Prog 1706 - sibling rivalry

[Dark Jimbo]

The introduction of the [spoiler]witch[/spoiler] character this week seemed a bit too convenient, also that the boat took Rowan directly to her. It's as if the werewolf outbreak has wiped out all of humanity saving only people whose presence is necessary in terms of the story/prophecy.

I thought I'd missed an episode at first. I appreciate the story's brevity - I suppose we didn't necessarily need to see the duo's escape down the Thames, after all - but it can feel like it's jumping around a bit erratically as a result.

I should like this story more than I do. I want to like it more than I do. I'm a huuuuuge fan of Norse mythology and its intricacies, find werewolves as cool as the next man and love London-based apocalypse scenarios - I've also been waiting expectantly for Alec Worley's first full series for some time. All the ingredients are there for a thrill that pushes all my buttons, and yet the sum total of all these parts is leaving me quite cold. I'm not really invested in the story and don't especially care what happens to the characters. If it wasn't in next week's prog I'm not sure I'd even notice.

Still hoping the lethargy passes and I can enjoy it as much as I want to, though.

[Proudhuff]

Anyway everything in Age of the Wolf proceeds entirely logically if you proceed from the assumption that it has a basis in Norse mythology. We're in the endless winter that precedes Ragnorak, when the wolf Fenris and his children eat the Sun. He also has previous form in biting off heroes hands, incidentally. The divination of the true names of things and focusing the will to control them through the use of runes also fits the theme (and is what I ludicrously consider "proper" mythical use of magic, like in Earthsea). If you want to go even further, the leaves in this week's episode look close enough to Ash for me, so that's Rowan (the mountain ash) confronting the evil that lurks under the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree.

aaag, that makes sense, nice one cosh, might have to re-read my Rosemary Sutcliffe now

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Anyway everything in Age of the Wolf proceeds entirely logically if you proceed from the assumption that it has a basis in Norse mythology.

That's interesting. So, presumably you know how it will end?

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah I'd picked up bits of the Norse stuff (well the runes kinda sign posted it) but read with this level of insightful detail it becomes all the more interesting. This might get a re-read sooner than expected!

Rosemary Sutcliff - pah where are my Simonson Thors...

[Proudhuff]

Rosemary Sutcliff - pah where are my Simonson Thors...

admittedly they have been on my bookshelf since I was 13!

[House of Usher]

I'm a huuuuuge fan of Norse mythology and its intricacies, find werewolves as cool as the next man and love London-based apocalypse scenarios - All the ingredients are there

What should be the story's great strength - the ingredients - are its main weakness for me. As a reader I know I'm hard to please. However, there are the ingredients for two series in Age of the Wolf: one about Norse mythology and another about werewolves. I know these days writers are expected to come up with stories bulging with ideas whereas in the past they could get away with trying to stretch one idea over as many weeks as they were allowed to, but when Age of the Wolf went all Norse and prophetic I felt that the werewolf story I'd been looking forward to went up in smoke. Rowan's importance to the prophecy has so far made her indispensible, and the werewolves might as well be any mythological goblin because there are so many of them so quickly, without all the dramatic tension that usually follows from the werewolf clichés/tropes of optional gypsy curses, infected bites, dismembered corpses, wolfsbane and silver bullets. I note that the protagonists' main defence against werewolves is to keep away from them, which is a pity for the reader, because it means we see less of them than we might like to!

Alec is to be congratulated for trying out a new idea instead of resorting to cliché (rather the point of Age of the Wolf, I'd suppose!). I just think it's a pity that the werewolves become a secondary plot element (to Ragnarok) and thus might as easily be substituted with something other than wolves.

[Dark Jimbo]

Alec is to be congratulated for trying out a new idea instead of resorting to cliché (rather the point of Age of the Wolf, I'd suppose!). I just think it's a pity that the werewolves become a secondary plot element (to Ragnarok) and thus might as easily be substituted with something other than wolves.

You're onto something there Ush I think - while agreeing totally with this; 'Alec is to be congratulated for trying out a new idea instead of resorting to cliché'; by this point the werewolves could be any generic fantasy/horror creature without any discernible difference to the story. I think the narrative might be moving too quickly for its own good. There are lots of good ideas in here but none of them are getting any room to breathe.

