Uh oh, Reynolds had to show something on the last page–an ominous reveal of future Viking Thing incidents I think–and he couldn’t do it.

I’m getting to hate those moments in comics, where writers do something totally natural for film and then the artist can’t get the point across.

Otherwise, Reynolds’s art continues to be fantastic. The really gross Thing moments are great here, making me wish it was a real comic and not just some online thing.

Niles’s script is mostly action and it works. Until that confusing last page anyway.

What’s most interesting, having only read the comics and seen the 1982 Thing, is it seems like Niles’s Thing is unrelated. Same species, different alien. It doesn’t have me racing out to see the new movie to find out because Niles doesn’t draw any attention to it.

Sure, Northman promotes the movie, but not very well.

Niles is beginning to impress me on Northman. He moves into the famous Thing standard… a lot of suspicious people standing around inspecting one another.

His dialogue’s somewhat better too. There’s one passage where he’s completely obvious at trying to lay the groundwork for a reveal and it’s stunning he’s so brazenly predictable.

But still, I liked this installment. It’s the Vikings in this village trying to figure things out. The resolution to the previous issue’s cliffhanger is so quiet, I had to go back and look to see there was indeed a cliffhanger.

The installment is three scenes. One talking scene, a brief nighttime scene to show time is passing and then another talking scene. Niles paces them out quite well.

And artist Reynolds continues to do well. Even though he occasionally loses track of people.

Northman’s still a stunt, but it’s getting to be a better one.

As an online exclusive, Dark Horse is publishing these Northman Nightmare “issues” (for free). It’s a prequel to the new Thing movie, which is a prequel to the old Thing movie (the 1982 one, not the original). Dark Horse previously published sequels to the 1982 film. It’d be more interesting if they’d done a sequel to the movie prequel, but whatever.

Since Vikings are all the rage now (or semi-rage, thanks to Thor), this unlikely prequel takes place in the twelfth century or something and features Vikings versus the Thing.

Patric Reynolds does a fine job. He draws Vikings, he draws snow-covered landscapes, he draws icky creatures and their skeletons. It’s not exactly heavy lifting, but Reynolds’s approach isn’t a sci-fi comic starring Vikings, it’s Vikings having a sci-fi adventure.

Steve Niles writes an okay script. His dialogue could be better.

Still, it’s a boring stunt.

CREDITS

Writer, Steve Niles; artist, Patric Reynolds; colorist, Dave Stewart; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Scott Allie and Daniel Chabon; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.