Northlanders #1-17 (Ongoing)

is an American comic book series published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint. The stories are fictional but set in and around historical events during the Viking Age. Northlanders is written by Brian Wood, illustrated by various artists on a per storyline basis with painted cover art by Massimo Carnevale. The first issue of the series was published on December 5, 2007. Wood has said that the series will be divided into standalone eight issue story arcs separated by two-issue arcs. However, Issue 17, entitled "The Viking Art of Single Combat" is a self-contained single issue. It is one of the best comic stories I have read in a long time--it may be the best comic story for this year. Warren Ellis calls it "incredibly good." If there is one single-issue comic book you plan to buy, get this one. As for the series itself, it may perhaps be one of the best monthly comic books ongoing, along with the Robert Kirkman's .

In the first arc, "Sven the Returned," (issues #1-8) we follow the protagonist Sven, a self-exiled Viking warrior serving in the Byzantine Varangian Guard, as he returns (in A.D. 980) to his birth region in the Orkney Islands in order to reclaim his rightful inheritance. The second arc, "Lindisfarne," (issues #9-10) is about a young boy and the sacking of the Lindisfarne monastery in A.D. 793, the beginning of the Viking Age. The third arc, "The Cross + the Hammer," (issues #11-16) is set around Dublin, Ireland circa the Battle of Clontarf (A.D. 1014), and follows the chase of an Irishman who attacks the occupying Viking forces using guerrilla tactics. --

This is a thinking man's comics series, with metafictional elements juxtaposed alongside moral ambiguities and philosophical contrasts:

CBR writer Tim Callahan also posts the following observation to : More Northlanders thoughts: I like how @ sets up each arc as a philosophical contrast. Arc 1: Primitivism vs. Modernism. Arc 2: Faith vs. Materialism; Arc 3: Romanticism vs. Realism. And he does it all with vikings who wield big swords.

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