Journey Into Mystery featuring Sif, Vol. 2: Seeds of Destruction

Journey Into Mystery featuring Sif

by Kathryn Immonen, Valerio Schiti (Artist), Pepe Larraz (Artist)

Mayhem in the mess hall! Horror in the hash house! Volstagg's daughter, Hildegund, only wanted a midnight snack...but something else is rampaging in the lower kitchens of Asgardia, and she's going to have to wake the whole house to fight it. To the rescue come Sif! Thor! The Warriors Three! And even Heimdall's dog! All these doughty heroes join forces to chain the vicious beast once and for all. But unfortunately, everything they need to do it...never existed! Then: he's back, baby! That's right, Beta Ray Bill has returned! After her most recent misadventures, Sif is working hard on getting her berserker rages, emotions and feelings back under control. However, when a certain hammerwielding, space-faring ex shows up...all bets are off!

Collecting: Journey Into Mystery 651-655

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2013

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underwhelming. The first issue in this collection is basically silly fluff. Fun, but I doubt I would have been happier if the entire book had been like that. Instead, we get the Seeds of Destruction story. Confused, rushed (probably because of the looming cancellation) and entirely unsatisfying. It was good to see Beta Ray Bill, but he couldn't save the book. I'm not sure if the story was rushed or hurriedly cobbled together without direction or both, but it just didn't work as well as it could have. Plotting aside, it isn't terribly written, so it wasn't a chore to read. Just not as good as it could have been with a better plot.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so much. When Kathryn Immonen is writing dialogue and character-driven drama, she fires on all cylinders. I love her dialogue and the interplay between heroes. She has a real knack for the Asgardian way of speaking that keeps the book feeling simultaneously Old World and modern. The first two issues of this collection are great, showcasing that talent and allowing us to live in Sif's world and just kind of enjoy being there.

Then, the major story arc for this one kicks in, and things get a little... chaotic. The plotting that follows abandons all of that great character stuff in favor of a dense, nigh-unfollowable plot about some crazy Asgardian garden that merges with Stark technology and goes to space and gets attacked by an... alien... of some sort that then... does something... and makes some people evil... but... not... everyone annnnnnnd my brain just broke. I kept reading the synopses at the beginning of each issue on Marvel Unlimited just to try to figure out what the hell I was missing, but they offered no help. This thing is just an off-the-rails pile of nonsense, and I really don't even know how to describe what it was meant to be about.

It's a real shame this book falls apart the way it does. I'm hoping Kathryn Immonen writes some more Marvel stuff that leans on characters more, rather than big crazy ideas, because she really nails that stuff. This one is a pretty big let down, though.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have stuck with my gut; after reading Vol. 1 and not enjoying it, I should have known that the next one wouldn't be any better.

It's not better, but it's not worse really. More of the same, Sif is her own woman, she don't need no stinkin' man to help her.

She takes Gaea to the Avengers Deep Space Station (thanks to Iron Man - in his Guardians of the Galaxy armour) to detox? Or some shit like that. I didn't even know Gaea was Norse among the Gods...oh well.

Ship crashes onto Station, and of course, who should be on it? Beta Ray Bill...what a wacky coincidence! (If you note my review for Vol. 1 I said maybe BRB would make it more interesting, so this was awesome, and the cover was the main reason I took a chance)
Except it's just plain awkward between them as Bill has a new girlfriend with him, who's somehow been created by Galactus?? Odd...oh and his spaceship Scuttlebutt, somehow is destroyed and becomes contained in the body of his gf...ya.

Then Gaea gets infested by Stark's technology and she becomes a monster...what a shock there.

Shit goes down. Something something something, and 2 days later, I forget.

That's pretty much it.

Oh and, I must not be the only one who felt that way, as the series was cancelled with the last issue of this volume.

Congrats Kathryn Immonen for killing it, and making Sif into a 1-D cardboard Asgardian.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an interview with Kathryn Immonen once where she said she never read any old comics for continuity research and didn't care, which put me off her for a long time. However, her 10 issue run on JiM has gone a long way towards redeeming her. The stories collected here are equal parts hilarious, philosophical, and clever with a nice overarching plot for Sif and Beta Ray Bill too. Valerio Schiti's artwork is drop dead gorgeous, and the fact he did 10 issues in a row and only needed a fill-in for one of them is excellent. I'm quite sorry I never read Sif's JiM when it was released in singles - had I know how good it was, it might have lasted a bit longer.

