Thor #3 Review: Elves, Giants And Minotaurs — Oh My!
By Nick Tylwalk
When last we left the Goddess of Thunder, she was ina tight spot. Separated from Mjolnir, Thor found herself up against Malekith and a host of Frost Giants. As we dive into Thor #3, she’s going to have to think quickly or else this is going to be an awfully short run for Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman, to say nothing of the mystery woman now calling herself Thor.
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Happily, this issue contains some of the snappiest dialogue Aaron has given us in this series so far. The interactions between Thor — who manages the neat trick of pulling off some quips while remaining in her Asgardian speech pattern — and Malekith and between Malekith and Roxxon CEO Dario Agger are all fun. Even the Frost Giants end up as more than just the muscle here, complaining about not being able to eat the Avengers and musing about killing folks with their frozen spit.
Dauterman also gets a nice balance of talking and fighting scenes, and he’s adept at both. Some of his visual effects have grown on me too, like the flood of different mystical symbols that accompany Malekith’s sorcery. Unfortunately, his experiments with combining sights and sounds are still messy, and there are more action-oriented panels where you can only tell what’s going on from context clues. It’s almost like he’s obscuring his own art with the effects at times, and that’s a shame.
That aside, this is another good read that even has some back story as to what Malekith is after and why the Frost Giants are following his lead. Plus there’s that final page that … Ooops, almost got ahead of myself there.
SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!
Several days ago, Malekith approached the Frost Giants with a proposition. Knowing that their power has been waning since the death of their former king Laufey (a LONG time ago, but still), the Dark Elf says he knows that Roxxon has located Laufey’s skull, which contains a great deal of residual power. He’s also able to convince the giants that Midgard is actually ripe for an invasion because Thor has lost Mjolnir — which is true, of course, but not even Malekith knows about the new Thor.
In the present, Dario Agger is locked inside his magic safe room where Mojlnir is unsuccessfully trying to pound its way out. Thor is panicking without the hammer, though she’s able to stall Malekith for just a bit. The Dark Elf leaves her to the Frost Giants, one of whom decides to swallow her while Malekith works on getting into the room. Thor manages to blast her way our of the giant even sans Mjolnir, and Malekith is handy enough with the spells to get in and confront Agger, who turns out to be a Minotaur. Neat.
Just as Thor is about to change back into whoever she is, she’s able to pry the doors to the safe room open, freeing Mjolnir just in time to save her from being backstabbed (literally) by a Frost Giant. Malekith gets to the skull of Laufey in the meantime, but Thor drops in a second later and smashes it to pieces. The Dark Elf takes a page from Bugs Bunny’s book by asking if she realizes this means war, but there might be a more immediate concern as Thor Odinson, sporting a cybernetic replacement for the arm he lost fighting Malekith, shows up demanding his hammer back. Imagine how ticked he’s going to be when he finds out it doesn’t really work like that.
Favorite moment: Feeling her power fading away, Thor decides to taunt the Frost Giants to see if she can wrap up their fight early.
Pretty gutsy, that one is.
Final thought: I’m glad Aaron has plans for Thor Odinson other than just having him sit around moping about how he’s lost Mjolnir, and it’s completely within character for him to think he can just take it back from the new Thor. Could be a pretty interesting four-way dance in this next issue. The pro wrestling fan in me is looking forward to that.