[Bolt-01]

I'm really hoping that Alec drops by over the weekend (at the Brum gig, I don't mean he comes to my house) so I can ask him about some of this stuff. I'm having issues with the storytelling (and I'm sure I've banged on about that often enough) here but I can't decide if it is a script or art problem. I've read a good few of Alec's scripts, so I'm inclined to think it is an art issue- but Jon Davis-Hunt is getting a lot better at the moment, so it could be simply communication between the two of them.

This is really the sort of thing that Tharg, or his human avatar, should be sorting out before it gets to print.

[radiator]

the werewolves might as well be any mythological goblin because there are so many of them so quickly, without all the dramatic tension that usually follows from the werewolf clichés/tropes of optional gypsy curses, infected bites, dismembered corpses, wolfsbane and silver bullets.

Hmmm, yes. I may need to listen to it again, but in the ectb2000ad podcast interview, I'm sure both writer and artist were hyping up how they were being careful to show the 'monster' as little as possible, and showing it sparingly and building up the tension in a cinematic way, but by a couple of episodes in there's bloody werewolves everywhere, running about in plain sight!

AotW has kinda lost me a bit, tbh. It's great to see new writers breaking through (and especially great to see new strips/characters in the prog), but personally I never got as excited as everyone else by Worley's Future Shocks. I do agree that it is kind of overloaded with ideas at the expense of story, something I also find in some of Al Ewing's stuff (though less so these days). Really not a fan of the art either - as I've said before, I really loved JDH's cover for prog 1700, but his strip work just doesn't work for me - there's something about his figures that I find a bit unconvincing.

[Old Tankie]

I'm pretty sure in the podcast that Jon and Alec said that it would be the "monster" who wouldn't be revealed early.  I don't think they ever said that there wouldn't be werewolves in the earlier episodes.  Apart from a glimpse of his back or leg, the monster isn't revealed in full until Part 4 in #1703. That's hardly rushed!!  And, as for hyping up their work, surely you can't blame them for doing that.  I'm enjoying both the story and the art very much.

[Dandontdare]

I should like this story more than I do. I want to like it more than I do. I'm a huuuuuge fan of Norse mythology and its intricacies, find werewolves as cool as the next man and love London-based apocalypse scenarios - I've also been waiting expectantly for Alec Worley's first full series for some time. All the ingredients are there for a thrill that pushes all my buttons, and yet the sum total of all these parts is leaving me quite cold.

Sums up my feelings more eloquently than I could.

As for Dredd, he is definitely getting softer on incompetent cadets! Back in the day, a cadet that shot a cit without issuing a lawful challenge would certainly be failed, if not sent to Titan! I thought the story was quite fun, but the "hey joe" line was a bit forced.

Low Life is the top thrill at the moment, I really don't know where this si going, which is always good.

Didn't like the cover at all, I'm afraid.

[House of Usher]

As for Dredd, he is definitely getting softer on incompetent cadets! Back in the day, a cadet that shot a cit without issuing a lawful challenge would certainly be failed, if not sent to Titan!

And yet recently in a John Wagner story, we saw a judge, who to all intents and purposes was Dredd, shoot dead two apparently unarmed perps in the act of stealing a large vid-screen, without first issuing a challenge. This passed in the story without comment.

[thejudgemuffin]

that dredd line in the last panel was awful, coupled with the 'How did they get in the room in time to shoot the first guy with no reported crime to investigate;' just made it a poooooor story in my humble.

[Colin YNWA]

And yet recently in a John Wagner story, we saw a judge, who to all intents and purposes was Dredd, shoot dead two apparently unarmed perps in the act of stealing a large vid-screen, without first issuing a challenge. This passed in the story without comment.

Forgive my poor memory are you referring to the actions in the 'Skinning Room'?

[satchmo]

And yet recently in a John Wagner story, we saw a judge, who to all intents and purposes was Dredd, shoot dead two apparently unarmed perps in the act of stealing a large vid-screen, without first issuing a challenge. This passed in the story without comment.

Forgive my poor memory are you referring to the actions in the 'Skinning Room'?

It was near the end of Tour of Duty, I thought it was a bit harsh at the time myself, but it was a huge telly