Friday, June 26, 2009

Thor #602

Thor has always been a character who walks between the worlds of immortals and men.

It's a difficult balancing act, and not every creative team has managed to make it work.

So far, writer J. Michael Straczynski has done an excellent job focusing on both Dr. Don Blake and the struggle by the Asgardians to adapt to their new lives on Earth.

This issue is more Thor-centric, as he struggles to find a way to repair his hammer Mjolnir, which was badly damaged two issues back. He also finds himself in a race to save a life and bring back a long-missing character.

On the mortal side, we have the Asgardians settling into their new home in Latveria - but how long can they be neighborly with Dr. Doom? However, we do get some tantalizing hints about why they would want to be neighbors with the world's greatest villain.

The art by Marko Djurdjevic has a few bouts of sketchiness, but overcomes that with some powerful splash pages.

The only question is one of continuity. Where does this issue fall in relation to the latest New Avengers (which changes the status quo for one of this issue's guest stars)? Or the latest issue of the Fantastic Four, wherein Latveria gets blasted by Doom's old teacher?

Maybe they'll clear it up for us one of these days.

Grade: B+

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