[Leni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough, great art and decent story.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We need more Sif adventures. Are they out there? Someone point me at 'em!

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Album zawiera zeszyty z serii Journey Into Mystery #651-655 (2011).

Pierwszy zeszyt jest chyba najlepszy, z tego co nam się tu oferuje. Córa Volstagga, Hildegunda rusza po nocną przekąskę, przy okazji bawiąc się z psem Haimdalla, który ucieka do lasu, przy okazji odkrywając wilka wielkości domku rodzinnego... Zabawna i błyskotliwa historyjka, w której Sif gra marginalną rolę. No chyba, że jeżeli bierzemy pod uwagę łoże Thora...

Potem jest już zjazd po linii pochyłej. Historia, w której Sif pomaga Gaea, takiej niby bogini lasu i płodności oraz TEMU Beta Bill Ray'owi jest mocno średnia. Niewiele się dzieje, a jak już ma miejsce to wolałbym czytać po kilka razy historię z zeszytu otwierającego ten album...

Całość nadal wygląda bardzo ładnie, co pomaga w odbiorze nudniejszej części tego tytułu. Ale to i tak za mało, aby cokolwiek zapamiętał po kilku miesiącach. "Letnia" lektura na popołudnie.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a while to get around to this second volume of Journey Into Mystery involving Sif and...man, this comic never really recovered after they wrapped up the Kid Loki arc. And this book reeks of that sad comic book reality of needing to wrap up the story within a specific number of issues.

So we get a weird almost non-story involving Sif, Gaea in need of some sort of healing support and...Beta Ray Bill! How they call come together in space could have been quite an amazing adventure, but instead, it felt like a lot of running around and shouting things at one another.

The story as a whole didn't really feel it had true consequences or at the very least didn't really make a big impact on things. It was a 4-issue side mission at best with an even more strange one-shot story at the front of the book.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have come to look on life not as a puzzle but as a problem. It cannot be solved. Cannot be perfected. Only nurtured.

I love Sif. This series is fantastic. Full of heart and compassion, but also big fights against space monsters! Battles against cosmic organisms over the fate of the god of the Earth herself, and also bickering with your ex! Big giant dogs that need to be pet, jokes about how terrible Thor is, as well as a meaningful building of Sif's character without the giant blond prince. Throughout all of Marvel Comics history you can count the times Sif is in a story that is about her, and not her relationship with Thor, on two hands. And that's the ten issues of this series! She's smart, and funny, and expressive and rude, instead of the responsible and just one she always has to be around the impulsive superhero.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I really liked the first issue of the book the entire Beta Ray Bill/Gaea storyline wasn't to my liking. I have never been a huge fan of Beta Ray Bill but his relationship with Sif has been interesting. Here, not as much. The fact the adventure took place in space mad it all the more odd. All-Mother's reactions to Gaea made little no sense. This book lost a lot of its heart without Kid Loki. Schiti's art continues to impress. Overall, the book was too boring and was at times a pain to get through.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if I needed to keep reading yet another Marvel arc but I saw Beta Ray Bill on the cover so... yeah.

Some pacing issues - this writer loves the very fast climax/conclusion which sometimes relies on noticing particular items in the images. I prefer things a little slower.

The art is just gorgeous, especially the scenery. Reminds me of the best of the old school days.

Bonus for Thor being treated primarily as arm candy. ;)

[Hannah McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so sad JiM got cancelled after this because I really felt like they were just starting to unlock Sif's real potential as a lead, as well as starting to unfurl her emotional and character growth from last arc. We needed more of leading Lady Sif.

Also. The first issue (651) is literally the best.

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, a one-off story with one of Volstagg's daughters sneaking and catching dwarves trying to free Fenris Wolf.

Then Sif takes Gaea into space to recover from something or other, and there she encounters Beta Ray Bill and alien badness.

