Wolfskin #3

Wolfskin #3
by Warren Ellis (writer) and Juan Jose Ryp (artist)
Avatar Perss
In this, the last issue of Warren Ellis's ultraviolent Conan homage, the eponymous barbarian antihero sees god. Having been severely wounded in #2, Wolfskin eats the flesh of his tribal god—that is, he takes some hallucinogenic mushrooms—and has a face-to-face encounter with the bloodthirsty deity. He's not named, but it's safe to assume that it's Odin, since he's only got one eye (and Juan Jose Ryp draws him without an eyepatch, so it's a pretty ghastly sight). Following an oddly Job-like dialog (and an offhand revelation about the torments in Wolfskin's past), the barbarian awakens into a berserker rage that lasts the remainder of the issue. The story just kind of ends, which is a bit unfortunate. But Wolfskin's disturbing encounter with his patron god lends the series as a whole a greater depth than many of the sword and sorcery stories to which it pays tribute. (Speaking of paying tribute, was this series intentionally based on Red Harvest/Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars, or am I imagining things?)