3 out of 5

Covers first arc (#1- 6)

Yeah, you just can’t tell yet.  ‘Helheim’ has a lot of promise, but Bunn isn’t a proven writer to me yet, even though a recent re-read of Sixth Gun up to date set me back on track for digging that book.  I’ve yet to see him finish out a long running series (I mean, ‘Sixth’ will be his first, if and when… a blurb in one issue slates it at about 50 issues, so we’ll see), and his shorts have been flavored by my appreciation of ‘Gun.’  Meaning that I don’t know if I’d hold on to ‘The Tooth’ if I wasn’t reading his other series, and the ‘Sons of the Gun’ mini was certainly a let down.  During my ‘Sixth’ re-read, I realized that the first arc made me want to give up the book, since it was rather shoddily written and just flying by on a Big Idea and awesome art.  But Bunn was front-loading the story to get to developmental meat, and so I can’t help but wonder if that’s what ‘Helheim’ will do as well, since these first issues remind me (story-wise) of the rushed nature of those first ‘Gun’ books.

Art-wise, we’re hearing a lot of praise for Joëlle Jones, but, I’m sorry, she doesn’t do it for me.  Her paneling and layouts are incredibly static, using large and looming angular figures as substitutes for creative camera placement, and the action sequences always show a moment just before or after the visual clue I’d need to fully picture what’s going on.  So you see motion, but it’s not really clear what that motion is supposed to be.  Also, yes, we’re in a wasteland, but leaving the background primarily stark doesn’t work as an effective contrast here.  Something about Jones’ sketchy line-style makes the foreground not confident enough to properly juxtapose the wan skies or empty fields.  AND… Nick Filardi’s colors are a gorgeous blend of moody darks and pastels, but they also just don’t provide the feeling I want from the book.  Basically, the art doesn’t carry the heft I think is intended.  I like Jones’ designs and her (?) style in general, but I feel like there were better matches for the story.

So real quick like: we pick up with Rikard and daddy and crew running from some ‘demons’ back to the safety of their village.  Rikard sees a ghost – who I guess is him?  It’s really not made too clear in any of Ghost’s many appearances and is another flaw in the scripting / art – and then a little while later he’s beheaded by the demons.  Womp womp.  Dad was busy trying to give Rikard’s girlfriend – Bera – to the demons, stating that she’s the one they want so take her and yadda yadda, and Rikard was trying to stop dad, and thus not focusing on protecting himself from neck-swinging axes.  Again, I’m putting some faith here – this is a MASSIVE oversight in the plotting that’s not touched upon.  The way it’s depicted, Rikard’s father is, in a way, responsible for his son’s death, and yet they mention nothing of this, the blame being placed solely on Bera.  Sixth Gun had some initial oversights as well that stirred my editorial rumblings, but Bunn managed to slooooowly bring it back around.  Will the same happen here?  Harumph.  As more of this ‘faith,’ it’s also never explained how Dad suddenly keyed on the Bera problem, because she WAS what the demons were after, …Bera being a witch who controls the dead and who is at war with a witch who controls demons.  There’s a brief line about how they all just went along with her, suggesting the whole town knew something was amiss, but, well, it’s just sorta rushed past, like OH YEAH NOW I KNOW SHE’S A WITCH SUDDENLY IN BETWEEN PANELS FUCK.  Also – ‘I control the dead,’ ‘I control demons.’  Pretty iffy there, Bunn.

Bera, as a response to demon attack, raises Rikard from the dead and stitches him together with other warrior bits to make an ultimate ‘draugr.’  Pardon my misspellings or poor memory of names.  Yet again, I’m too lazy to look this stuff up at the mo, so.  Just deal.  Rikard’s dad thus pledges to kill the draugr.  Cue confusing break in the action where the Rikard-beast and his Dad are both in the same village but then the draugr is secreted away so that Dad has to ‘track’ it.  PRETTY IFFY, BUNN.  (PIB)

Whatever, that’s all your setup.  Then there’s four issues of fun slaughter, with Rikard stitching on various body parts he picks up and becoming this funky deadite / demon hybrid which apparently gives him the power of individuality, and thus he decides to bring the war to both witches.

This initial war does end in the first arc, as the initial battle for the guns ended at the first arc of ‘Sixth,’ and all ended up being prelude.  With an intriguing setup for a next arc on the very last page of issue 6, yes, I’m holding on to the hope that things will slow down and develop, because at this point, Rikard is an empty character and his father’s motivations were really shaky, and the witch drama was never given enough identity to make you feel like there was really much threat.  Part of that blame swings back to Jones, who seems to draw demons and the dead as similar monsters, so whatever, it’s all bad news and there might as well have been one witch.  Helheim, thus far, is very readable, and packed with enough ideas to keep you buying issues, but we’re relying almonst entirely on Bunn here, not buffered by Brian Hurtt’s goddamn luscious artwork – whether you like Jones or not, her work isn’t as tied to the feel of the series as Hurtt’s was / is (along with that series’ designer) – and so there’s got to be some work done to make this first arc retroactively worth reading.  Otherwise, pick up the sixth issue and you’ve got the general idea.