Broken Frontier

Michael Oeming returns to Thor, the character who he ushered to his legendary end, this time in a flashback tale illustrated by Scott Kolins.

The issue starts off right in the action as The Absorbing Man is loose and causing havoc in the city. Because of his opponent, Thor uses a bit of an unorthodox method to defeat Creel, which somewhat foreshadows the book’s true plot. For as soon as he is finished helping out Nurse Jane Foster in his human guise of Doctor Donald Blake, he travels to Valhalla and learns of the problems of his friends and family. It seems that there is trouble brewing between the Giants and the Norse Gods, with Thor’s family (and subsequently the Thunder God himself) in the middle.

Having lead Marvel’s Norse Thunder God into an apparent hiatus in modern Marvel continuity, it would only seem right that Michael Oeming should be writing a Thor flashback miniseries to hold fans over. This time working without a co-writer, Oeming still proves that he knows this character up and down. He presents the character of Thor completely true to his roots, from his battle with Creel to his stature amongst the Gods. There are only a couple things that stick out though. At times Thor’s dialogue seems too modern. Similar to an actor who loses his accent in different scenes in a movie, Thor’s words sometimes seem to have been written for someone else. This is probably hurt by the odd choice of lettering in the book. Normally when telling a story with Gods the lettering matches in some sort of classic style. The lettering in this book is just too similar to any ordinary font. Also, while it’s nice to see the Donald Blake and Jane Foster characters show up, their scenes aren’t really necessary for the story and the book would be better without them.

It’s not that I don’t like Scott Kolins. I find his artwork in this book to be exceptional. His attention to detail is impeccable. He draws his action sequences with great aplomb. He can handle large and small panels with equal precision. His storytelling never causes trouble and he handles the pacing of the book well. And his line work, while sometimes uneven, is clean and sharp. He even does a nice ode to Walt Simonson on the cover. No, it’s not that I don’t like Scott Kolins, it’s just that I’d rather Mike Oeming be drawing the book himself.

A nice holdover for any and all Thor fans waiting patiently for his return, Thor: Blood Oath won’t totally fill the void, but it’ll certainly be enough to tide you over a little longer.