That bit above the picture comes from the Heroes of the North facebook page, and it captures, in a nutshell, exactly what the show is. Really! How awesome is that for a premise? Right off the bat I was intrigued, for the simple fact that you just don’t see a lot of stories based on secret Canadian military orginizations. U.S.? Sure. Germany? England? Italy? China? Of course. But Canada? That alone makes this an original jumping off point. And that original idea is made even better because the scope of this endeavor is big. So big that we spend the first six episodes of the series just getting background on the major players. Eight episodes in and we’ve just begun to scratch the surface of the bigger story.
Because of how early we are in that bigger story, we’ll have to reserve final judgement and see how this all plays out. The buildup so far, though, has been very good. I was won over right from episode one by the way the show does action. The big shootout is very cool, and immediately made me want to see more. The good news is that there is plenty more action to come. And it comes alongside the slow building of the Heroes’ bigger mission. It’s very easy to cruise right through the first eight episodes and be left wanting episode nine. Here’s the first episode, to give you an idea.
If there is one drawback to the show, it’s in the special effects. There are occasions where the green-screen gets a little green-screeny, if you know what I mean. I think it stands out more because when the show does get to a real location, the quality is excellent for a web series. So those moments that aren’t quite up to the rest kind of wave a red flag. It is an easily forgivable shortcoming, though, as the story those scenes are driving at is one that I really want to see more of. You do have to buy in to the whole idea of a secret Canadian organization full of superheroes … but after that, it’s all good.
I also have to mention the official Heroes of the North website. It might be the best companion to a web series I’ve ever seen. There’s the usual gallery, and bios for all the characters. Both of those include some spoilery info that will have you wondering. But the real treats come from the media page. This is not just a web series. The entire story will include the 20 episodes, six comics, one novella, two video games, and other surprises along the way. It’s a fascinating idea, and it all works very well. So far, we have access to two of the comics and the Nordik Diaries novella. There are plenty of other video gems to look forward to as well, such as this commercial for Polymorphe Latex Fasion, which features the HOTN villain, Crimson (Bianca Beauchamp).
I came away from Heroes of the North quite impressed. It’s a wildly ambitious project, telling a creative story in new and interesting ways. And in that, it’s a great example of what the still growing webseries format adds to the entertainment spectrum. This one is well worth a look.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Nov 17, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
