Review: Thor #615

Sometimes it's easy to forget, but it wasn't that long ago that Marvel's numero-uno, blond powerhouse, Thor, was nothing but a fond memory. After breaking the never-ending cycle of Ragnarök in Avengers Disassembled: Thor, the God of Thunder and the rest of his fellow Asgardians disappeared from the Marvel Universe for several years. Only recently has Thor begun to reestablish his rightful place as the Mightiest Avenger.

In a lot of ways Thor #615 is a continuation of the story that J. Michael Straczynski started back in 2007 when he brought Thor back and put Asgard on Earth, but it also is a departure from the stories that preceded it. The creative team of Matt Fraction (writer), Pasqual Ferry (penciler) and Matt Hollingsworth (colorist) manage to do the difficult job of continuing to build on the work of prior creators while bringing an entirely new perspective to the book.

The first thing you'll probably notice when you pick up Thor #615 is the art. Pasqual Ferry's pencils are incredibly clean and his layouts are dynamic. Ferry's work here has a cinematic quality to it; like the characters in each panel could start moving at any moment. Add in Matt Hollingsworth's vivid color work that really emphasizes light and you have a very beautiful and unique world for these Norse gods to exist in. In the past, Thor comics have tended to be rendered in a very detail-heavy style with a more muted color palette. This makes Ferry and Hollingsworth's work even more of a breath of fresh air in comparison. The Nine Worlds have rarely looked as magical as they do in Thor #615.

If you flip to the center of the comic you'll find an excellent "hero-introduction" two-page spread of Thor standing majestically in front of the ruins of Asgard, helmet in hand, cape billowing behind him cutting through the blues and browns of the background with a swath of red. The scene looks less like pages from a comic and more like an artistic representation of a still from a movie. You can almost hear the John Williams score playing in the background. If you flip back a few pages you'll find the "villain-introduction" two-page spread which gives us our first look at the nasties that Thor is eventually going to have to deal with. Ferry and Hollingsworth give us some really menacing-looking adversaries with red skin, all dressed in black with glowing yellow flourishes. In fact, the character designs are very Kirby-esque, making them certainly look like god-sized trouble. The only bit from these pages that didn't feel quite right was the little galaxy — or whatever it was — inside of each of the villains' word balloons; but that’s just a little detail that doesn’t really detract from the overall excellence of the book’s visuals.

With Asgard in ruins a big shift in direction was pretty much inevitable for Thor, and Matt Fraction begins to lay the groundwork for that shift in Thor #615. Fraction throws a lot at us in this issue but manages to do it in a well-paced, entertaining way. The story opens with an amusing scene between a scientist and one of Asgard’s “top scientific minds,” discussing what can only be a set-up for the villain-intro that occurs a few pages later. The little moments that Fraction puts in featuring the doomed Light Elves in Álfheim make the villains’ first appearance even more effective in invoking malice. Now that Loki is (apparently) gone, Thor is going to need some fresh villains to tussle with, and Fraction seems to have come up with some intriguing new enemies.

Speaking of Loki, Fraction gives us a wonderful character moment when Sif approaches Thor and finds him lamenting the loss of his troublesome brother. It’s another fairly little detail in a book packed full of them, but Fraction seems to understand that it’s the little things that go a long way towards building effective characters and engaging drama.

Another example of the little but important details is the new spin on the Donald Blake/Thor symbiosis that Fraction establishes in this issue. Rather than having Blake disappear completely when “Thored-out,” Fraction has decided to keep Blake around as a voice in Thor’s head. It’s a change that may rub some fans the wrong way, but I can certainly see why it may be a good change for the character. Too often it seems as if Donald Blake is an afterthought in Thor’s world; sometimes many issues will pass without seeing him at all. With Blake always present inside of Thor, Fraction can keep us connected to the human side of the God of Thunder.

With all of these elements working together — Fraction’s deft understanding of character and dramatic development, Ferry and Hollingsworth’s mastery of their respective mediums — Thor #615 truly marks the beginning of a new era in Thor comics. Without taking anything away from the creative teams that came before, Thor had been losing steam a bit prior to this issue. The stories were solid, they just didn’t seem to be bringing anything new or exciting to the table. The good news for fans is that as of issue 615, Thor is definitely exciting again. In my opinion, the last time a mainstream superhero comic hit all the right notes the way that Thor #615 does was when Fraction first teamed with Salvador Larroca on The Invincible Iron Man. Considering that book earned an Eisner Award in 2009 for Best New Series, it’s good company to keep. Let’s hope Fraction can duplicate that success with Thor — so far things are looking good.