The craziest thing about The Spider King isn’t the premise–Vikings vs. Aliens–the craziest thing is how Simone D’Armini’s faces look like Muppet faces. The noses. So it’s this bloody, action-packed–not realistically visualized–muppet Vikings versus Aliens.
Except not yet. First issue is first act. The Spider King is a four-issue split of a single graphic novel. So first issue is just backstory on the lead–a young, not very good at it, warrior king, Hrolf. His uncle has been trying to take over the throne for ten years, when he killed his brother (Hrolf’s father) and made the lad a too young king.
Lots of blood, lots of guts, lots of visual humor. Writer Josh Vann gets up a momentum, which includes a B plot about a bigger warrior king’s daughter running off to fight the villain uncle because her father doesn’t listen to her. Will she fall for doofus king? Will uncle meld with an alien warlord and bring about Ragnarok?
Vann’s got the momentum for the story to keeping going… because it was originally a single volume. Be interesting to see if it keeps up in four installments.
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