Kieron Gillen and Billy Tan…..That should be the only names you see as creators for this book. Sadly, as with the last issue, the art duties have been split with Rich Elson doing half the issue. Now that we know this will be the norm for this tie-in arc, can I get used to it?

A little bit of yes and no really. Let me put this way in that: Elson does some great work in here. He’s no Tan, but he does some beautiful work in this. Looking at his work, on it’s own, I think he can be a very good artist in general. He does some wonky faces, especially on Kelda, but for the most part it works. Elson doesn’t seem to do action sequences as often, because they look static and not well laid out. The ‘fight’ of Thor and Sentry is probably beautiful with Coipel’s pencils in Seige. Here? Not so much. When we get into Tan’s pencils though, mainly with Volstagg fighting Clone Thor* it’s what I want out of this title. Tan has just been killing it with this series and he definitely knows how to make scenes more exciting. The one major hiccup though is that with the different colorist, it makes the scene transitions more jarring. Although I can say I can get somewhat used to the switches in art, the coloring just throws me off too much.

Once again I must admit how sad I am to see Gillen not stay on this title in the near future. All of these moments with Tyr, Volstagg, and Kelda just feel right to me. Sure it all feels Shakespearian and he definitely is using the same techniques to tell a tragedy. Just like JMS though, he writes the characters in his own voice and he definitely knows hot to write these characters. Especially Volstagg, who is a delight to read when the issue focuses on him. He is still funny at times, but now with a lump in his heart he definitely seems to have grown has a character.

With the art duties split aside, this has been a fun issue to read. Whether it’s Tyr trying to overcome his fears, or Volstagg fighting a clone Thor; Gillen makes this all fun to read. Maybe in the future we will see Gillen try his hand on this series again. As for now, you can’t go wrong with what Gillen has provided so far with this run.

*By the way, it would’ve been nice if Gillen stated this was the ‘clone’ Thor from the Civil War event. I had a feeling that this was the robot all along, but there was no indication that it was. Glad I read the ‘Previously’ page in the very beginning.