Norse Mythology: The Mead of Poets #1 Review: A Double Threat

Dark Horse Continues with their comic book adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “Norse Mythology” with the telling of “The Mead of Poets” with artwork by Matt Horak.  

This story is about how two groups of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir, created a man called Kvasir who is called the “Wisest of the Gods.” One of the wisest things he has is poetry, which two dwarves decided to take by killing him and using his blood to make mead. Odin hears about this and wants to take this mead back to the gods.

This is one of those “how humans got this” kind of story that every mythology has. Since this is Norse mythology, there has to be blood and there’s lots of it. Of course, that doesn’t mean the rest of the events are boring or unimportant. Gaiman does a fine job of imitating how a traditional mythology story is told while at the same time having some of the characters use modern vernacular. That may not sit well with traditionalists, but considering that the characters who use that are the dwarves, being that are traditionally portrayed as being gruff and uncharismatic, that decision is justified.

Horak should be given kudos for his art. His character designs do justice to the characters in that they do look like what the Norse from ages ago would recognize (sans horned helmets which are more of a Wagner opera thing.) Also, the giants and dwarves are basically humans but either much smaller or taller and Horak does that. The panel with the two dwarves reciting poetry on their roof looks the best.

Fans of Norse mythology will enjoy the continued adaptation of Gaiman’s  â€œNorse Mythology” with a well told story that reads like how a Norse myth usually reads like and nice looking art. This comic series not only will appease comic book readers, but will also be ammo for teachers who want to use comics to teach myth in their class.