Scan barcode
trish204's review
5.0
A pretty old comic (in fact, it's one year older than I am myself) but with a very good story.
This is a story about Asgard, home of the gods. As those interested in mythology know, Asgard is often fighting the inhabitants of other realms, such as giants or trolls, in order to keep the peace (relatively speaking) and prevent Ragnarok. This comic starts with a battle just like that. In this version of Asgard, the gods always fight under the Raven Banner which grants them victory. However, as with all magic, there is a cath: the standard bearer has to die to pay for the gods' victory. The noble family of Grimson are these standard bearers. However, when Magnus Grimson dies to ensure the gods' victory, his son isn't there to retrieve the banner and carry on the burden.
Greyvald Grimson (son of Magnus) would like to live and enjoy a long godly life with his newly-wed wife, the Valkyrie Sygnet, instead. The irony that is present in ALL of the Norse myths?
The actual story here is about Greyvald's character development, his journey to find courage and even help someone else finding it too, and do the right thing. And it's a wonderfully woven story with a tone befitting a story about the Asgardian gods.
The story is about what courage truly means. Many people think (wrongfully) that courage means the absence of fear when in fact it means doing the right thing despite being afraid.
And it's a story about honour, about how you can still salvage a situation after having made a mistake if you have the strength and will.
Basically, the summary of this story is something my great-grandmother once told me:
"Better to have had and lost something than to have never had it at all."
In the end, isn't the fact that time will always run out on everybody exactly what makes the time we're given so precious?!
The art is ... for the lack of a better description ... old. I had difficulty finding this volume, even in special stores, since it is from 1985 and apparently not too well-known unfortunately. However, that doesn't mean that it's bad, it was just not 100% to my liking (some panels also lacked quality printing but that is due to the fact that the quality back then wasn't what it can be today). By the way, some of the depictions in the panels reminded me of an old animated series I used to watch as a kid (it was about Prinz Eisenherz/Prince Valiant).
I wish MARVEL would rediscover these old tales of theirs and reprint them, because the storytelling is fantastic and this story would definitely deserve a beautiful reprint.
This is a story about Asgard, home of the gods. As those interested in mythology know, Asgard is often fighting the inhabitants of other realms, such as giants or trolls, in order to keep the peace (relatively speaking) and prevent Ragnarok. This comic starts with a battle just like that. In this version of Asgard, the gods always fight under the Raven Banner which grants them victory. However, as with all magic, there is a cath: the standard bearer has to die to pay for the gods' victory. The noble family of Grimson are these standard bearers. However, when Magnus Grimson dies to ensure the gods' victory, his son isn't there to retrieve the banner and carry on the burden.
Greyvald Grimson (son of Magnus) would like to live and enjoy a long godly life with his newly-wed wife, the Valkyrie Sygnet, instead. The irony that is present in ALL of the Norse myths?
Spoiler
Had he done his duty, he would have gotten at least a few years of exactly that, might even have been able to watch his own son grow up, but because he ran away from his duty - seemingly to a better/longer life - he was able to redeem himself but had to die immediately after.The actual story here is about Greyvald's character development, his journey to find courage and even help someone else finding it too, and do the right thing. And it's a wonderfully woven story with a tone befitting a story about the Asgardian gods.
The story is about what courage truly means. Many people think (wrongfully) that courage means the absence of fear when in fact it means doing the right thing despite being afraid.
And it's a story about honour, about how you can still salvage a situation after having made a mistake if you have the strength and will.
Basically, the summary of this story is something my great-grandmother once told me:
"Better to have had and lost something than to have never had it at all."
In the end, isn't the fact that time will always run out on everybody exactly what makes the time we're given so precious?!
The art is ... for the lack of a better description ... old. I had difficulty finding this volume, even in special stores, since it is from 1985 and apparently not too well-known unfortunately. However, that doesn't mean that it's bad, it was just not 100% to my liking (some panels also lacked quality printing but that is due to the fact that the quality back then wasn't what it can be today). By the way, some of the depictions in the panels reminded me of an old animated series I used to watch as a kid (it was about Prinz Eisenherz/Prince Valiant).
I wish MARVEL would rediscover these old tales of theirs and reprint them, because the storytelling is fantastic and this story would definitely deserve a beautiful reprint.
More...