Wagner’s Ring But With More Gags And Gore: Reviewing ‘Beware The Eye Of Odin’ #4
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
Our heroes come to the end of their quest, but not before a hefty price is paid. Although, by the end we get one last big twist that foreshadows possible adventures yet to come from the have-a-go heroes that do make it to the icy end.
Overall
10/10Like a game of football, or soccer as you Yanks insist on calling it, Beware The Eye of Odin #4 by Doug Wagner and Tim Odland, is a story of two halves over yet another oversized issue. But then, those additional pages allow Odland all the space he needs to deliver another super-sized, bombastic showdown between good and evil, man and monster. And what an array of monsters we’ve had courtesy of Odland. Here, we have the multi-headed beats that is the shaman of the Trolls that aren’t without precedence in Viking folklore. Fell trolls, but ramped up to a ridiculously gruesome scale. David and Goliath, but in far colder climes. With the use of judiciously positioned speed lines, Odland infuses each scene of action with a dynamism and drama suitable for such a large-scale finale.
Wagner delivers a fantasy tale brimming with his trademark wit and gore, with the main part set in the underworld darkness of the Trolls’ kingdom and another set in the icy realms of Jötunheimer where our surviving heroes deliver the eponymous Eye of Odin. And Wagner delivers a final twist that harkens to hopes of future sagas yet to be told.
Michelle Madsen’s colours also add to the energy of the unfolding drama and lights up the otherwise dark environment of the trolls with every contact our hero makes with the unfortunate trolls’ various appendages. Add in the larger-than-life onomatopoeia of letterer Ed Dukeshire and you have a really fun, emotive read, albeit bitter-sweet at one particular point in the story when one of our heroes falls. Tragic, entertaining, and action-packed with great art, what more do you need from a comic book?
Beware The Eye of Odin #4 is out now from Image Comics
