Image’s Odin miniseries features main characters that are the absolute dregs of humanity. They’re neo-Nazis. Racists, homophobes and the same invertebrate ilk who think Andrew Tate and Donald Trump are the definitions of manhood and machismo. Odin sets these characters off in search of Odin himself, in the hope of ultimately bringing back the Nordic gods to make the “dread white race” supreme.
One of their party, Adela, is secretly a journalist, doing some Hunter S. Thompson-style gonzo reporting by infiltrating their group in the hopes of writing a scathing exposé on them (similar to how Hunter S. Thompson ingratiated himself with a gang of Hell’s Angels from 1965-1966 and afterwards wrote a tell-all book about them).
As Odin #3, written by Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV with art by Letizia Cadonici and colors by Jordie Bellaire, begins, everyone has come to grips with being stranded in the icy wasteland where they hope Odin will appear to them. Now they’re in full survival mode. I love how the book feels claustrophobic, even though the group is in the middle of a vast landscape. Every sound becomes menacing and every creature that wanders by a horrifying omen.
Despite the bleak emptiness of the landscape, artist Letizia Cadonici fills every panel with frosty menace. You can practically feel the frigid air wafting off the page and malevolence stalks every scene, with some of the backgrounds almost subliminally making it feel as if the group is being stalked. On a reread, I swear I spotted a couple hideous beasts watching them at times from behind gnarled trees. Cue the shivers.
Image
Last issue, the group cannibalized one of their own members, lost in a drugged trance that had them convinced he was a deer ripe for eating. This issue, as they wonder what to do with his ravaged and shredded body, they learn he wasn’t “pure white”, igniting the usual hateful garbage from the men in the group, echoed by the women. Adela, trying to stay undercover and not arouse suspicion, joins in but (like most sane people) is baffled at why women would yearn to be baby-making machines subservient to the men in the group who don’t even have enough IQ voltage to keep their brains warm.
We get a hideous massive monster this issue, but the real horror are the people. Tanner, the “leader” of the group, is the most vocal, brutish and entitled, but the truly terrifying character is Fred, the rich benefactor of the group. Yes, the name Fred doesn’t exactly make people weak-kneed with terror, but this guy’s different from Tanner and the other morons in the group. He’s quiet, intellectual and seems to know more about people than they know about themselves. His eyes are piercing and hypnotic, even when he’s wearing shades, and Adela feels like he’s going to expose her at any moment.
Writers Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV have created a real gem here, a story that combines dark supernatural horror with the horrors we see much too frequently in the real world to create a wonderfully atmospheric and disturbing third chapter.
You must be logged in to post a comment.