It’s been a long time since we had a Thor book that wasn’t weighed down by terrible supporting characters and Thor substitutes. Fortunately, we have a seasoned writer and artist John Romita, Jr. (who specializes in big, strong brutes) so my hopes are high.
We find him the lone Norse God on Earth, with the rest of Asgard having been missing (presumed dead) for quite some time. He visits the ruined city and gives us a little recap…
…but while there he inadvertently releases the Dark God Perrikus (we only hear his voice in this issue—we won’t see him for a bit).
Meanwhile, the Destroyer Armor gets released and goes on a rampage through New York city.
Some Avengers hold it off for a bit…
I really dig John Romita Jr.
At last, Thor arrives to join the fight.
It’s a good fight, but of course Thor saves the dayis killed.
Oh my God! He just got his own series with an all-star artist and he’s dead already!
And so Thor goes to Hel (again).
Hela claims his soul but Marnot–a new character with godlike powers–intervenes and returns Thor to Earth.
Thor defeats Destroyer, but there’s a twist: Thor must now occupy the body of a mortal, just as he did with Don Blake. At the end of the issue, he reverts to the Jake Olsen persona, but is missing Jake’s memories…
OK, so we have a “reverting back to the basics” set up, some new powerful god characters, and a mission to restore Asgard.
Very nicely done.