Both Newsarama and CBR have posted glowing reviews of ‘The Cross + The Hammer’, which I find particularly gratifying, since we gambled a bit on it, producing a crime story with a fairly even keel to it until the very end, when we completely spun it on its head.

Newsarama: The book may indeed read better in trade, as Kelly suggested. It’s certainly fun to read back through the whole story, knowing the ending, and catch all the tricks and clues there–the story in itself is a mystery for readers to solve, a metafictional element that I wasn’t expecting at first. But there’s something to be said for the tension building slowly, issue by issue, with silent panels showcasing both the Ireland Magnus is fighting to preserve, and the destruction that both he and the Vikings wreak.

CBR: Brian Wood’s “Northlanders” continues to be one of the best monthly comics on the stands today, and the conclusion of “The Cross + The Hammer” arc proves it… If you’re one of those people who read single issue reviews to help determine whether or not you should buy the trade paperback, I’ll give you a bit of advice right up front: you should by the second “Northlanders” trade, and you should stop reading this review as soon as possible. Because it’s impossible to talk about “Northlanders” #16 without spoiling things for you, and “The Cross + The Hammer” story arc works much better if you don’t know what’s coming at the end.

CBR writer Tim Callahan also posts the following observation to his twitter:

More Northlanders thoughts: I like how @brianwood 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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Writing a book like this, structured with distinct and separate story arcs, really keeps me on my toes.  I have to re-invent the series each time I start a new “part one”, and I can tell you that I am as driven and dedicated to this series as I was at the start.

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