Written by: Jason Aaron
Thor has returned to the art style and storytelling style that was so expertly rendered in the God Bomb story arc with Thor: God of Thunder #20. We have current time Thor doing battle against an evil corporation and future King Thor battling the big purple guy Galactus.
The Story
I’m not someone that believes there’s always some political agenda hidden within my chosen entertainment but the current time Thor story arc couldn’t be more pro environmentalist/anti capitalism if it wanted to be. The story pits Thor against an evil company dead set on taking control of the world by tampering with environmental norms whether it be via introducing augmented feral animals into an area to destroy local food sources or simply contaminating the environment in other places. I’m a big fan of good social commentary whether I agree with the message or not but it’s all just too on the nose here. This story is reminiscent of the 80’s where every corporation was evil in the movies. With that said pitting Thor against an enemy that he must do more than pound with his hammer is an interesting opportunity for character development. In this issue Thor does literally attempt to crush the enemy in his typical style. Obviously this plan of action won’t work for him but it makes sense that he would start there as it is his typical method of operation. It’s honestly a little too early to tell if this arc is going to be good or not. There are flaws in the commentary, but the character development and the actual battle between the company and the God could be interesting as it all progresses. It’s funny that the company’s insurance won’t cover the losses because they came from an “act of God” though. Come on, that’s funny.
What really saves this issue is the second story, King Thor in the future versus “old” Galactus. The setup is fairly dystopian with the Earth being in ruins and only Thor left to protect it, and he’s old and missing an arm. Galactus has returned to finally eat the Earth and he couldn’t be happier about it. Even Galactus admits that the planet is half dead; it seems as though he’s just devouring Earth out of some principle. This cosmic giant doesn’t like to be defied and the earth has done just that on many occasions. Thor stands up to Galactus and threatens him in traditional Thor fashion but what can the old weak god actually do? It doesn’t seem like he can do much but he does appear to have some sort of plan. It’s exciting to see just what that plan will be, and we’ll have to wait until the next issue to learn more of what the King of Asgard has in mind other than possibly dying.
The switching back and forth flows pretty well and having just jumped into this series again with this issue I can’t comment on whether the two stories are, or will be connected in any way. Wouldn’t it be interesting if current time Thor lost the battle with the company and that’s why future Earth is wasteland? That idea would actually be a lot of fun to see played out in the story arc. It’s doubtful that this will happen because there’s no “What if?” associated with this series and since all of Marvel’s books are pretty much connected within the same universe there’s really no way the current time Earth can be crushed by well, anything.
7/10
The Artwork
There’s definitely a sepia tone that connects the current time and the future Thor stories. Overall the purposeful vagueness to things like the body of Galactus and some of the backgrounds works pretty well as far as setting the mood of the stories. Future Thor has more detail in his face and body than current time Thor but the backgrounds seem to feature more color and detail in current time. The differing styles tie together by the sepia tine actually works pretty well. My only complaint is that the art seems to be a little too desperate to show current Thor as young compared to future Thor.
8/10
Overall this new story has some potential. It’s a little too early to tell just how good the current story will be but future Thor is already exciting and that makes the issue worth a read for sure.
Overall (Not an Average) 7.5/10