Thor: Reign of Blood #1 (One-Shot) – Review

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Khari Evans (Pencils), Patrick Zircher (Pencils and Inks), Victor Olzaba (Inks), and Matt Milla and June Chung (Colors)

Thor: Reign of Blood is bloody awesome – quite literally! Continuing the story from Thor: Ages of Thunder, this one-shot relates tales from the early days of Asgard and Midgard. It begins with the story of how the frost giant’s witch daughter has plagued Asgard and Midgard with never ending snow and ice. As the gods attempt to rectify the problem, Loki continues to work behind the scenes to sow seeds of trouble. When the long winter is finally solved, Loki’s seeds begin to sprout. Yet another problem involving the Enchantress leads to every single man who ever died to rise again and plague Midgard until they are slain once more. Odin tasks Thor with this battle, so Thor must combat the undead amidst a deluge of blood.

I’ll let that soak in: Thor fights a seemingly endless skeleton army while it literally rains blood. That right there is reason enough to pick up this book. While this battle is also resolved (in an extremely awesome way, which I won’t reveal), we are left yet another problem at the end of this book, which looks to make this be the “Helm’s Deep” before the “Pelennor Fields” (for you Lord of the Rings fans out there). You can bet I’ll be back next time.

Of course, such a huge part of what makes this issue so entertaining is Matt Fraction’s writing. I have no idea how much of this is pulled from Norse mythology and how much is original, but his storytelling is simply impressive. The actual dialogue is extremely readable with more archaic speech mixed in for good measure. As you can see, the story is epic on the level of Beowulf, and the art matches.

Khari Evans’ and Patrick Zircher’s work is beautiful, frightening, and epic in all the right places. Perhaps even more amazing is their similarity in style. Evans pencils the entire first half, and Zircher the second, but unless you are specifically looking for the transition, it is hard to tell the difference. There is absolutely nothing to complain about in this issue. Anyone who loves stories like Lord of the Rings or Beowulf needs to do themselves a favor and pick this up. (Grade: A)

-M. Staples