3 out of 5

Just as with the concurrent Doctor Strange arc, Marvel – and Jason Aaron – roped me in with a cheaply-priced reprint issue, the contents of which defied my expectations of a top-shelf triple-A title.  …And like the Doctor Strange arc, what follows ends up falling back in line with my expectations.  The Thor example is a little bit easier to swallow, at least, as its a two-issue “arc” that I can only assume us a bridge between larger storylines.

More specifically: Loki meets up with a dude on Afalheim, with the context (provided by a summary) of helping said dude get some heavy weapons ready for a potential upcoming conflict.  In resolution of this request, Loki tells him a story from the old days, visually separated from Russell Dauterman’s present day illustrations by the distinctive oil work of Rafa Garres.  It’s shallow, but the artistic split is so distinct that the book already feels a bit different from other Marvel fare; however, as the story of a Viking praying to Loki for the defeat of Thor begins to unspool, the narrative picks up itd own flavor as well: Here is something fairly dark and heavy,band bereft of the kind of mugging we normally see in hero books.  Alas, the conclusion of Loki’s tale falls apart both from an in-story context and from an outsider’s perspective.  More generally, Garres’ moody and muddy work becomes so loose as to look comical in some sequences, and in others it’s just so indistinct as to become meaningless.  Aaron’s writing also falls back on some comedic punctuation, which felt out of place with what I’d perceived as a serious story.  And from a holistic perspective… Loki’s tale makes no sense.  It’s too clearly just a page filler to get to the conclusion (the oddity of comic publishing provides several scheduling reasons as to why such a fill-in might’ve been necessary), and, as part of that expectations-surpassed-and-then-re-met setup, Aaron can’t allow us to forget that the book is called The Mighty Thor, so a status quo that was set slightly to wobble in issue 6 is quickly corrected.  I’d say there would even have been opportunity to explore some duplicity on Loki’s behalf, but again, that might’ve complicated things for what turned out to be stepping stone issues.

To keep the Doctor Strange comparison going, though: It’s not an unenjoyable read, and while Garres’ art takes a turn in issue 2, the overall design is still pretty notable and interesting.  I might feel like Aaron gets bogged down by the limitations most Marvel / DC titles impose, but I’m not rolling my eyes while turning the pages, and I have to accept that I’m jumping into the title cold, so I have no context to better set the tone and pacing.  And I’m not put off from trying a few more issues to get that context.