The art is good. The dialogue is good. But I never quite got the point of the story.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

“We are not a problem to be solved. Just because something is incomplete does not mean it is broken. ... We evolve. We change, but at every stage, we cannot be other than what we are. .... You have come to look on life not as a puzzle but as a problem. It cannot be solved. It cannot be perfected. It can only be nurtured.”

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Sif centric book. I finished reading it last week, and I can't remember much about it, except that I enjoyed it. This tells me that the storyline wasn't really memorable, so must not have been that good. Shame really, as I remember the plot of the first book in the series. An ok read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The volume finished up Immonen's run on the Lady Sif storyline which appeared in 'Journey into Mystery". The artwork is stunning and fits with all the elements of the story. And Beta Ray Bill to boot. Don't miss out on the fun.

[Dee Robb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the role of Hilde, Volgstagg’s daughter in this series.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lady Sif teams with Beta Ray Bill in this volume of Journey into Mystery. It was a fun run and I wish there had been more.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked it up for Beta Ray Bill. All in all a nicely written story

[Anchorpete · Rating 3 out of 5]

My library gave me the opportunity to take out this book and also two trades featuring Captain Marvel, basically two books about female superheroes, written by female writers. I am almost through with Captain Marvel, and I have to say that book is a bit more fun to read. It is more grounded than this book and has wittier dialogue. Of course, I don't think I should fault this book for being out there. Let me just try to explain to you what three of the four issues in this trade are about. A Warrior Woman from Asgard (Sif) brings the Norse Version of Mother Earth to a space station created by Iron Man to heal from an illness she has. At that Space Station, a Cyborg Alien, who has a connection to Thor shows up with his sentient ship and sick girlfriend who was made by Galactus.
See, only in comic books can they find a way to take the gibberish I just said and make it have a logic to it.
I will make this review a little longer, and point out how interesting Sif is as a character. I think in general, comic book writers try to make female leads far less sexual, or dependent on men than is humanly possible. Did that come out right? I meant to say they are asexual and that the idea of them being there for a man seems like it is a weakness. I am all for female empowerment, actually, my favorite comic books are the ones that feature strong (and complex) female leads. I liked Sif, because on one hand she offered up physical affection to another warrior, because she thought he needed it and then two pages later, she was a literal killing machine. It was a complete contradiction within a few pages, and it seemed really realistic. at no point did it become a porn parody. Sif was a bad ass warrior the entire time, and yet was neither a nymph or an asexual wonder woman.

[J'aime · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first volume of Sif’s JiM run didn't really work for me. Sif is not strong enough as a character to headline a story that doesn't include other familiar Marvel faces. As a result, V1 felt like one of those off-brand graphic novels that feature Thor from the myths. Happily, Volume 2 corrects that and brings back a fan favorite and Marvel original, Beta Ray Bill.

The book was excellent on two fronts: it had a good, Marvel-centric storyline that tied into recent events and it provided much-needed character development for Sif. Gaia, one of the three All Mothers of Asgardia, has fallen ill. Sif requests the help of Tony Stark to “quarantine” her to help determine what is wrong. He lends her the Avengers Deep Space Monitoring Station. Just after arriving, Beta Ray Bill crashes into the station, along with some alien life form that proceeds to take over Ti Asha Ra and Gaia. Sif and Bill have to battle their environment while trying to save the two women and prevent the creature from making it to Earth.

Besides being Thor’s fellow warrior and girlfriend, what makes Sif tick? By putting her into a crisis that she must solve, and where brute force is not going to cut it, readers get to see what’s beneath the surface of the warrior. Also, Sif and Bill’s relationship has always been interesting and it was fun seeing them fight side by side, and bicker, and ultimately support each other in a way only real friends can. It’s a shame that JiM was canceled, as this volume demonstrates how well she can headline a story.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read that finally showcased Sif in a meaningful way. Highly recommended.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of Sif's Journey into Mystery is better paced than the first, if lacking in the character arc department. The art by Schiti and Scalera continues to do its job, providing enjoyable action and quieter moments when needed. The scenes where Sif's compassion shines through are nice, and the issue where the Asgardians battle Fenris is enjoyable.

