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When Angela Watercutter and I asked Brian K. Vaughan what comes after the year of the zombie, he said, "Um, maybe Vikings?" He couldn't have been more correct. Vikings, and their Dark Age gangland rivals the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, are ripping up the pop culture landscape. This year will see the release of three Viking-related flicks, Pathfinder, Outlander, and Beowulf (note that the original epic poem Beowulf was actually written by Anglo Saxons – I should know, because I read it in the original in Old English and came away with a strong sense that losing the word gebéorscipe has been a terrible thing for the language).
Why this sudden interest in the savage tribes who roamed across what became the UK and Scandinavia? Maybe because they combine the best of zombies, ninjas, and robots. Their cool ships and armor are sort of the Dark Ages equivalent of high tech, their fighting skillz are fully ninja, and of course they shamble along in rags with chopped-off limbs just like zombies do. Really, you just can't go wrong with Vikings. That's why the BBC recently aired a documentary called Blood of the Vikings (clip above), which is all about the Western world's robot ninja zombie ancestors. Contains the immortal phrase: "When Vikings attack."
