'Ragnarok': Magne Seier as the environmental superhero in Netflix's Norwegian series is exactly what we need today
Contains spoilers for 'Ragnarok' Season 1.
Netflix's new Norwegian series 'Ragnarok' introduces the world to exactly the kind of superhero we need, considering the times we live in. Meet Magne Seier (David Stakston), an average teen with the power to change the world. Granted, there's nothing new about teenaged heroes but Magne is hardly your average superhero.
In the series, Magne moves to the town of Edda with his mother Turid Seier (Henriette Steenstrup) and younger brother Laurits Seier (Jonas Strand Gravli). He's not exactly a brilliant student — in fact, he's dyslexic and appears to have ADHD — and he's not very physically attractive either.
Interestingly enough, even after he gains his powers he doesn't turn into a muscle-bound hunk à la Peter Parker in Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man'. But even though he might not be society's definition of a hero, his heart is in the right place and he's filled with a desire to fight injustice.
For Magne, injustice takes the form of old monsters from Norse mythology who have become titans of industry in the modern day, using their influence to avoid justice while committing environmental crimes on a daily basis.
There's certainly a lot of similarities between the young hero and the protagonist of Rick Riordan's 'Percy Jackson' novels, in that they're both dyslexic youngsters empowered by gods who fight modern-day mythical monsters.
But what makes Magne so particularly interesting isn't his powers or his righteousness. It's the fact that for almost the entirety of the first season, he's a young man trying to convince the people around him that the rich and powerful are destroying the environment, only to be ignored (at best) or told to seek psychiatric help (at worst).
The people who hold all the power are far too often the ones responsible for our annihilation and the only way to stop them is by questioning their power. This is the message that 'Ragnarok' and Magne delivers to the world and it's exactly what we need to be told today, even if it's not what we might like hearing.
'Ragnarok' Season 1 was released on Netflix on January 31.
