Heathen 3

by Natasha Alterici, Ashley A. Woods, Morgan Martinez
collects Heathen #9-12
volume reviews: one | two | three [complete]

Heathen had so much promise – a feminist, LGBTQ story set within ancient Norse mythology, shown in Alterici’s striking art style with a muted color palette. After a rocky start, Alterici really hit her stride in volume two.

But Heathen comes to a very hasty, scattered conclusion in only four issues. The scant emotional payoff, spread out among multiple storylines, almost undoes all of the good the first two volumes built up.

spoilers this paragraph. The All-Father Odin is defeated by Aydis, Brynhild and others, but without any excitement or high stakes. Things seem to “go back to normal” without any noticeable shift, even though Odin symbolized the patriarchy. The Valkyries have a new job to do – that’s it? And the catalyst for the story, Aydis’ exile, isn’t resolved either – even though her love interest and her father return, we never see them reunite or reconcile with Aydis. To me, this is the biggest issue of the series – because you can remove the “man in power,” but that doesn’t mean sexism (or any other form of institutionalized oppression) is over. Odin’s out of power – so does Aydis’ father magically accept his queer daughter? Probably not. Does Aydis choose to return home or embark on her own path? Probably a better question than if Saga wants to hear a story. What happens after toxic men in power are dethroned? What an important question for our times – and for a story that leaned too hard into the commentary the first volume, it’s disappointing that this isn’t ever addressed.

spoilers continue. Nearly every other secondary character in the series appears, but like Aydis’ father and love interest, for no discernible reason than to make an appearance (aside from Ruadan). For example, when the wolves eat the crow spies, how exactly does that help Aydis and company? Why is the pirate crew joining the army a big deal, when the battle never actually occurs? And I don’t ever recall Aydis’ mother being mentioned or have much meaning in the story – so Aydis’ vision, and her mother’s role in Odin’s defeat, also fell completely flat. Also, at the beginning of the book, Aydis encounters two trolls, a father and son, whose wife/mother Nanna was captured by Odin. Aydis learns Nanna is part of the army heading south, but then this storyline is literally never addressed again.

These inconsistencies could have been resolved with a few more issues or more careful editing – my guess is Alterici wasn’t given enough issues to fully wrap up the story, which is a huge shame.

It doesn’t help that these writing issues are accompanied by a big shift in the art. Due to medical issues, Alterici also had to hand over the art to Woods and Martinez in this final volume. Woods and Martinez do their best to honor Alterici’s original style, but it was different enough that the transition is a bit jarring.

I really love Heathen‘s world and it’s very likely this ending wasn’t fully in Alterici’s control. I hope she’s able to add more to the world in the future; perhaps Alterici and Vault can publish a series of one-shots that help flesh out the finale and these secondary characters. For now, it’s a disappointing conclusion to a series I was starting to feel pretty invested in.