Marvel Comics – June, 2008 – $3.99 – Color
Writer: Matt Fraction – Artist(s): Patrick Zircher (First Half), Khari Evans(Second Half) – Cover: Marko Djurdjevic
I’ll admit, when I first heard of Matt Fraction’s series of one-shots to be released this year, I was a bit confused. Was there a problem with the main-stream Thor series that Marvel needed to make one shots for the character a la Thunderbolts? Upon reading this book, however, I found this book’s true purpose–to re-create old Norse tales and myths to create a beautiful comparison to the mainstream Thor, which is dealing with the god of thunder’s current affairs. This book turns out to be a wonderful creation of classic myths and comic book badassery hybrid.
Although the story of this book is MUCH better when read, I’ll deliver the gist of the entire book. As frost giants attack Asgard, Thor and Co. deliver a counter attack that accidently breaks part of the stone wall of Asgard. After defeating the giants, the gods feast upon the magic apples that makes them gods, all collected from the only person who can: The Enchantress. Anyway, good ol’ Loki manages to trick a mason who offers to fix the wall into what Loki and the Gods think is an impossible deal. The mason would win the Enchantress if he fixes the wall in six months. Needless to say, the mason almost finishes the wall until Loki stops him at the last minute. But the mason has a few tricks up his sleeve and, without ruining anything, Thor has to bust out his Step-brother.
The second part of the story isn’t as appealing, but still a good one nonetheless. The second story involves Loki being tricked into giving up the Enchantress for wealth and etc. With no one to pick the magic apples, the gods grew weak and eventually begged Thor for apples from his “reserve”. Thor rejects the gods and Odin turns to Loki to bring back the Enchantress. Loki runs into trouble and, by now, you know who comes to save everyone.
I loved the writing and story combined in this book. Fraction writes the story mostly through third person narratives with little word balloons. This creates a very mythical feel to the book combined with the excellent pencils of Patrick Zircher. The art in the first half of the book is spectacular, with a wide screen presentation creating a very dynamic and epic view point. The second half drawn by Khari Evans isn’t as good as the first, but it still has quite a bit of production value to it. This might very well be one of the best books so far this year.
Story: 9, Writing: 10, Art: 9.5, Cover: 9.5
Overall: 9.5
