It has to be a trick to take over an existing title, especially one that has quite a few tangled storylines to deal with.That's the challenge facing new writer Kieron Gillen on Thor. His predecessor, J. Michael Straczynski, left behind some gnarly story threads: Thor in exile from Asgard, the Asgardians (rather inexplicably) relocating to Dr. Doom's kingdom Latveria, and Doom conducting experiments on Asgardians with Loki's help.
Adding to the problem is the fact that Doom is everywhere these days, apparently competing with Norman Osborn for the title of "villain appearing in the most comics this month."
Gillen gives it a game shot here, and there are some strong moments as Thor gets to cut loose - something we don't see often enough. But the story really struggles under the weight of the set-up, and never really takes off.
The art is quite good, as Billy Tan turns in some powerful, detailed pages, and really shines in the last pages.
I'm hopeful for good things out of this team once they get this mess cleaned up - the potential is there, but right now they're fighting against the current.
Grade: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment