Graphic Novel Review - 'Heathen Volume 2' by Natasha Alterici, Rachel Deering

A good follow-up to the amazing first volume of Natasha Alterici's dark fantastical lesbian Viking comic. It's been ages, but coming back to this world and these characters, and this magnificent watercolour artwork, it's made the on-and-off waiting worth it.

Here there be an animal shapeshifter of Odin's in rotten luck, mermaids (the flesh-eating kind, of course, who can be tamed through bribes of golden apples), and diverse and queer lady pirates. It's Aydis's time across the sea, and Odin is on her trail through his spies, in revenge for her crushing his all-seeing eye at the end of the last volume. Meanwhile, the goddess Freyja and the Valkyrie Brynhild eventually meet again to discuss how they are going to defeat the wrath and rule of Odin once and for all, and protect Aydis from him.

I am a little worried now about Aydis, the main heroine, the relatable mortal warrior woman; not so much for the perils she faces in-story as her very presence being diminished and overshadowed by the other characters and their plights. Freyja, Brynhild, Brynhild's immortal male lover Sig, and Saga the horse, among others, are the guides, the shadows, the web weavers, the ones pulling the silk strings, the ones exacerbating Odin's ire and man-pain, and who have problems of their own. Aydis almost feels like a pawn, a chess piece, reactive rather than proactive, in comparison.

Aydis doesn't think or talk much about the people currently missing in her life. I have to say, her quest to find and confront the land of the gods doesn't seem to be carrying as much weight as it should. Even her sexual awakening and journey towards self-confidence are barely touched on, aside from a kiss from a POC pirate woman, in addition to her routinely working on a ship.

But she still retains a funny, sweet, naïve but determined and altruistic personality - these traits act as both her strengths and her weaknesses, depending on the situation at hand. She's cunning when she needs to be, and kind of adorable. However, Aydis causes far more trouble than victory in this volume, and she's too trusting and easily led. Nonetheless, I am rooting for this queer lady - surrounded by other oppressed, arse-kicking queer ladies - who never gives up on her lethal, gods-and-systems-destroying quest.

'Heathen: Volume 2' - a cool, adequate sequel. Though I wish the themes from the previous volume had been explored a little more -it's too short!

Like before, I'm not sure I'll be reading the third and purportedly final instalment once that's finally published. Probably not, but oh well. It's been a nice revisit to a fantasy feminist story, like greeting an old friend.

Final Score: 3.5/5