Comic Review: The Life Eaters

If you've been following this blog for a while you know that I love alternate history, and I love mythology.  So what happens when I find a comic that combines them both?  I'll save you the trouble.  Today we'll be taking a look at The Life Eaters by David Brin with art by Scott Hampton.  Also available from Comixology. 

The Life Eaters is an expansion of Brin's novella "Thor Meets Captain America."  No, not the ones you're probably thinking of.  The comic takes place in a world where Nazi Germany used the Holocaust as a form of mass necromancy to summon the Norse gods.  As a result, the Nazi are able to push themselves back from the brink of defeat.  They push the Allies out of Europe and succeed in conquering the British Isles and Russia.  World War II has dragged on into the 1960s.  The Nazis have their sights set on America, but the Allies continue to fight on thanks to the help of the trickster god Loki. 

The comic is divided into three parts, and part one is pretty much a straight-up retelling of "Thor Meets Captain America."  Personally, I found this to be the best part of the comic.  The artwork is done in a way that invokes the photorealistic watercolor style of Alex Ross.  The gods are all drawn reasonably mythologically accurate.  Thor has red hair and a beard.  Well, everyone except for Loki.  He's just as muscular as the other gods, even though the myths would suggest he has a more slender appearance.  He also has a long white beard, causing him to look a bit like Odin.  This leg of the story follows a man named Chris as he leads an expedition of Allie forces on a mission to Sweden.  Besides the issues with Loki's appearance, there's also the issue of how the expedition arrives in Sweden.  They take a submarine under the thinking that the Norse gods don't function well underwater.  This is simply untrue, as there are several aquatic Norse deities such as Aegir and his daughters the seven waves. 

Despite these criticisms, I did overall enjoy this part of the comic.  I liked how the gods are portrayed.  They view the Nazis as a source of sacrifices, but don't support Nazi ideology.  For example, when a black solider tries to attack Odin, and is killed by a priest, Odin immediately orders him to be given full funeral rights.  He says, essentially, "I want that brave man fighting at my side when Ragnarok comes."  It is also mentioned that the Nazi elites are losing their grip on power, and the priest of the Aesir are the ones who really run the reich these days.  The Aesir honor valor and courage even when their enemies are the ones expressing it.  Thor expresses a certain admiration for Chris's resilience. 

There's also a nice reference to the poem Old Norse poem "Grimnismal" when Odin mentions that his raven Muninn was killed when the Allies nuked Berlin.  In the poem Odin talks of his ravens Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory.  He fears the day Huginn does not return, but more does he fear that Muninn won't come back.  In other words, he's getting older, and he fears the day he will be nothing more than a senile old man who can't even form coherent thoughts. 

Brin mentioned that the whole reason The Life Eaters came to be was that he was trying to write a Nazi Victory alternate history, but couldn't think of a plausible way for it to happen.  He was also trying to rationalize the Holocaust, at least to himself.  Of course that the thing about the Holocaust.  As methodical as it was, it was also utterly irrational.  The Nazis had to ignore science to justify their slaughter.  Not to mention that the whole thing was actively detrimental to their war effort because of all the resources and manpower that were diverted. 

So the first third ends with Chris snapping Odin's spear Gungnir, and fatally wounding himself.  Still, it does give hope that one day mortal men will be able to rise up and defeat the gods.  Okay, so despite some minor flaws, it was a good start to the comic. 

The second part of the comic pick up the action in the 1970s.  The Nazis have conquered America and Canada, but they aren't unopposed.  The Japanese have used necromancy to summon the Shinto gods, the Indians have summoned the Hindu gods, and the various nations of Africa have summoned their gods.  The part of the story follows a young solider named Joseph Kasting has he finds himself drawn into the world of the underground Allied resistance.

I'd assumed that the Nazi's rituals worked because the Norse gods were dead.  Early Christian missionaries would claim that Ragnarok had already occurred, and that Norse Mythology was a prequel to the Bible.  However, it appears that you can create gods out of thin air by believing hard enough, and performing enough human sacrifice.  Still, it was an interesting idea to have other nations create their own gods.  We do get a taste of this as Joseph and his comrades engage Hindu gods in Cambodia.  The Norse gods don't do so well in tropical climates.  The Allies are operating for under the sea, but I've already explained why this doesn't work.  Again, flawed, but I liked how it expanded upon the initial world of the novella.  Although I did stop a horned helmet.  The Vikings did not wear horned helmets.  It is a misconception that comes from early archaeologist finding drinking horns next to helmets in burial mounds, and wrongly assume thing they went together. 

Part three is where things really start to come apart.  Joseph is tasked by the Resistance to stop Loki, who wasn't as trustworthy as he seemed, from bringing about Ragnarok.  The first flaw happens Joseph meets a coalition of Christians, Jews and Muslims.  They spend several scenes blabbering about how they've put aside their differences and love each other now.  Oh, bullshit. I highly doubt the Abrahamic Faith's would start loving each other, and stop trying to killed each other, just because pagan gods starred reappearing.  Also, the Christians use the ichthus because the Muslims find crosses offensive, which is even more bullshit.  To explain why we'd need to discuss the Crusades, and that's a conversation for another time.  The Abrahamic Coalition makes a big deal about how their faiths require no sacrifices, which is nonsense.  Judaism doesn't currently perform sacrifices, but only because of a lack of a temple in Jerusalem.  Christianity places a lot of significance on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  Muslims sacrifice plenty of sheep of Eid. 

