Ok, before I roll into Thor, Reign of Blood let me give you a little update on the comic book review situation. Due to my travels I got a little behind in my reviews and I want to catch up, but the outlook is looking very bleak. It would mean me having to forego or double up on days, which means less face time on the front page for some of the more prominent reads. This weeks crops can not be pushed aside either; Secret Invasion #4, Nova #15, Guardians of the Galaxy #3, Eternals #2, Final Crisis:Requiem, JSA #17, Trinity #4-6 are all up to be reviewed before next Wednesday. I am not going to review Mighty Avengers #15 or New Avengers #42 this week. They were only backstories on Hank Pym and Jessica Drew and how they became Skrulls anyway maybe at a later date I will be able to revisit them, but for today I have to give you Thor, Reign of Blood!



For any comic book fans, Versus players, casual readers and the likes wondering why am I always decrying the treatment of Thor in the Versus TCG (He only has 3 cards, 4 if you include Mjolnir) or lamenting about his adventures in his ongoing series, which is being written by the great J. Michael Stracyznski, you don’t need to look any further. If my explanations have not been enough, if UDE creating the Big Three plot twist card which prominently proclaims Thor as one of the Big Three, if Marvel planning a 2010 Thor Blockbuster movie were not enough; now you have Matt Fractions works in Marvel’s One-shot’s of Thor.



Ages of Thunder was a great start, Reign of Blood just kept the momentum rolling for me, even in it’s down moments where the issues are not flooded with double page layouts of action and violence this series manages to capture the essence of the God of Thunder and his role in both Midgard (Earth) and Asgard. Fraction is a really good writer, The artist; Zircher, Chung, Evans, Olazaba and Djurdevic are awesome compliments and they all bring Thor to new fans in a way that many would probably fail at. These one-shots serve as a graphic novel for Thor and while they are supposed to be captures of Thor at various moments in his comic life Fraction manages to capture all of Asgard. In an interview with Newsarama Fraction laid out the picture for what he is trying to accomplish with the series.

Ultimately, these stories present to us with the reasons why Odin saw fit to curse Thor with the humanity of Donald Blake, and who he becomes because of it. That's the uniting thread that, no matter what apocalypse he's skyrocketing towards, Thor had this flaw, and this ultimate redemption because of it, told in giant, divine terms. It was danced around back in Thor#159, if you want to get all continuity-guy on it; Ages of Thunder is a kind of explicit play-by-play, where Thor's lack of humility triggers all of these wonderful, horrible things.

These one-shots do a lot for the Thor mythos, especially introducing him to new fans and showing everyone why he is a part of the Big Three (Captain America, Iron Man and Thor; UDE why is Thor Getting no love? Come on give me more than a 3 character cards for the God of Thunder). If you have people at your hobby leagues or in your store who have just started reading the Thor ongoing series then this would be a great sale to them as it definitely clearly wraps up a lot for the casual fan.



Reign of Blood opens slowly enough, giving the reader the backstory on wha’s going on in Asgard and setting the tone for how we are going to see Thor later on, or rather why we see him as he is later on in the issue. Thor is still arrogant and self-absorbed, the funny thing is that when Kirby and Lee were coming up with this picture they were painting of Thor I wonder did they look at the rest of the Asgardians, who were not too far off from Thor’s personality flaw. At one point Odin goes berserker because of Enchantress’ nasty seduction of some trolls who crafted a necklace that she just had to have, and he only gets mad because she won’t sleep with him, that alone is arrogant and rude as hell, but it definitely sets the tone for the situation is Asgard where you can see each god as they are and almost on level with human emotion.



In anger Odin destroys what Enchantress “Labored” for upsetting Enchantress so that she curses the Earth; “May the dead plague the Earth…” I mean what arrogance is that. The Gods bicker amongst each other and instead of them dealing with it, they throw temper tantrums and it is not their world that suffers for it, no, it is Midgard (Earth) our world that has to be cursed. This is twice in this issue where such is the case. The first being the precursor to the creation of the necklace Enchantress desired. Look at the scans and you will see. So when you look at these you see that it isn’t so much Thor in his arrogance that sets him apart from the rest of the Asgardians.



In fact, it is Thor who responds to this curse unleashed upon Midgard and Thor alone. No other Asgardian is there to help Midgard, except for Thor, he even sacrifices his own body to be fuel to the Blood Colossus that drives the dead back to their resting place. Of course we could question Plot Induced Stupidity (PIS) and ask why Odin would not juts force Enchantress to undo what she has sown, but this allows for another angle of approach on the situation. If Thor is the one in Asgard who is so arrogant then why is it he who is always saving the Asgardians from their follies. In Ages of Thunder it was Thor who slew the Front Giants to get Enchantress back so she pick the fruit of the tree to provide the gods with their nectar. It was he who thought wisely enough not to lavish himself upon the fruit day in and day out, but to stockpile wisely.



Now it is Thor who has to undo what the Asgardian’s have done to man once again. Thor does this in Epic fashion, but this time man’s own greed and desire angers the God of Thunder. He ask only one thing of his sacrifice and that is for his steeds to be taken care of, but man could not do as asked, even as Thor labored for them to undo what Enchantress has done. It is finally in this one moment that we see Thor in bloodlust, but who can you say is to blame? Is it the God of Thunder, No!



Throughout his comic life, Thor’s arrogance and pride is what has always been his downfall and in the eyes of the Asgardians his stake in the affairs of Midgard, but looking at things from this angle you really have to wonder, was Thor wrong? I am really loving the way Fraction is bringing the myth to life in these giant sized one-shots. The double page layouts, the increased panels, the beautiful artwork and the scripting is just some of the best to read off the shelves today. I highly suggest picking these titles up as they are really guaranteed pleasure reads at this point and definitely will be serving as source material for the Thor Essentials Collection later on in the future.



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