Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"Fuck off. I'm eating."
"Take it easy. This is business. You are Magnus, yes?"
"I only arrived in town this morning. No one should know me."
"Perhaps your reputation precedes you?"
"Reputations kill. I prefer to be alone and unknown."
"How much privacy, Magnus, would this buy you?"
"What's that for? You want someone killed?"
"Not at all! Good heavens. I'm not talking about murder. I'm talking about an escort job. Taking a church official up the Northern Road to Hammaruskk Coast."
"The Northern Road. We call it the Black Road, and had you spent more than two fucking minutes in this land, you'd have known that. And a voyage up the Black Road most likely is a murder trip."
Finally! For those of us who have been waiting patiently since the flaming longboat burial afforded to Brian Wood's NORTHLANDERS saga on the Vertigo imprint, our patience has been rewarded, and how! Magnus the Black is a man with much on his mind. He's had the emotional bedrock of his life shattered with the loss of his wife and seen the presumed sovereignty of Odin and the old gods smashed by the one true God of Christianity.
It's the latter which probably causes him to take the escort job, at four times the original price, of course, because it gives Magnus the chance to ask the Cardinal some burning questions. About how a man born a heathen can get into Heaven, for example... He's hoping the answers will give some structure to the rest of his life, one way or the other. Not that he believes a life of piety and forgiveness will be required in either eventuality...
"... I wanted to be closer to the Christians. They talk in riddles. They preach peace and love in the midst of performing incredible violence.
"There's a structure, a purpose to what they do that is beyond my ken. They're changing Norskk, changing it with words and with iron and with blood. I need to understand them better.
"I have yet to determine if I will go to war for the Christians, or against them."
It won't surprise you to learn that the trip up North isn't without its challenges. Of the head meets hammer variety, that is... The Cardinal's not worried, though, he says he's got a guardian angel. Which is where the mystery really begins...
What a wonderfully dark opener! It's like NORTHLANDERS never went away (please note, the rest of the re-collected bigger editions of NORTHLANDERS will be out shortly). And whilst Garry Brown never worked with Brian Wood on that title, fans of THE MASSIVE will be more than familiar with his work. It's a gritty, flinty style that's perfect for this title and as with NORTHLANDERS, the colours, provided here by Dave McCaig are suitably understated and restrained.
