Broken Frontier

A centuries old secret of the Norse Gods shakes the very political structure of Asgard.

To keep children from acting up from the tedium of long car rides, parents have long employed the never-ending story or joke method, where details are invented by the storyteller on the fly, without real meaning or importance, but interesting enough to pass the time between stretches of highway. There is no structure, because the point of the story is only to be interesting enough to pacify eager minds, but when the ride is over, the story is over and has performed its function. Thor #10 feels like a chapter in a never-ending story. Loki reveals to Balder his long hidden lineage, and the implications for the leadership of Asgard are immense.

In a manner typical in Thor comics, ancient deals appear suddenly to rattle the status quo among the Gods, and this revelation is monumental, but the trope so familiar that it is difficult to get too excited about it. With a full 60 days wait between issues, and the previous chapter suffering from a meandering plot, patience has worn almost to the breaking point for the reader who wants to scream when the twenty second leaf is turned and so little, so agonizingly little has happened. J. Michael Straczynski writes with lyrical proficiency, and has woven a charming new tapestry with Asgard planted firmly in the heartland of America, but as a serial, each chapter is torture. I must admit that upon reading the pages dedicated to the subplot involving Donald Blake, I had forgotten exactly what was going on. With scarcely a reminder, I was left digging through past issues to regain my bearings. Perhaps in a collected edition, this overbearing tedium will feel like proper pacing, but in magazine format it’s Sisyphean in its pointlessness.

Though not given too much that is specifically interesting to draw, Oliver Coipel's artwork cements itself into the top tier of comic art currently being produced. He is equally adept at rendering the modern day diner and real people as he is the fantasy universe and costumes of the Norse Gods. Every cover of this series is of poster quality and the artwork has remained the strongest part of the series.

At the end of issue #9, I was a little impatient and looking for the pace of this series to pick up. Instead, the action ground almost completely to a halt. Thor is a God of Thunder with the power to command the wind and storms and lightning, and has a mystic Uru Hammer with the capability to bring down a building. He is man of few words, and speaks through impulsive action. It is a shame, but I am ready to say that this series has gone almost nowhere to date, I am not confident that it ever will.