Due in part, I think, to the many delays of the main series, we have Matt Fraction here with another Thor-related story: Thor: God-Size #1. Now I still believe that Matt Fraction should be the one to take over for J. Michael Straczynski when he leaves the title, and this issue just further proves that belief to be right. The premise is that Thor, Loki, and Balder all have different memories of who Skurge the Executioner was and what happened to him. They realize that they need to figure out who has been tampering with their memory, so they set out to Hel to ask Hela what’s up. Now, what really happened to Skurge was that he died holding off the armies of Hel by himself with two machine guns in one of the most bad-ass moments in comic books. But not even Hela remembers that. And so, our heroes (and villainesses) must figure out what’s going on.
I have only one complaint about this issue, one that unfortunately mars a good story. When could this have possibly taken place? The Enchantress still hasn’t been seen in the normal comics, so we could say that this is her first post-Ragnarök appearance. But what about Hela? She hasn’t been seen to be in control of her old realm in the actual Thor comics. Rather, she seems to be in Las Vegas. Her appearance in X-Infernus can likely be explained as in the future. But by then, Loki will probably have revealed her deception and would not be with Thor and Balder. This is something that really bothers me, since this is a story that should have its place in modern Thor lore.
As for the art, it’s all pretty good. I loved Dan Brereton’s work in Immortal Iron Fist, Doug Braithwaite draws a very chiseled Thor and beautiful Loki, and Mike Allred’s art calls back to older days. As for Miguelángel Sepulveda’s art, however, it falls very flat. One of Loki’s smiles is actually nasty to look at, and most other faces are poorly defined. Too bad that’s how the book ends. At any rate, this is an excellent side-story to the already great modern Thor epic. It should not be missed.
Plot: 9.3 Art: 8.8 Dialogue: 9.3 Overall: 9.2
