Mighty Thor #12 – Review

by Matt Fraction (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (art), Frank D’Armata (colors)

The Story:  With Asgard under siege, Thor battles his imposter while Freyja steps down to challenge Karnilla.

The Review: This issue reminded quite a bit of Fear Itself’s failings.  There were a lot of really big things that occurred in this issue, a lot of big events that should’ve had me nailed to my seat.  The siege of Asgard!  Thor vs. Ulik!  Freyja vs. the Queen of the Norns!  Thor killing the Demogorge!  If there’s one thing Fraction gets, it’s epic scale, and he’s shown that time and again throughout his run on Thor.

The problem though, is that scale and good ideas alone aren’t enough.  They need to be developed, character-work must be done, motivations must be explored.  Put simply, despite the big events occurring on the page, Fraction really hasn’t given much of a reason to care.

Part of this is certainly due to Fraction’s leaving Karnilla and Ulik horridly underdeveloped.  They’ve been nothing more than stock villains with broad, generic goals.  Their places in the plot could’ve been occupied by pretty much any other villain.  So when Freyja and Thor battle them, it’s hard to really care all that much.  Even Fraction himself, in the narration of the book, acknowledges that there’s essentially nothing fueling Thor’s hatred for Ulik.  The villains have failed to distinguish themselves or their motivations and they have minimal ties to any of the heroes.  There’s no emotional investment for readers when it comes to the central conflict.