“Valhalla Mad” is a comedy about three Norse Gods who descend on earth for a ritual they call “The Gluttonalia”, which is basically an excuse to stomp around and get really drunk and be pretentious assholes. There is A LOT of dialogue and almost all of it is in a middle english style. Once you get into the rhythm of the book, though, its pretty fun how Norse Gods and modern day New Yorkers react to one another. The Gods expect to be treated like, well, Gods, and the humans really don’t have time for their shit. As situationally funny as it was, the sudden shift at the end to actually tell a story didn’t do a lot to create an appetite for more. Nevertheless, this is a great first issue.
WRITTEN BY: Joe Casey
ART BY: Paul Maybury
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: May 20, 2015
Everything that “happens” in this issue can be summed up in one sentence: some Gods show up on earth to party, everyone is pretty annoyed by them. This isn’t a sustainable premise for a series, but for a single issue it worked remarkably well. While at first I was a little bumped by how slowly I had to read the dialogue, and as I said there is a lot of it, I eventually got into they way the Gods look at the world. They are like children, demanding immediate gratification and responding to every situation with intense, over the top emotion. They are proud and boastful and generally have a positive disposition.
Mortals are insignificant to them, and therein lies the problem. There are reference to their last adventure to earth and while they remember it as a heroic journey to protect the human race, those who were there remember the property destruction and lack of mind paid to the people. This juxtaposition is where a lot of the comedy comes from, that and normal people’s reaction to these goofy flying men who talk gibberish and wear battle armor. The type of humor here is perfectly summed up by their entrance when they rescue a downed airplane, thinking themselves great heroes, when it was actually their lightning bolt arrival that caused the accident in the first place.
After enjoy a drink at a pub and regaling the people with stories of their divine origin, the three fly to the bronx on the command of their leader, Knox. Knox evidently has a plan involving a old man that lives there. The final page promise that book two will “morph from drunken celebration into a dramatic tale of woe”. So if you didn’t like the first issue, don’t worry things are going to get darker and more story driven in the future, and if you did like it…er…
I imagine the series will maintain its tone and sense of humor for the most part, and I recognize no book can continue on without a plot, but the final moments of this issue seemed to promise something different than what we got in this issue and I’m not really sure what to expect for the future of “Valhalla Mad”. This issue won me over and then sort of apologized for itself at the end. I’m not sure what to make of that yet, but I guess that is a good enough reason to come back for more.