Journey Into Mystery #655 – Review

by Kathryn Immonen (Writer), Valerio Schiti (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)

The Story: Gaea needs to return back to normal and it seems that only Beta Ray Bill, Sif and Ti-Asha Ra/Skuttlebutt can make it so.

The Review: Journey Into Mystery has a strange history when one looks into the title’s history since it’s return into publishing. After Kieron Gillen was done with his Kid Loki story, people were dubious a bit as they wondered if the quality would be consistent with a new writer and lead character. Thankfully, Kathryn Immonen knew what she was doing when she wrote the first arc, Stronger Than Monsters, which featured a much deeper Sif interacting with the Asgardian mythology of the Marvel universe. It was energetic, fun and featured plenty of things that people were asking for, namely a female lead-character written by a female writer. It was great and this title seemed to keep on with the tradition that its precedent writer had set.

Unfortunately, the book is cancelled, most probably due to low sales. It is always a bit disheartening to see a beloved title gets the cancellation axe as it is so early in its run, yet it’s a reality that a lot of people are sadly aware of in this market. However, what’s much more disappointing, in a way, would be the fact that the closing arc, including this very conclusion, hasn’t been exactly on part with the other issues of this series.
What began as a book with a strong identity turned into something else that did not seem to quite fit with what was established before. Despite the use of Beta Ray Bill, a staple in the Asgardian lore of the Marvel universe since Walter Simonson created him in his seminar run, the whole arc with Gaea never really flew very high, due to many problems.

The first one of them, which is actually seen in this issue, would be the fact that it never seem to stick to a particular tone, switching around multiple times which cause the narrative to become unfocused and jumbled. Is it a comic which revolve around Beta Ray Bill or Sif? Is the problem of Ti-Asha Ra important or is it secondary to the whole Gaea situation? Is the primary aspect the ambiance, the characters, the humor, the awkward relationship between those various personality or the conflict with the ship and Gaea? It seems that the comic itself never really knows which of these aspects it should focus on, as some of them don’t get developed very much, or at least not enough to be properly interesting for the readers.

Journey Into Mystery #654 – Review

Kathryn Immonen (Writer), Valerio Schiti (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)

The Story: Gaea gets out of her funk as Beta Ray Bill gets reason to get out of his as well.

The Review: I am of two mind about this issue. While I can certainly appreciate the amount of panel time one character I love is getting, I am not sure if this is a good thing for the story and its progression. On the other hand, the character work on some of the players in this issue is well done, so it’s quite troubling to see that it doesn’t necessarily adds up to the overall experience in a compelling fashion.

Kathryn Immonen, on her short tenure on this title (a tenure that actually ends in one mere issue), has done wonders with Sif, giving her a wholesome personality that went beyond being the love interest warrior woman of Thor. In this issue, she continues the trend by pushing forward her dedication to her duty, her friends and her willingness to go forward to meet danger. Just like in the previous issue, Sif remains a compelling lead as her adventurous side take us to other place that show that she can fit in close to any context. She also works that magic with Beta Ray Bill, using the development put in place by writers like Walter Simonson and Kieron Gillen in order to use the character in smart ways. She plays his desperation, his bravery and his awkwardness with the unknown and women to create a fun, yet very truthful interpretation of the character.

However, while these two characters are very well-written, they do not mesh together that well in the actual story they are in, as if they were actually stealing the spotlight from each other. As we switch from the space-horror story to the general trouble with Beta Ray Bill and his ship Skuttlebutt, we never see those scenes connect in ways that truly feel organic and important to the developing story. While these scenes are interesting on their own and do plenty to showcase the history of the characters and how their interaction might have changed, it lacks cohesion to the picture at large.

Journey Into Mystery #652 – Review

By: Kathryn Immonen (Writer) Valerio Schitti (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)

The Story: Gaea, one of the All-Mothers of Asgardia, fall prey to a strange sickness and needs to be quarantined away from Earth and Asgardia for the time being.

