With ‘Fear Itself’ finally over, it looks like Kieron Gillen is finally going to have some story to himself. Well that is partly true as Gillen finishes up ‘Fear Itself’ with Loki and more importantly Volstagg. Right off the bat I have to say that Gillen writes a great Volstagg. He has the right mix of humor and honor to make him more then just a butt of jokes. In this issue we get a really cute story of Volstagg telling ‘his’ side of the story on Fear Itself. I love how he interplays this funny tale with him being a great day to his kids. Hell, I didn’t even know he was married and had so many kids till now.

What makes it work though in the end is the art by Richard Elson. His art wasn’t so good for the Mephisto story, but here he really lets his art shine. I love the cartoony, somewhat Chris Samnee-like art in the flashbacks to Volstagg story. There are so many nice, character moments in those flashbacks it would’ve been cool to see it throughout the whole issue. But in the present you see some really nice touches like the individual expressions in the kids face to the nice detail in the backgrounds of Asgard.

Now with ‘Fear Itself’ behind us I think this could turn into a really great series without the need of events to bog it down. Kieron Gillen is showing us why he is one of the best writers Marvel has by making a ‘B’ book in the Thor universe the best book in the line. Here’s to a great, fresh start for the future of this book!