This week in comics: Thor refuses to let sleeping dogs lie, Countdown picks up steam, and the End League learns to stop worrying and love the bomb.
Thor #5: J. Michael Straczynski (script), Olivier Coipel (art)
Having risen stronger and more determined than ever after the trials of Ragnarok, Thor travels the world seeking to awaken his fellow Norsemen and establish a new Vahalla. In issue #5, he finds that his quest is more daunting than initially expected as he unknowingly frees one of his greatest foes.
Marvel had gone nearly three years without a regular Thor title before assigning Straczynski the heavy-hitting fan favorite. So far he has borrowed heavily from Neil Gaiman’s 2006 mini-series “Eternals” as well as his novel “American Gods” with his gods-made-mortal epic. This is not necessarily a bad thing: Thor and his supporting characters fit nicely into the formula. Straczynski has found an effective mixture of absurdity (small town folk inviting Thor and company over for cake) and gravity (the preceding issue’s inclusion of African genocide) in a story separated from a confusing, tumultuous Marvel universe.
Coipel’s art and the pitch-perfect lettering and characterization infuse Thor with a tone reminiscent of the seminal Thor comics of the 1970s. The title is in an early enough stage to jump on; a good move seeing as the book has finally found itself a villain (or two).
Countdown to Final Crisis #17: Various writers (script), Ron Lim (art)
DC’s weekly serial finds Mary Marvel finally coming to blows with the wicked witch Eclipso and the Challengers of the Unknown battling to protect the recently discovered Ray Palmer. The team of writers have narrowed their focus to finally produce a paced and interesting weekly comic on par with last year’s “52.”
Whereas Countdown has crawled forward for over seven months with only a few panels devoted to half a dozen story arcs each issue, the writing team fronted by Paul Dini have cut out the fat and pushed the most interesting story and the most important story to the forefront of the book.
The Mary Marvel story arc has been the most coherent and compelling thus far and delivers some serious payoff in issue #17. Likewise, the Challengers have found Ray Palmer and can now spend the rest of Countdown figuring out why he is so important to the survival of the Multiverse.
Story Consultant Keith Giffen promised DC fans that starting with this issue, Countdown would fall into a dead sprint to Grant Morrison’s planned Final Crisis. Nevertheless, Countdown will only please the most informed and devoted DC fans as the stories usually involve supporting characters and are meant to flesh out the happenings of the world in general.
The End League #1: Rick Remender (script), Mat Broome (art)
After super-powered beings bring on a radioactive apocalypse, the surviving heroes struggle to find hope for humanity in a world run by gangs of super villains. This new title is based on an intriguing idea but is ultimately limited by its frenetic pacing and lack of development.
Despite existing outside the banner of Marvel and DC, the heroes of the End League seem immediately familiar. Remender purposefully developed each hero as a mock-up of classic genre archetypes and in a limited number of pages does a fair job of pulling the characterizations off under difficult circumstances.
Unfortunately, the pacing of the story and out-of-no-where nature of the plot diminishes the potential impact of classic heroes in a post-apocalyptic future. A more established origin of the characters' relationships and general setting is sorely needed, although Issue #1 could have easily been an effective #2 has such exposition been present.
Books as high on concept as the End League usually take more than one issue to hit their stride and therefore should merit another pull next month.
