It is I, Before We Go Blog’s self-appointed Special Thorrespondent, continuing my ongoing reviews of Al Ewing’s The Immortal Thor, this time of volume four, The Son of Thor (with artwork by Jan Bazaldua).
There are two main points we’ve got to address.
Point the first: isn’t the title a spoiler? Sort of. I’ll keep things vague, but while we do see someone who qualifies as the “son of Thor,” this being a comic book, the circumstances are quite a bit more complicated than you might suppose. (But no, it’s not the “surprise baby” trope you might be expecting/dreading.)
Point the second: is it better than its disappointing predecessor? Thankfully, yes.
One thing that frustrated me about that arc was its lack of resolution of the cliffhanger from the one before, in which the God of Thunder was framed for murder. Ewing finally revisits those events, and we open with Thor heading back to Midgard (that’s Earth, for you humans out there) in an effort to clear his name, only to walk into a trap. The action is frontloaded into the early part of the volume, as Thor battles an alliance of some of Marvel’s more obscure rogues. This comprises the first three issues collected here, and Ewing handles the shorter storyline better than he did in The End of All Songs. One story in three parts feels lean and mean, whereas the two stories divided into two parts apiece in the last trade paperback simply felt unsatisfying.
The rest of the pages are devoted to setting up the climax of the story Ewing has been telling thus far, as an old foe reappears in a shocking way, and when we leave Thor, an epic confrontation is about to begin.
The bottom line: this volume is a welcome return to form for The Immortal Thor, and if it seems more like buildup that payoff, the payoff it’s building up to looks to be spectacular indeed, and I for one can’t wait.
