Thor #608

The title of this comic may be Thor, but like the last issue, it has precious little actual Thor included.

There's a two-page spread that recaps part of the Thunder God's fight with the Sentry from Siege #3, but he never says a word and you don't see anything you didn't see in the mini-series.

Instead, this issue is given over to the battle for Asgard, which the Norse Gods seem to be losing - and I continue to maintain that the idea that the gods could be so easily beaten is absolute crap.

Asgard is an other-dimensional nation, filled with thousands (or millions) of powerful characters (even the children are incredibly strong) and incredible weapons, as more than one Lee and Kirby issue of The Mighty Thor demonstrated.

But here they're portrayed as though they were just a bunch of guys wielding swords - no match for the super-powered army of villains attacking them.

I know, we're just seeing a small part of the battle - and maybe that's the problem. Other than a splash page or two, there's no sense of the epic nature of the conflict in this issue.

The other focus in this issue is Volstagg's battle with the Thor clone (he calls himself Ragnarok, presumably because he doesn't like "Clor"). It's good to see Volstagg treated with some respect (given his usual role as a buffoon), but it's also hard to believe that he can stand up to a creature with the power of Thor.

So what I'm saying is that this issue is kind of a mess. Writer Kieron Gillen seems to be stalling for time until he can spell out the final fate of the Asgardians, and the art is split between the styles of Billy Tann & Batt and Rich Elson. They're all good artists, but their styles don't really mesh well up against each other.

I'm enjoying the main Siege book, but I can't say much for the splinter books like this. It's not bad - it's just not particularly good, either. Maybe if we saw more of the title character...

Grade: C+