Thor: God Of Thunder #25 (of 25) Review

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #25
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: RM Guera/Simon Bisley/Esad Ribic
Colorist: Giulia Brusco/IveSvorcina
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Editor: Wil Moss
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in Thor: God Of Thunder:   A founding Avenger, the Asgardian prince known as Thor has reached a crossroad in his life.  After years of defending Earth and Asgard from villainy large and small, the events of ‘Original Sin’ have marked him as unworthy to wield the power of his legendary hammer, Mjolnir.  Most everybody is aware that a new God of Thunder is on her way, but what will happen to the original Thor with his new distaff counterpart taking over?

MALEKITH EARNED HIS VILLAINY

Our story begins what the book describes as “The Far Future”, as Frigg, Ellisiv, and Atli, grand-daughters of Thor, grudgingly study the history of Asgard in the hopes of becoming heroes like Granddad was.  The Girls Of Thunder are probably my favorite bit of Jason Aaron’s take on the title, and their studies form the framing story for this issues multiple tales, starting with the (utterly dark and horrible) origins of Malekith, The Dark Elf.  There’s a lot of tragedy and possible Game Of Thrones influence at play throughout this story, which gives us his tragic back story and the origins of his arcane powers and (for perhaps the first time) the tale of how his face became marked with darkness.  The second story is one of Thor’s distant past, on a longboat with Vikings, which also reminds us that the God of Thunder hasn’t ALWAYS carried Mjolnir, and showcases hotheaded young Thor with his magical axe, Jarnbjorn.  It sets up a possible returning antagonist, while the last story (found in a book that was hidden and bound WITH CHAINS to keep from being read) gives us tantalizing glimpses of what’s to come in the next month’s new Thor title, with female Thor and a Coming Attractions of her challenges and villains.  The book ends with the girls being sent on their way by an angry future Granddad Thor who is clearly unhappy about this dark chapter in his life…

SIMON BISLEY THOR? YES, PLEASE!

There are multiple art teams in play for this issue, each one very well suited to their task at hand.  Esad Ribic’s Girls Of Thunder are adorable and badass in equal measure, and the issue’s final image of modern Thor struggling to life his hammer on the surface of the moon is amazing, even though it showcases the new Thor costume that I find more than little bit goofy looking.  Best of all is the use of Simon frikkin’ Bisley on the Viking chapter of the story, an amazing combination of artist and story that elevates the chapter above the rest of the comic.  The importance of Malekith to the proceedings is interesting to me, and RM Guera proves to be the first non-Walt-Simonson artist to make his original Simonson armor look really good, which makes me happy.  The downside of this issue is it’s use as a combo platter/coming attractions chapter rather than a solid last issue climax.  Certainly, some of that is by design, since the new #1 picks up immediately after this with the same creative team, but for a book solicited and sold as a big final issue milestone, it’s a bit disappointing to get a trio of (admittedly good) mostly unrelated stories with a far future framing device.

THE BOTTOM LINE: MOSTLY INTERMISSION

With all the hype and buildup to the new Thor’s debut, it makes sense that this issue would be designed to not overshadow that big event comic, but with only one page devoted to the whereabouts of modern Thor and his plight of being unworthy, the issue comes across a bit disappointing for me.  The stories being told here are good, especially Malekith’s, and the art is uniformly good stuff, but the placement of this issue feels too much like vamping for time until they’re ready to hit us with the big event comic, something I’ve had far too much of from Marvel in recent years.  Thor: God Of Thunder #25 isn’t a bad book, but suffers a bit due to placement and solicitation nonsense, but still delivers solid story and good art, for 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.