting to follow this current story. The gods do mention that Gluttonalia is an old old ritual but suddenly it seems like we’re getting the poorer story. I want to know more about gods crossing streams into other worlds to destroy evil. Not a godly bar crawl.
We do get some hints as to there being much more to the story and the gods appearance which may make some readers invested in the future of the series. And small clues point to some slightly odd details. For example, the gods recognize a few of the older people and the first bar owner they encounter mentions that the place used to be run his grandfather, whom the gods knew. This leads us to believe that the gods were last on the planet only 50-60 years ago if that. Why did they need to come to Earth then, why are they here now, and what is the criteria of this Gluttonalia ceremony?
Joe Casey is heavily invested in maintaining tone and character throughout this issue but his writing seems very hit or miss. For example, the gods speak entirely in Old English which is fairly humorous, especially in the atmosphere of a bar and them talking about drinking themselves merry. But as the comic goes into deep detail about stuff and the gods have to explain themselves it gets almost tiring. Panels seem to drag as a simple explanation is drawn out with Old English and what was originally funny quickly turns into an annoyance. Some people may love this since it’s a definite character trait and something that Casey definitely needs to commit to to make effective. I just personally found myself getting tired of it by the halfway point of the comic.
It’s even more unfortunate since Casey seems to rely on some of these characteristics for humor which stops actually being funny fairly quickly. When Casey actually wants to write jokes though, they’re poignant and funny simply for the way they’re handled so bluntly. When the gods first arrive on Earth, in New York, one of the gods makes a remark about how different their normal arrival point looks. One of the other gods then makes a remark about how he warned about the social phenomena of gentrification so they shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a funny little jab towards New York and it’s a pretty funny thought to think that these warrior gods actually know about something like gentrification let alone that they sit around and discuss the ramifications of it.
Paul Maybury’s art is problem the high point of the series because it’s very unique and very interesting to look at. His art is very colorful and he has some tremendously interesting character designs, especially in regards to the gods. I actually found myself spending most of time looking over Jhago because his design is so odd and unexpected that it demands attention. Which is a good thing. Certain scenes are also absolutely breathtaking which really solidifies his contribution to this comic. Maybury is a perfect fit for this title and I think that this comic wouldn’t be half as interesting as it is if there was something else working on this title. His art here is very similar to his art in Sovereign so fans of that will feel right at home.
Fans of Maybury’s work are probably the only people I can 100% recommend this to just because he has a great opportunity to really make some really great stuff within this title. I wish I could say the writing was as strong as the art because there’s a very interesting idea here that so far fails to be as cool as it should be. It almost feels like Casey isn’t sure what he wants this comic to be and that’s where a lot of the mediocrity comes in. On one side it’s a story about warrior gods partying nonstop. On the other it’s trying to set itself up to be a deep story about something very big. This first issue seems stuck between the two and because of that it doesn’t really do either part justice.
