....isn't DR. DOOM supposed to be the main villain in Thor now? Isn't Lkoi reporting back to him? It's been so long but I feel like I remember that happening in one of these 10 issues.......
Loki was working with Dr. Doom. That was before the Mighty Avengers arrested him and then he got kidnapped from jail by the "New" Defenders, though. Who knows if this plot-line is still valid.
Well, whatever the case me be, I'm still enjoying it. Maybe if it keeps this pace for another 6 or so I'll drop it, but for now I'm having fun with it.
Blue Beetle 29 also reads as a great starting point, for anyone who wants to get into the book.
I agree on Blue Beetle.
As for THOR, yesterday I went to a shop called COSMIC COMICS in Manhattan and they have a habit of writing little "signs" beneath their new comics on the racks that note whether a book is "hot" and offer some observation or opinion from the owner/staff. Sometimes it can be a verification of awesomeness and sometimes a criticism.
For THOR #10?
"Nobody can stretch a 4 issue storyline into a year long arc quite like JMS!"
I found it funny because it was true. That isn't to say it is a bad story. But it is being stretched.
The book I did buy was:
DYNAMO 5 #15: It still is a drag to pay $3.50 for 20 pages of story, but one look at the sales figures for the title kind of justifies it. When a book barely sells in the Top 130, it needs all the things it can get to stay viable. It isn't the same as, say, charging $3.99 per issue of SECRET INVASION simply because it is an event book, especially as it sells over 200k. And Image is hardly as dominating as Marvel, cornering a whopping 4% of the market vs. Marvel's, what, 35%-40%? While not to ignore that it is annoying, Image tried selling this comic at $2.99 and it didn't last beyond 2-3 issues, because apparently the book doesn't sell well enough to forgo the extra .51 cents. At least I can forgive a comic company that is smaller these days than Dark Horse in market share gouging prices a bit on some titles. It is less forgiveable when it is the #1 company in the biz with an A-List team on the #1 book of the summer.
Besides, the trade for the first 7 issues was uber cheap to make up.
This issue continues the "Dynamo 5 No More" esque storyline. After the revelation that Myriad is an alien and the destruction of their aquarium base (which leaves Maddie in a coma) by an attack of villains breaks up the team, Tower City is in shambles due to metahuman crime. A new female vigilante named Vigil tries to hold up the slack, and gets some timely aid by Scrap, the lone team member still wearing a costume and intent on doing good. The pair manage to pummel some new villains (as well as a few crossing over from Faerber's other superhero book, GEMINI), but Scrap quickly sees that the two of them cannot handle the load and organizes a new Dynamo 5 alongside the Firebirds and Quake (circa issue #3, Capt. Dymano's ex-sidekick). I have been waiting for Quake to make a return and this makes perfect sense, so long as he is on his meds (he tends to go on rampages without 'em). I don't expect the team to last with this roster, but it will be fine for the arc.
Gage and Chang make up the issue's subplot, with the former Visionary spotting one of Gage's games and suspecting him of "cheating" by using his telepathy to read the other team's moves to win a tight game. Gage insists that it isn't "cheating" because he considers his powers just a part of him as his muscles (even if they needed a dose of radiation to unlock). To Gage's credit, he could have simply read the other team all game to amass a score of, like, 70-0, but didn't. Gage puts his half-brother in an uncomfortable spot by daring him to squeal about it. As seen in the last issue, Slingshot is taking care of her adopted father (who was recently kidnapped and saved) and Myriad has become disillusioned with the team, thinking they're hypocrites for taking his deception so personally. The villain at the heart of this, Widowmaker, has been tasked to hire supervillains to take over the city and kill Vigil (or any other straggler heroes) by a mysterious boss.
What I like about this book is that situations that once seemed simple become more complicated, and as an independent franchise, Faerber & Asrar can shift things as they fit. Who knew Myriad was an alien? But it works and adds some diversity to the team. The first issues were very "threat of the month" but as things have wore on, things have become more complicated for our heroes, with reactions and responses from villains who aren't about to let Dynamo 5 enforce justice easily. I wholly expect the Dynamo 5 half-sibs to return to each other, but for now the idea of them breaking up and Scrap gathering an ad hoc team works out. The only wild card is Vigil, who may be an old or new character. She claims to be a concerned citizen "standing up" after two generations of Dynamo's seemingly left the city to rot, but who knows. Besides, most teams these days have their first "break up" before issue #24. Hell, the Avengers did far sooner.
Faerber cites in his monthly column inspiration by Fab Nic's 50 issue run on NEW WARRIORS, which he felt at the time was better than Teen Titans (by 1991) and liked the concept of Vance Astrovik actually taking responsibility for his crime of accidentally killing his abusive father. Which makes me wonder if any of the Dynamo 5 will take the rep for a crime, or at the very least leave active duty for a while. At the very least, he is all about allowing resolutions to reach a logical conclusion, which is cool. And Asrar's art is solid on the book, as always. Hopefully it can maintain a better schedule, as promised in the letters page.
