If you’re looking for a random single issue to read completely out of context, it seems Oxfam is the place to go. This week I picked up issue #4 of ‘The Helm’ from Dark Horse for £1. It looked like fun. And it was….

The story follows Matt Blurdy, a bit of a loser, who finds a viking helmet at a yard sale and takes it home. Turns out the helmet can talk, and is possessed by a viking warrior. Matt is some sort of chosen one called the Valhalladrim, and when he dons the helm, he gains badass superpowers and a big flaming sword. The helmet thinks Matt is a total dick, and constantly abuses him, and it also thinks his girlfriend is a harlot and a wench. Brilliant.

The Helm is a 4 part miniseries, and sadly it seems that by issue #4, most of the fun has already been had. Not that this isn’t still fun. Matt is a blubbering wuss who spends a lot of time sulking, and The Helm’s banter is pretty entertaining, but by this point, Matt has already vanquished a major baddie, and his woman has left him, declaring him a psycho.

There are still villains to be dealt with, however, and in the big finale, Matt gets beat up a bit, puts on the helm, and manages to destroy 5 villains, including the main big bad of the piece, in like, 2 panels???

Holy anti-climax, Batman!

Despite that, I reckon if you read this miniseries as a whole, it would be pretty damn entertaining. It’s not exactly ground-breaking, but a 4-issue series that is clearly just meant to be for fun is a bit of a nice wee break from a lot of the stuff I normally read. It was especially nice after last week’s review of Butcher Baker. Sheesh!

So there you go. Did you read The Helm? I f so, what did you think? Do you wanna read it after this? Sound off!

The writer of this piece was: Alan Shields aka (Al)
You can also find Al on  Facebook