I was looking forward to Beta Ray Bill's inclusion this time around - it's always a treat when everyone's favorite Thor side-character appears, and his history with Sif makes for interesting possibilities when it comes to their interactions. And while it was nice seeing the two together, the book overly relies on the "bickering exes" gag. You know, the 'these two yell at each other every time they're together and grumble to themselves in private because they actually really dig each other' bit. It was kinda fun the first time, but when this happens every time they're in the same room it gets a little old. There are also certain plot beats that don't get much of an answer or resolution, and Sif's "welp, I learned nothing" moment was somewhat frustrating.

As with volume 1, if you just want to see Lady Sif kick butt and go on outer-space adventures, you'll probably enjoy this. If you're hoping for anything more than that, you should probably skip it.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A two-star storyline bumped up to three stars solely because of issue 651 (aka, That One Time Thor, the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three Fought the Fenris Wolf in Their Jammies.) 651 was one of my favorite issues from any series in years. If you happen to see this issue in any of your local comic stores, pick it up and give it a read. You won't be disappointed.

Unfortunately, JiM’s final storyline, the titular "Seeds of Descruction," is a bit of a mess and resolves itself a bit too abruptly and without nearly enough explanation. I know this was probably due to the announcement of the cancellation of the series, but I feel like the storytelling team had another issue or two planned and were forced to cut the story to its bare bones. I will miss the series, which I’ve admittedly only discovered within the past years, and it will be interesting to see if Sif embraces her new destiny in any of the other Marvel series.

[Alex Sarll]

Opening with a charming self-contained story turning on one of the casual impossibilities that riddle Norse myth, the rest of this collection sends the warrior goddess off to a less characteristic setting: s spare asteroid of Iron Man's. If the story never quite seems to bring its themes (the distinction between building and gardening; the deleterious effects of a striving for perfection) into full relief, then I forgive it for including Beta Ray Bill. Who is, lest we forget, Thor recast as a cyborg alien horse, and one of the greatest characters in comics. Though I might not go so far as Sif in terms of finding him sexy per se.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel much the same way about this volume as I did the first volume of Journey into Siftery. The writing is clever and interesting, the characters are strongly written, and the plots are fun ... and I just didn't love it. I couldn't entirely tell you why, though I can guess. For one, I don't feel that Sif is that interesting of a character as portrayed here. For another, the stories seem very forgettable. Sif and Gaea go to a space station and hi-jinks ensue when Beta Ray Bill shows up. That's already been forgotten.

So, though these volumes were technically good, I don't think they're staying in my collection.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Or, Sif being a total bad ass in space! A lot of things collide in this book but overall it is a really fun, action packed space adventure. I loved the energy between Sif and Bill as they fought to get to the bottom of and defeat their enemy. I really enjoyed it.

I also really enjoyed the stand alone Issue this volume starts with which was a really fun adventure taking place one night in Asguardia. But really I just love stories involving Volstagg's children or the more fairy tale aspects of Asgard.

[Drew Perron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Succeeds incredibly well on a character level, bringing back old relationships but sketching them out deftly for new audiences. Shows off different types of strength, kindness, and rage with deftness and ease.

Is kinda messy on a plot level - a good story, but one that feels, occasionally, like something important has been skipped over. (This is especially evident in the one-issue tale that opens this volume, featuring a final twist that's only explained by the title of a book in the background, at an angle.)

Recommended overall.

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two bits of Marvel-Thor lore that I love: the Warriors Three and Beta Ray Bill. Both feature in this collection, but the former comes off much better than the latter, despite - maybe because of - the fact that they get only a one-issue short. The storyline featuring Bill has some good ideas, but ultimately the plot wanders and gets a bit confused and repetitive.

[Wolverina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea what happened in this book but it was fucking hilarious and a lot of things got punched.

If only I knew more about what the hell was going on.

Bloody enjoyable but probably actually only 2-3 stars for plot and characterisation or whatever.

Though the warriors three freaking out when they see Thor in the nude was pretty good and relevant plot device.

[Pturingan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first volume. The space adventure was just so-so but the Fenris story was great and funny. Too bad this series is ending so soon. I like Sif as a character and I hope she gets another shot at a series someday. I also hope both Immonen and Schiti get to do more comics as they have both been revelations for me in this series.