2 out of 5

Bummer.  I was cautious making final judgments on the first Helheim arc;  it was a lot of set up and had Bunn sinking into some of his narrative indulgences (prevalent in everything he’s written except for, uh, Sixth Gun) but in establishing the draugr Rikard as a Frankenstein’s monster who can kick demons’ winkles, get his head chopped off, and soldier on, there was potential for some over-violent camp in future arcs.  But you couldn’t tell if that was the intention.  I waited for that future arc and didn’t hear anything, and had just put the books in the ol’ sell / recycle / giveaway pile when Brides started.  So I gave the first issue a shot.  Problem: Bunn and JoElle Jones did not pick up the story thread I’d hoped (monster battles starring: Rikard) and instead jumped the narrative forward a few years… when the young girl who ‘befriended’ our draugr from the first arc is living with him and their two witch zombies, wiling away their days all gloomy and cryptic.  Not too interesting.  Potential solution: A young couple slinks toward Rikard’s hovel and asks him for help in dispensing with ‘Mordvig,’ who’s ravaging their town.  Ah, blind samurai avenger filtered through viking myth, eh Bunn?  I can dig it.  And Jones’ art seems focused, like she’d spent all the interim time drawing nothing but Rikard to scrape away some of the sketchiness that didn’t always service the first arc too well; her work is awesome in other words, out-shining Nick Filardi’s somewhat bland colors.

Mordvig – spoiler, it’s just a fucking bear – is dispensed in a few bloody panels, and then Rick is like, ‘kay, done, now I’m off on this mission to kill the witches’ creator, sorry I didn’t mention that.  …So the bear thing is a weird first issue diversion that… maybe just ends up being a clumsy way to tie Rickard to the couple (more directly: the girl).  Or maybe it was just so Bunn could (spoiler) have a zombie bear later, which is used as a penultimate issue cliffhanger, which seems dumb since it was dispensed of so easily already.  But whatever: in traveling to his target, Rickard surfs the seas inside a giant fish’s mouth, and issue two has him arriving awesomely on the shores via this transport in a splash page that should be hung up somewhere and the rest of the world’s art thrown out.  Then: more monster battles.  The third issue is mostly backstory, not bad, and then… and then…  And then it becomes a bummer.  The third issue cliffhanger is unexpected; the fourth issue resolution of that refers to events in panels that were maybe skipped and also suddenly turns into a lovestory.  This would be an acceptably clever and campy twist if it was written and drawn effectively, but to the former, it turns out that Bunn’s heavy-handed narration works fine with B-movie fodder but is obnoxious when trying to romance it – or perhaps exposes that he’s serious about this stuff and not aiming to make the pulp comic I wanted –  and to the latter, Jones’ panels and figures for the rest of the arc seem comparatively simple.  There’s still some fighting, it just doesn’t feel as dynamic or weighty anymore.  So the book slowly takes a dive into bummer land, and in doing so confirms the doubts that crept up with the first arc.  If Rikard were a more interesting character – and come to think of it, perhaps this is why Sixth Gun works so well, because all of the leads feel established – this slightly more story-driven path would work, but I feel like the covers and genre are promoting something different than what Bunn is writing.

Things could get better again (or more in line with my admitted expectations) but that just doesn’t seem like the intention.  And I don’t think I’ll wait the couple years to try again this time.