Thor: God of Thunder #17 – Review

by Jason Aaron (Writer), Ron Garney, Emanuela Lupacchino (Artists), Ive Svorcina (Colorist)

The Story: Thor brings the pain to Malekith as the final fate of the league of realms and the dark elf criminal is revealed.

The Review: Not all titles are winners. There will always be an arc, a character or a certain addition to the story that readers will dislike or certainly not appreciate as much as the rest. Quality is not something consistent in most titles after all, nor is personal appreciation. We may love something, but there must be highs and lows in order for the better elements to be easier to perceive.

It is then, to my surprise, rather nice to see that while this arc might have begun in the most obvious of ways, with Malekith being presented just in the time for the movie, there was an actual direction to the story. While the general progression to this point had some good and bad parts, Jason Aaron does show that he can actually do something with some less-desirable elements in the book.

The first thing that Aaron manages to do is actually surprise readers, throwing twists after twists in this issue alone, providing for a great number of satisfactory scenes for those who had no idea of the actual direction the story could go for. With the story being rather straightforward before, the writer makes for a nice use of what had been set up earlier to provide for something rather inventive and expansive for the nine realms and its future in the Marvel universe.

Thor: God of Thunder #16 – Review

by Jason Aaron (Writer), Ron Garney, Emanuela Lupacchino (Artists), Ive Svorcina (Colorist)

The Story: There is a traitor in the league of realms. Who could it be?

The Review: I am currently less than impressed by the current storyline in the book. While it is obvious that Jason Aaron is doing the best he can with some elements that aren’t nearly as good as those he introduced in his first mega-arc, this one still seems to be a manner to properly introduce Malekith to a new readership because of a very specific release a month ago. From the beginning of this story, a lot of the best elements were simply thrown to the side in order to tell a story about a serial-killing dark elf, with Thor now sharing the spotlight with other characters.

However, despite my initial negative overview of this whole thing, I do have to admit that this issue did provide plenty of better elements to the story. With some inner conflicts in the league of realms, the return of how mythology is presented in the Marvel universe alongside a good dose of humor, this issue does raise the bar in terms of quality and enjoyment.

The first thing that Jason Aaron does right is in how he portrays the failings of the league of realms, which was a nice idea, yet poorly executed. Showing just how the group could not really work due to some distrusts and to how politics can influence things in the nine realms, the group disband here due to not only the fact that they aren’t very effective together, but also due to an error from the god of thunder himself. This results in something more beside the cyclical and constant chase for Malekith that the group did in the previous issues, which is a change that is most welcome.

Thor: God of Thunder #15 – Review

by Jason Aaron (Writer), Ron Garney (Artist), Ive Svorcina (Colorist)

The Story: The league of realms has got to start cooperating seriously. Perhaps a bit of debauchery would do them good before fighting Malekith?

The Review: It’s always a bit frustrating to follow a book that started off very strong, only to see it falters after a while. It may be due to a change of artist, or perhaps some tie-ins to events from other books, but whatever the cause it is always disappointing to see something cherished become something less.

It is unfortunately what seems to have happened to Thor: God of Thunder under Jason Aaron’s pen, as the impossibly grandiose story arc that introduced this new take on the popular character had been simply too good. With big stakes, time-travel and some powerful themes, it was simply too big to be simply followed on, especially with an arc focusing on Malekith the Accursed, a character popularized by Walt Simonson in his legendary run. Simply put, this arc isn’t big enough to properly take advantage of the ideas first introduced in the ”God Butcher” and ”Godbomb” arcs.

To his credit, Jason Aaron do try to make this story about a league with members from most of the realms fun, with plenty of absurdity and fantasy put forward. There is a bigger emphasis on some of these individual characters alongside how they interact, with some like Screwbeard, Sir Ivory and Lady Waziria coming out as a bit more fleshed out. The only one that is coming off as rather boring and one-note is Ud the troll, who could truly benefit from something more beside violence and pettiness. When even the mute giant comes off as a more entertaining character than the always whining troll, there is a bit of a problem here.

Thor: God of Thunder #14 – Review

Jason Aaron (Writer), Ron Garney (Artist), Ive Svorcina (Colorist)

The Story: The league of realms is formed as they try to hunt down Malekith before he does too much damage to the nine realms.

The Review: New ideas are dangerous. It’s not a particularly pleasant thing to say, but capes comics aren’t always known for their originality as they rely a lot of times on certain tropes to thrive in the market. Nostalgia sells, so it’s usual to see things that are familiar, yet not blatantly so that it becomes tedious or unoriginal. A book with familiar characters or with a title that is already a proven seller will always have a better chance at growing rather than an entirely original book with newer characters. It’s not exactly the market as it is now, but it could be described pretty closely as such.

It is why I am both glad and a bit disappointed to see Jason Aaron trying to play with many elements of the Thor mythology from the Marvel universe. There is a sense of fun and exploration to what the nine realms are with some of the concepts brought forward by the writer, with the league of realms, the fact that there is a council of realms and so forth. The willingness of Aaron to mess around and to introduce some new elements to Thor’s mythology speak well for him as a writer.

Unfortunately, it would be better if some of those elements worked a bit better, as there is perhaps an abundance of suspension of disbelief needed for some of the additions to truly shine. While the idea of a league of realms with a composition of denizens from multiple realms is an entertaining one, it is a bit baffling to see it go forward considering two facts. The first one is the simple truth that Thor, as a character, is known as the hero of the nine realms, which is not a self-proclaimed title but an actual one given to him, meaning that he is most probably trusted by a great many to be a person that can protect others. The other reason can be seen in the previous arc, as Thor had to deal with a god-killer through time and space. Simply put, Malekith doesn’t really seem like much of a challenge, or even one that can really compare to Gorr in terms of scope. He is more defined and can become an apt villain in terms of interest, yet he just doesn’t seem to be a foe as worthy as the previous one.

Incredible Hercules #134 – Review

By Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Reilly Brown (artist), Nelson DeCastro (inker), Guillem Mari (colors)

The Story: The Mighty Thorcules and his child-father Zeus continue their excellent adventure through the realms of Asgard, stopping along the way to give the gift of battle to a band of trolls, share double entendres with the queen of the dark elves, and find yet more ridiculously amusing ways to ruin their best laid plans.

The Good: Everything, I kid you not, but especially the fine folks making this comic.  With the addition of the art team of Brown, DeCastro, and Mari, I feel like Incredible Hercules has finally found the quality of talent it needs to bring to life the light-hearted kinds of stories Pak and Van Lente are knocking out of the ballpark month after month.  If every single person producing this book hasn’t yet been offered an exclusive contract, then Marvel is making a huge mistake, since they have the right people for this book. I’d love to see them all stay on it for as long as possible. That said, this continues to be a very funny comic, and while the rest of the Marvel Universe seems to be drowning in a sea of grim melodrama, I really appreciate that I can turn to this book to escape all the bleakness and simply have some fun.

The Not So Good: The only thing that slightly annoyed me with this issue was DeCastro’s heavy-handed inks, especially the way he seemed to outline characters thick, black lines.  This approach often made pages look like they were animation cels, which in turn made the overall story a little too cute and a little light-hearted at times.  If DeCastro would ease up a little on the ink, this would easily be corrected.  Even if he doesn’t though, I didn’t find it to be a big enough problem to detract from the story.

Conclusion: Incredible Hercules is a great book made even better with a  stellar creative team now firmly in place.  Longtime fans of the character, and anyone familiar with his rivalry with Thor, will surely bust a gut laughing throughout storyline. And judging from the last page, I’d say things are about to become funnier than ever.

Grade:  B+

-Tony Rakittke