JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #628

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 3.9
 
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Story by Kieron Gillen
Art by Whilce Portacio, Allen Martinez
Colors by Arif Prianto & Jessica Kholinne
Letters by Clayton Cowles
Cover by Stephanie Hans

Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99

I have been a huge supporter for this title since it came back so many months ago. Kieron Gillen has been able to tell his own stories involving Asgardian lore without getting bogged down into Fear Itself. Sure that has been the anchor for this entire story, but most of the time it’s just a passing reference and Loki’s schemes don’t seem to tie into the Serpent all that much. That pretty much all changes with this issue as Loki is now going into a full on assault into the Serpent’s lair. How does this bode for the series that now is a full on tie-in to a mediocre event?

Surprisingly very well for the most part with this issue. This part of the story does delve deep into Fear Itself, but again Gillen tries very hard no to make it feel like a burden. The overall plot for the issue is ‘storming the castle’ per say as Loki uses all of his allies to get to his goal. The Disir sisters are used cleverly to get rid of the guards, Tyr is the big muscle in it all, and The Destroyer is just….well Destroying things. The story does get a bit muddled towards the end because I am bit uncertain what Loki is trying to do at the end. Maybe that’s the point to some degree because Loki motivations has been unclear for months now. I’m sure next month, which is the finale of this arc, will reveal all to the readers.

What made this issue a bit more confusing is the art by Whilce Portacio. Now I’ll be perfectly honest here: I have never seen a comic with Portacio art. I know he is well regarded by a lot of fans, but something about this didn’t seem right to me. It’s a little uneven at times because Portacio character models are so uneven from page to page. The Disir sisters are the best example, with most of them having different heads and figures throughout the book. Hell, Loki looks like a middle age man at times too. There are some good pages here with the action, like Tyr or Destroyer breaking things. But other times I can’t tell what is going on. Maybe Portacio had to rush to get this issue done, because normally Braithwaite would be doing the issue here. Either way it’s a bit too uneven to really recommend it.

Even with this story now going full force into Fear Itself, Gillen manages to still tell ‘HIS’ story without an event tying him down. It’s just a shame that the fill in art by Portacio is uneven at best, and down right rushed at worse. I still think this issue is another solid outing for what has been a very great story arc, it’s just a shame the art couldn’t stay consistent for two straight issues to keep it strong.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

  1. This Portacio art is much better than what he did in Uncanny recently. I felt it didn’t detract from the story and occasionally enhanced it. Not so in Uncanny X-Men, which was mostly a Whilce trainwreck.

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