Cinemusings - Rot Your Brain

THOR: AGES OF THUNDER
Zakarya Anwar

The first thing I thought when I saw this comic was, ‘Holy shit! It’s Thor! Standing on a Frost Giant’s Head! Awesomeness!’

And with Marko Djurdjevic doing the cover, you bet your arse it was awesomeness. Finally, I thought, a Thor comic that is actually set in the time period it’s supposed to be set in. And it was.

The first page was a map. A fantasy map of the world as the ancient Norse saw it. How Rings is this? I screamed at my still sceptical brother. The four pages after were dominated by Asgardian warriors fighting a gore filled battle against Frost Giants, the Mighty Thor coming to their aid and knocking the teeth out of the biggest bastard he could find. With artwork from Patrick Zircher (Iron Man, Cable and Deadpool) in part one of the yarn, and Khari Evans (the Immortal Iron Fist, Daughters of the Dragon) in part two, I just knew I was in for a treat. Like a kick in the nuts, this belief was shattered in a heartbeat.

Don’t get me wrong, Matt Fraction (the Punisher War Journal, Invincible Iron Man) does a great job of doing what he originally set out to do. He writes a story that reads as if it should be part of the Norse legends that surround this pantheon of characters.

The problem is that the writing is dated. Forget pre-crisis comics, I’m talking pre-Christ comics here. The fight scenes are few and far between, making what I had expected to be Robert E. Howard’s Conan with superpowers an exercise in epic phrasing, such as ‘Loki, clean thy mess’, the ever present ‘aye’, and my favourite ‘Nay, father. Some of us have been killing giants today and aren’t in the mood to have a tea party’. Epic speech is good, I love it. However, ‘epic speech alone, does not a great story make.’

Speaking of fight scenes, although they are as violent as I had hoped, there is no actual fighting on Thor’s part. He just hit’s the Frost Giants once and they’re dead. I know he’s supposed to be an Asgardian god, but come on people, the dude got floored by Beta Ray Bill. A Frost Giant should at least give him a page long fight.

That said, this is not the last we’ve seen of this series, with Thor: Reign of Blood on the way, and since Age of Thunder sold out, I can see why. Awesome artwork and a proper fantasy setting are great, but I can’t help but feel that the reader deserves more for his buck. On the plus side, Reign of Blood has the kind of cover that makes me think, ‘Holy shit! It’s Thor! Fighting an army of skeleton warriors! Awesomeness!’

Here we go again. . .

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