Anyway, moving on.  The biggest problem I have with The Life Eaters is that it bit off more than it could chew.  It came up with interesting ideas, but didn't have nearly enough space to properly develop them.  As a result, the ending comes across as rushed and anti-climactic.  Moreover, the moral of "stop waiting for all-powerful beings to save you, and instead save yourself" came across as way more heavy-handed than in the first part.  Again, this comic was way too short.  It needed more time to properly develop its plot and world.

So, what are my final thoughts on The Life Eaters?  It certainly wasn't the worst alternate history comic I've ever read.  There was a lot to love about the first 2/3.  However, there was significant room for improvement.  Despite having a very interesting premise, the comic failed to make the most of it, and needed more room to properly develop its world. 

Well, I think that should do it for now.  I will see you all next time.

Comic Review: Arrowsmith

Well, I've run out of alternate history comics that don't feature alien space bats to share with you guys. That having been said, we shouldn't get disheartened. There are many great stories that can be told by combining alternate history with things such as magic and aliens. With that in mind, today we're taking a look at the comic Arrowsmith by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. 

Arrowsmith takes place in a world where magic and mythical creatures are real. They decided to reveal themselves to humanity during the Middle Ages and have lived in relative harmony since the Peace of Charlemagne in the year 803. By the year 1915 the nations of Europe are engaged in a great war with world-spanning consequences.

Fletcher Arrowsmith, a farm boy from the United States of Columbia, longs to get out and see the world. When the chance comes to join a volunteer regiment to fight for the Ententes, he leaps at the opportunity. He’s sure that it will be the adventure of a lifetime. However, Fletcher soon comes to find that war isn’t all fun and games. Before any of you ask, this comic has nothing to do with the band Aerosmith. 

Right off the bat I knew I was in for a good time with this story. An alternate history comic with magic, dragons and World War I? It had me at hello. Now, if you’re the kind of person who reads alternate histories for plausibility, you might have some issues with Arrowsmith. Ignoring the inherent implausibly of magic and mythical creatures, there’s the fact that the borders of North America and Europe are awfully concurrent despite the presumably massive changes to history.

Actually, why don’t I show you what North America and Europe look like in this world. I apologize in advance for the somewhat lackluster quality of these images, but they were the best I could find.

There’s a lot of archaic names, a bit more Balkanization, but they’re not too terribly different from Europe in our world’s 1915. The map of North America is just begging for elaboration. This tends to happen in a lot of alternate history works. The writers focus on the areas related to the story, and leave everything else as an afterthought. Mind you, this isn’t a criticism. I’ve done it enough in my own works, and there’s only so much you can fit into a given story. Plus, there are hints that there were plans for elaborations in future volumes. Hold that thought, we’ll get back to it in just a minute.

For now, let’s go back to plausibility. Okay, Arrowsmith isn’t the most plausible alternate history, but that was never the point. The idea of Arrowsmith was to tell a World War I story with magic and dragons added on top. In this regard, it more than succeeds. Beneath the magic and dragons, Arrowsmith is very much a typical World War I tale. We see Fletcher go from a wide-eyed idealist to a mature young man as he witnesses the horrors of war. Some of the most memorable, and touching, scenes are when Fletcher loses friends in combat. There’s also a scene that really reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut’s description of the bombings of Dresden and Munich during World War II. I’d tell you more, but I wouldn’t want to spoil such a great scene.

If there is a weakness to this comic its with how it handles its message. There does appear to be a bit of an anti-war theme, as per most works centered around World War I. However, it is a bit undercut by how cool all the battle scenes look. To be fair, it’s a problem that tends to be common among media with an anti-war message. Plus, I get the feeling that, as fun as the battles might be to watch, they’d be a lot less fun to participate in.

I would have also liked to see the non-human characters given a bit more focus. We only really have one, a golem named Rocky, who gets truly fleshed out. One thing I found interesting about him was that he worships the Norse gods. It would have been nice to see a little more about the religious beliefs of the magical creatures. Adding to that, there’s a scene where Fletcher has a vision of the Norse gods; it is ambiguous as to whether or not it was a hallucination induced by the stress of battle. Admittedly, overall these are relatively minor points. Instead, let’s talk more about the things I loved.

I like spotting all of the subtle differences from the 1915 of our world. For example, Uncle Sam still wants you, but he wears a stars and stripes wizard hat and robe. In fact, a lot of the propaganda posters in the background are based on those from our world’s World War I. I thought that the magic used by the Air Forces was responsibly well done. The pilots use special talismans to channel the energies of dragon hatchlings that sit on their shoulders. Also, on that note, I thought that the dragon hatchlings were absolutely adorable. I saw them and I thought “Aw, I want one!” The artwork is really well done. The landscapes and backgrounds are great, and the characters are well drawn

I also found it interesting that there’s still plenty of technology along with all the magic. We see magic powered ships, but certain scenes show that steam powered ships are still in use. There are also hints that there’s a bit of a rivalry between magic users and technology advocates. That is, if comments made by Fletcher’s blacksmith father are anything to go by.

Arrowsmith tells a complete story, but it was intended to be part of a bigger series. For whatever reason, the sequels never materialized. Kurt Busiek hinted, back in 2011, that there might be hope yet. At this point, however, I think it’s safe to say these sequels probably aren’t going to see the light of day. It’s a damn shame, there’s so much potential for sequels. The world could have really gotten fleshed out, and not just with the continuing adventures of Fletcher and company. There could have been prequels set in earlier eras of history; the possibilities are endless.

I guess most of the criticisms I’ve voiced can really be put down to how much I loved this comic and wish it had sequels. It’s such a good comic book, and I desperately wish there were more. Still, perhaps it’s best to not dwell on what could have been, but celebrate what is. Arrowsmith is one of the best alternate history and fantasy comics out there. If you’re looking for a fantasy twist on World War I, or a good comic in general, it can't be beat.