There needs to be said a little bit of backstory before recommending this book to anyone. Kieron Gillen was tasked to finish the story begun by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS), and then his following issues are Tie-ins to an Brian Michael Bendis event titled “Siege” where Asgard is sieged.
I felt Gillen did a good job with this book, granted for brand new Thor fans it might be best to read JMS run first, the book does open with a 1 page summary and gives information on minor characters such as Bill & Kelda, alongside how Dr. Doom is connected to all of this, but it still makes one ponder if they could have given them some backstory. The Doom arc is wonderful showcasing the treacherous Doom having his own Destroyer battle armor, Billy Tan’s penciling on the fight scene is fantastic and seeing Doom with an army of mind warped Asgardian humanoid monsters was truly like something from a horror movie.
The Siege parts, is rather disappointingly constructed due to being an tie-in, you don’t really know who is attacking outside the US government, you know Norman (Green Goblin) is running the show, but wouldn’t a new fan ask how that even happened in the 1st place? It shows the start of the siege, then jumps to the middle of it and then again just jumps to the aftermath, as all the “Main” events happened in the “Main” Siege book. I really enjoyed the Siege segments, because they don’t really focus on Thor, but on heroes such as Balder the Brave, Tyr the God of War, Heimdall, Fandrall, even Hela and Mephisto have important roles during the end of the book.
While this is a Thor book, and he does appear in majority of the issues, I’d still claim the main star of the book is none other than his brother, Loki. Loki’s tricks, lies, manipulations and schemes carry the whole book from start to end. While he doesn’t appear at all issues, even then his presence is felt as everything revolving the heroes is due to Loki’s actions, and that’s what makes me see Loki as star of the book, and with the Siege tie-ins focusing on minor characters, it gives this cool “anthology” like story, as each Siege segment focuses on some Asgardian and how they’re dealing with the war, it was interesting to see the different perspectives and stories, because Gillen gives all Asgardians this great charm and elegance to their dialogue.
Rating: 88/100 – While the way the book is construct with the Conclusion to JMS’ story to Siege tie-in issues and then lastly Gillen’s story that grew from these book, I can’t help but to cheer for his writing ability to make it all work, the dialogue is wonderful, as I felt Asgardians have this elegance to them, especially Balder’s dialogue shines here, the book has a good amount of action, Loki’s plotting and scheming and seeing it all unfold alongside Hela and Mephisto being great manipulators as well is a sinisterly sweet. Not to mention the book does plant the seeds for Gillen’s Journey into Mystery which stars none other than Loki!
