Broken Frontier

J. Michael Straczynski moves from one solo hero title to another as he seeks an answer to the question that has been on everyone’s mind: Where the heck is Thor?

Over the past year, the Marvel Universe has been turned on its head as a giant Civil War has forced a superhero registration act into effect. During that war, almost all of Marvel’s heavy hitters were assembled to fall onto one side or the other. To many fans’ excitement, the long-absent God of Thunder finally made an appearance. However, it turned out to be only a clone, leaving a bad taste in many readers’ mouths. But now Marvel looks to bring back the God in a big way with a new series helmed by one amazing creative team.

J.M.S. really did a bang up job over on Spider-man, breathing life and emotion into the wall-crawler that was becoming stagnant and stale. With Thor, he may have an easier go of it, as the slate had been pretty much wiped clean by Ragnorok, as Asgard and its inhabitants have been wiped from existence.

With any relaunch title, the writer must decide how to bring the readers up to date and what of the characters past will still exist. Straczynski jumps right into it by giving a concise run down of some key points of what has come prior to this issue before he starts pulling on the God’s emotions. Within the first ten pages, Thor has to question where he is and more importantly who he is. It makes for an intriguing start, though it is a bit slower then one would hope for this title.

Of course, the slow pace does lend itself to one thing, and that is the absolutely stunning artwork of Olivier Coipel. The God of Thunder may have looked this good before, but not anytime recently. What Coipel does here is really add a cinematic feel to the story, which really does well to lend itself to the mythological side of the book. If the first issue can be a sign of things to come, the artwork here will enhance Straczynski’s storytelling in a way that will may this series one of the most complete titles on the stands. Some titles you read, some titles you look at, but this feels like it will be one you experience.

As the issue continues, we are presented with teases of what may be happening, without any real answers. It works in that it makes the reader want to pick up the next issue to find out what is going to happen (especially after the final panel), but it does feel a bit empty, as if this issue may have benefited with a double-size offering.

There has been a noticeable absence with Thor gone so long from the Marvel Universe, and there is no denying the excitement that surrounds this issue. The fact that we have a true A-team collaboration on what will surely become one of Marvel’s flagship titles simply makes this a series you can not miss.