The Review: It seems that Kathryn Immonen does not want us to see her coming miles away when writing her stories. With her first arc being about Sif beating monsters among other things as she explore her more brutal side with some surprising introspection put in and her one-shot issue being not so much about her, I thought I could potentially see what would be coming in this issue.

As it turns out, I was wrong. Thinking that this would follow a pattern where we’d see some new vision or new twist on the Marvel Asgardian mythology with some nice action thrown in for good measure. Well, we don’t get that here, not even by a long shot, as there’s close to no action to be found.

The Thanos Imperative #4 – Review

By Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Jay David Ramos and Wil Quintana (color artists)

I have cancer.

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, to be exact.

It’ll probably kill me at some point, assuming I don’t drink myself into oblivion before then, but I felt compelled to share with you because that is the frame of mind I’ve been in as I read Abnett and Lanning’s latest, and possibly most disturbing, space epic for Marvel. I’ve long been a fan of DnA’s work for this corner of the Marvel Universe, and applaud how they have carved out and defined a territory that has been vastly under-utilized by creators for decades now. These guys have succeeded in forging Marvel’s universe a chaotic, exciting, and utterly terrifying place to tell stories in. With every epic they’ve crafted, they’ve gradually raised the stakes in ways that seem logical yet infinitely more perilous. Now, with The Thanos Imperative these guys are building one of their finest stories to date, one that forces me to consider my own mortality in a way that is deeply disturbing.

At the heart of this tale is the simple, eternal conflict between Life and Death. Specifically, it is the tale of a universe where Death died and Life prevailed. A universe that is now trying to infiltrate our reality in a desperate attempt to find more space to continue growing and living. Where this story excels though is in the way it fucks with our expectations by portraying Life as a vile, cancerous entity and Death as, if not The Good Guy, then certainly a necessary deterrent to the threat of Life unbound. Thematically, it’s a strange concept and not something we’re accustomed to endorsing; our education as readers of fiction has trained us to view Life as being Good and Death as being Evil, but here Abnett and Lanning do what good writers do and play with our expectations, twisting them in ways that make us reconsider what we thought to be true. I don’t know about you, but I like that.

The action in this issue is unparalleled and furious, even if the plot was rather sparse. Sepulveda has a wonderful understanding of these characters and his gritty style is perfectly suited to the large canvas Abnett and Lanning like to work on. I loved the contrast of Nova and his strikeforce leading an incursion into the Cancerverse while Lord Mar-Vell and his Revengers stalked our universe in pursuit of the Avatar of Death. With every issue, this cat and mouse game is becoming more intense and bloodthirsty, the stakes are being continuously raised as each side fights relentlessly to gain the winning advantage, and after this issue I’m at a loss to see where the creative team could possibly go from here with the story.

Secret Invasion: Thor #3 – Review

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Doug Braithwaite (Artist), and Brian Reber (Color Art)

The Story: With the baby safely delivered as promised, Dr. Donald Blake returns to Asgard to find a Super-Skrull on the rampage. Blake soon touches the hammer and the Skrulls quickly find themselves on the defensive as Thor teams with Beta Ray Bill as they fight to restore peace to Asgard.

What’s Good: The conclusion to Thor’s Secret Invasion story proves that there is still a little bit of life left in the tired tie-in formula. The whole book aims for an epic feel and absolutely nails it. Matt Fraction’s writing gives the battle some much needed narrative weight, while Doug Braithwaite’s visuals (with color work by Brian Reber) prove to be a perfect compliment.

What’s Not So Good: For those that are completely sick of the Secret Invasion, there is little chance that this book is going to change any minds. It follows a fairly familiar formula and has very little impact on the larger scheme of things.

Conclusion: Secret Invasion: Thor #3 is pretty much everything you might expect from the title alone. That said, it proves to amount to more than the sum of it’s parts, thanks to the writing and artwork. It works for me, but it is far from essential.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny