Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Marvel
Thor #8 begins with us back in the main story, continuing with the plot after the past two issues were spent by Loki telling a story of a previous scheme he planned against Thor. I want to talk about these books before judging how #8 fairs. Loki is telling the story to instruct Dario Agger on how to make super soldiers, but did it have to take a whole two issues whenever it could’ve been done in a few pages?
The whole thing reeked of filler to me as Aaron bought for time, either so he could focus on his other (amazing) works or to figure out where to take the series. This is rather harsh, those issues were kind of fun in that we got to see more of the Odinson in his younger form and an eviler, crueler Loki as opposed to the ‘Oh look at me, aren’t I so mischievous and kind of evil,’ version we see now but it really dropped the ball as an introduction to the next arc when things had been left on such a good cliffhanger at the end of the previous one.
So here we are at #8, in my mind only beginning to see the story progress further when we should already be three issues in now. Because of this delay the book has to spend more time than usual reminding us what’s exactly going on (which I realised I’d needed due to forgotten details) and it does this well, doing a quick ‘week in the life of…’ section that I always like as they often do well to add a bit more character to a hero.
How are the state of affairs? Well, the All-Mother is in a catatonic state so Odin is stuck trying to heal her while his venomous brother rules Asgard, the Senate of the Ten Realms is falling apart and Malketh has taken over Alfheim with the help of Dario Agger who plans to harvest the realm’s natural resources for profit.
Now which of those crises sound the most interesting?
I would bet that very few of you said the Dario Agger/business plot-line but too bad because that’s what we’re going with.
I’m not sure about the rest of you but I am tired of reading about Marvel villains that are just ‘big business person with a twist relevant to the hero.’ It’s just very bland and when it comes down to it Darius is as boring as they come.
For example, whats his motivation? He wants more money and he’s not a nice fella. Sure he can turn into a minotaur but he rarely uses that and it’s rather throwaway. Fortunately there is an interesting development in this thread that I won’t spoil but my point that cookie-cutter CEO villains are being used too often still stands in the face of this change, if not strengthened as it perfectly shows off how overly abundant such villains are.
If you don’t believe me about the over saturation of CEOs involved in Marvel villainy, this issue points it out quite well by consisting largely of a meeting of such antagonists with Dario that boils down to,
The Board- ‘Dario, we’d reeeaaaaally like some of that elf land you just got, can we have some?’
Dario- ‘mmmmm… No.’
The other part of the issue follows Jane Foster as she deliberates over the nature of her life as she struggles with cancer and how it, and her duties, have changed since she became Thor. While this does have one or two good moments, such as taking a friend on her cancer ward to go see whales before her friend passed on, most of it does seem to be rehashing what has already been expressed in previous books without any development. Not only that but it expresses these ideas overtly, by saying outright saying them which I deem to be lazier than how most of them were originally shown, by Jane acting in ways or expressing beliefs to other topics that would lead the reader to these ideas themselves.
At one point Jane is abducted by Shield for questioning as to who the new Thor is, and it seems that this is going to be an overarching threat in the months to come. Now forgive me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the cause of the main threat in the last arc Odin trying to find out who’s the new Thor? It just seems like another rehash of ideas that have been used far too recently, another plot thread added onto a pile of already existing ones whenever I just wish Aaron would pick one and follow it for a while to see where it actually goes.
While the story and characters may be a bit lack luster this issue, Dauterman and Wilson sure know how to pull more than their fair share of the weight when duty calls. This book may have some of the best art throughout Aaron’s run with some pretty memorable panels such as Foster’s transformation into Thor, vibrant colours and really inventive page layouts. Panel design is rarely something I pay attention to but the bizarre use of circles and curved panels really made the villain meeting scene progress fast while it otherwise would have been slow and dull(er).
I have been exceptionally hard on this issue but that’s only because I’ve really loved this series up to recently and I know that Aaron can make it more fantastic and more awe-inspiring than what has been put in front of us here. The series has regained the adjective ‘Mighty’ although I feel that this particular issue should have left that out as it didn’t really have what makes a Mighty Thor comic, well… Mighty . There was no action at all and what little fantasy that was present was uninspired. I look back to the start of Jane Foster as Thor or The God Butcher story and I wonder where that sense of adventure that’s been missing these past issues went. The Thors are my favourite heroes but I’m beginning to consider dropping the run from my pull list as Hercules has become a far more interesting read and The Mighty Thor is at risk of becoming the worst thing a series could ever be, forgettable.
