Comics that tie-in to certain events are always iffy with me. On some aspects, they can be downright horrible on the other hand they can be somewhat more entertaining then the actual event. Now I am not reading Seige and I choose to wait for the ‘Heroic Age’ to start in a few months. But I was a bit troubled whether I should stick with the rest of Keiron Gillen’s Thor run or not. I mean the event takes place at Asgard so…..this should be hugely important, no? Since I have been enjoying his short run so far, I decided to cotinue reading; events be damned! Was this the right move?

The more I read Gillen’s run, including this issue, the more I hope and pray Marvel will let him come back to the series in the future. He just gets this universe, it’s uncanny. Now it isn’t as perfect as JMS’s take on the Norse Gods and Asgard; but it still is damn entertaining. Basically this issue was just setting up the bloodshed that has already happened in the past few months. Only towards the end do we get somewhat in the middle of the fight. Along the way we get great peices with Heimdall, Kelda, and of Volstagg. I know the mini series ‘Embedded’ is dealing with Volstagg directly; but Gillen has a great take on the hero. He still is using aspects of JMS’s run; with the Norse Gods trying technology out. So of course youtube is a factor in this issue. Then the issues ends on a bizarre cliffhanger; but it doesn’t confuse me because I haven’t read the event.

There is only one problem with this issue and that is of the art. I am going to assume Tan couldn’t finish this issue (or maybe this arc) on time. Which is perfectly fine for me in this case, cause we’ve seen interviews that both Gillen and Tan’s run got extended for these tie-ins. What Tan has done (about 50%) in this issue does look great. He does give off the impression that this is a more toned down series, or just more action packed then previous takes on Thor. For the other half of the issue, Rich Elson and Paul Mounts take over and I’m not sure why. Elson’s pencils look sorta similar to Tan’s; but it’s obvious from the coloring that these are very different from eachother. It isn’t terrible mind you, I kinda like the watercolor-lite look to these pages. But the differences became a bit too much for me. Not a deal break, just a bit of a nitpick for me.

Even if this is a tie-in to an event I’m not reading; I was never confused and I did quite enjoy this. The more issues I read of this new run, again, the more I hope Gillen and Tan gets offered to do this series again. Basically this was a fun, action packed comic with some good humor involved. What’s not to like?