Myth-making writer Al Ewing continues his unpredictable saga of the God of Thunder!
The Odinson stood at a gate in a dark wood. In front of the gate stood Skurge the Executioner, bloodaxe in hand, waiting for battle. And if Thor won the combat, then behind that same gate stood Utgardhall and the final death that awaited him — the death he fought for. Because behind that gate also stands the Utgard-Loki, who the Odinson had never yet defeated. And alongside the Elder Trickster, his pantheon — beginning with Nrgl, Lord of Murder-in-Darkness. Even if the All-Father can somehow reach the middle of the Unforgiving City, he must face the beast at the center of the maze: Kemur, who is bull and hawk and serpent, who is the fire and the sword. When Kemur and Thor Odinson meet on the battlefield, perhaps neither will survive!
The run started well, but from the third volume onwards, the plot gets bogged down in long convolutions and bombastic flights of fancy that lost me – and my interest in Thor's announced fate.
This last volume ends the run in a better way, but – and I think this is partly due to Bazaldua's poor artwork coupled with the loss of interest caused by the previous two books – this time it lacks the emphasis that an event such as Thor's "death" deserves.
Let's hope the new series will be more invigorating.
Al Ewing's baffling Thor run continues as Thor and Skurge team up to fight various gods in Utgard. I have zero idea why any of this is happening - maybe that was explained in an earlier volume? No one bothers to recap. Seems like the whole deal is Utgard Loki is scheming Thor's "Tru Death," which does eventually take place here (see the volume's title).
In the midst of all the nonsense battling and voiceover action, there's actually some decent stuff. Skurge makes an exciting sacrifice and a few of the bigger battles are really quite exciting. The "Thor dies" piece is kind of exhilarating, even though I know it'll be swiftly undone somehow. The artwork rarely rises above "decent enough," but it gets the job done. Let's see where Mortal Thor goes.
I normally sigh when Marvel take the opportunity for a faux series end and a new #1 (or seven of them) within what's clearly the same run, but fair enough, if Immortal is in the title and then your lead dies, that's probably necessary. I didn't quite think this was everything it could have been – the art has settled down after the worst wobbles in the middle of the run, but at times it still felt a little low key (no pun intended) for the mythic grandeur Utgard especially should have. And while I normally love Al's synthesis of all past eras of characters he works on, the callbacks to the horrible Donny Cates era here reminded me of RTD's vexing refusal to sweep Chibnall under the carpet. These are quibbles, though – valiant last stands, jaw-dropping reversals and clever narrative tricks are all present and correct. Not to mention a deep fury at the notion of absolute rulers which, though clearly fuelled by current events, is still properly woven into the story rather than spewed on top of it, and even takes proper account of the series' hero being a king.
Al Ewing's Thor run has not really been my cup of tea so far. It's good, maybe even great -- we'll have to see it through -- but it's a little out there for me. They're layers to this story that I'm not really absorbing, I know that, but I really don't follow what Ewing is trying to tell us about the meta narrative.
Still, I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Fucking everybody is scheming. Rune Thor is acknowledged perhaps for the first time since Disassembled. Utgard seems to exist in a plane beyond Thor, but he apparently can still kill Utgard gods. Heimdall is back. Loki is doing their wheels within wheels thing. Donald Blake is The Lizard now, or something. (I don't know. Blake is something that really needs dealt with after JMS brought him back as a real boy and Donny Cates tortured him into insanity.) And now Thor is making a sacrifice of himself to himself for another turn at Odin's Unlimited Power Glitch, and we'll see how that goes in the next volume.
I can't give it five stars, because it's not a complete story, even with the low bar it takes for something to be "complete" in a serial comic book series. But I would give it 4.5 if I could.
Thor's died before. It's kind of his thing, what with Ragnarok and all that. That said, this 'death' is well-handled, and has pretty much been telegraphed since the beginning of the series, so I'm not complaining in the slightest.
Ewing's twisty-turny plot continues to twist and turn right up until the final page, and I love that he's still managing to write Loki even now, years after the end of Agent Of Asgard. He just does it so well. You never know if they're going to be good, bad, bad in a good way, or good in a bad one. It's so much fun.
The Tales Of Asgard jam session issue is also fun - I usually find these things a bit space-fillery, but this one adds a bit to the overarching plot rather than just being relegated to padding.
Onwards to the Mortal Thor, or whatever we're calling him now.
This run has just never gotten to be as good as I wanted it to be. Some of it is Ewing's dialog and exposition. It just always feel stilted. Some of it is the amount of obscure and new but meant to be old characters. You're just constantly going " Who?" This volume also suffers from Bazuldua's lack of backgrounds that they try and hide behind page effects. So this run just gets a "Meh" from me. Hopefully, The Mortal Thor will strive for greater heights.
I would give this 5 stars for issue #22 alone. What a brilliant gimmick to illustrate a time loop, and the skill on display to have each page work whether you are going forward or backwards is jaw dropping. I am completely obsessed. We also finally get payoff for everything that's happened so far. I'll admit this series lagged in the middle and not everything everything had payoff, but really the sequel series so we'll see if those elements payoff later