THOR #2 written by Jason Aaron, art by Mike Del Mundo, and letters & Production by Joe Sabino hammers onto our shelves this week as Jason Aaron’s familiar knack for Odinson shines through. This week, readers watch Thor rally his brothers in Hel to take on the Queen of Cinders. You’ll never guess who’s waiting at the end of this Hel-raiser!
Holy Troll Gizzards, this review of THOR will contain more SPOILERS than a Goblin fart! Stop now unless you read the issue, don’t give a flying fungus, or enjoy the wretched stench of Goblin gas.
When we last left Thor and Loki, they arrived in Niffleheim greeted by Balder and Skurge. We now pick up with Odinson leading his band of not-so-merry men against one of Cinder’s Firepedes shown below.
Realizing he can’t outrun the Firepedes in his Tugboat, Odinson and Thori take off to lay waste to all of Cinder’s fire demons while Toothgrinder (the goat) drives this magical vessel to safety. Lucky for them, Sindr and Tyr are there to lend a helping bazooka.
Here was the biggest problem with the issue. Take a look at the two pages above. Mike Del Mundo’s art is pretty good. However, his art mixed with Joe Sabino’s lettering made the pages very busy and overwhelming to read at times. Sometimes, Sabino’s word balloons seemed in the way and too wordy. Now, I don’t know if that was a mix between Jason Aaron’s trying to describe too much in this issue or if all the dialogue was entirely necessary, but the pages were packed with information that made the issue tough to navigate.
Next, we see the Queen of the Cinder (above), otherwise known as the daughter of Surtur, take out all the would-be rulers of Hel and gain control over the realm. With Cinder now in power, all of Niffleheim’s armies will kneel to her every command. The reader finds out that this was all part of Malekith’s plan. He wanted an army, and now he has one waiting in Hel.
Thor and his Asgardian crew get wind that Cinder is moving a new weapon that could turn the tied of the War on the Realms. They hear that this weapon is being transported by train and head out to destroy the bridge out from under it. Now since Odinson doesn’t have access to Mjoliner any longer, in the last issue, we learned that Thor asked the dwarves to make him hundreds of hammers to use for all assorted purposes. Thus using one of Thor’s new hammers called the Bomb Hammer, he blows up the bridge releasing the secret weapon. That’s right Thor fans. It’s time for one Hela good time!
This was by far the best page of the entire issue. Just look above at the size of Fenris compared to Thor and Hela. Del Mundo does a fantastic job making Fenris feel like he’s leaping off the page at the readers while Sabino sprinkles in a touch of dialogue to give the splash page the perfect flare needed to end this issue. Well done team!
Overall, Aaron’s story ultimately gives us our familiar Thor we’ve grown to love. We get to see the band (family) get back together again, AND I’m totally ready to see that family dinner. If I was to speculate, I foresee Odin’s kids all working together to stop Malekith’s War of the Realms. I think readers will love that storyline and I hope we go in that direction. I just would have enjoyed this comic more if I wasn’t so distracted by the busyness of the art and lettering combinations on a few of the pages throughout the issue.
Should you pick up this issue?
Absolutely! It’s still one Hel of an issue and one Hel of a creative team.
Should you add this series to your pull?
Hel yes! Aaron’s knows Thor and has years of experience with him. This is still in my top 5 without a doubt.
Well, what did you guys think of THOR #2? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @dispatchdcu
