NORTHERN BLOOD #3, from Blood Moon Comics on 4/5/23, finds Frank and Enid in a fight for their lives when Ivar’s undead army invades the Nazi base.
The Details
- Written by: J. Michalski
- Art by: Antonio Rojo
- Letters by: Antonio Rojo
- Cover art by: Antonio Rojo (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Teen+
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: April 5, 2023
Is It Good?
Do you like video games? We like video games. Have you ever played a video game called Return to Castle Wolfenstein? NORTHERN BLOOD #3 is the comic book version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and it’s glorious.
When last we left Frank and Enid, they were stuck in a locked cell deep within the Nazi base when Ivar’s army of undead Vikings invaded to take back their treasure and kill anyone involved in the theft. Now, Frank and Enid blast their way through hallways with blind corners, stairwells, labs continuing bizarre, unfinished medical experiments, and a weapons depot containing futuristic prototypes of Nazi weapons. All this happens while the two are chased by zombie Vikings and aided by a scarred Nazi wearing super armor.
Does this story have any air of authenticity to real-world events? Absolutely not, and that doesn’t matter one bit. This title has evolved from a standard-yet-enjoyable WWII-era horror story into an all-out, balls-to-the-wall, Wolfenstein-styled video game shooter, and it’s amazing.
Lest anyone get too concerned this story is all style and no substance, fret not. The pacing is brisk, the action is big and loud, Frank and Enid’s dialog is on-point for comrades-in-arms who appear to be on the verge of a romance, and the plot hits you with one surprise after another right up to a respectable cliffhanger.
The writing is on-point, and so is Antonio Rojo’s fun, energetic, splashy art. Grenades detonate, machine gun fire sprays across nearly every page, walls cave in, and body parts fly everywhere. If you like zombie films with tons of action, Rojo delivers the goods.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our Northern Blood #2 review to find out what happened to Frank after he was captured.
We begin with Frank and Estrid surrounded inside the bunker by quickly approaching Viking zombies. Frank tries to get to the other Resistance fighters, but he’s quickly cut off. Estrid insists she and Frank should go back for them, but Frank’s battle experience tells him they have no chance of rescuing the others without getting themselves killed.
After a harried fight through multiple corridors and stairwells, Frank encounters a group of Nazi soldiers, including the Captain, shooting a group of zombies. Sensing an opportunity, Frank tosses a grenade into the melee to kill multiple birds with a single stone. What Frank doesn’t learn until later is that the Captain survived the blast and resorts to an unproven medical enhancement to get him back into the fight.
We conclude the issue with super explosions, super armor, and super tanks.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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NORTHERN BLOOD #3 morphs from a tried and true WWII-era zombie story into a bug-nut-crazy action shooter in the same vein as Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The zombie threats are crazy, the futuristic Nazi experiments set loose are even crazier, and the cliffhanger heading into the finale hits with the force of a small freight train.
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