By Robert Rodi & Simone Bianchi (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-482-9
Once again a major motion picture adaptation has generated a host of supplemental comics product and as Thor thunders onto silver screens everywhere there’s plenty for established fans and freshly-interested parties to grapple with…
In this effective and beautiful re-imagining by Robert Rodi, illustrated with astounding imagination and beauty (if not always the greatest narrative or sequential clarity) by Simone Bianchi, the long dreaded Twilight of the Gods has begun and cracks are beginning to show in the heroic façade of the noble and mighty Asgardians…
Reprinting the six-issue miniseries published in 2010 under the Marvel Knights imprint the saga opens in the second icy year of the dread Fimbulwinter, with the shining god Balder long dead, all-father Odin long missing and Thor as Regent.
A better warrior than ruler Thor leads an embattled, increasingly contentious and disgruntled populace in punitive forays against old enemies such as the Frost Giants. All around them former vassal states are stretching long unused muscles and airing old grievances and his two closest advisors are at constant odds with each other…
With the snowy streets of Asgard awash with resentment, if not outright sedition, Idunn informs the out-of-his-depth Thunderer that the Golden Apples – source of immortality – are almost gone and with Spring and Summer banished, no more will grow.
Asgard’s enemies are gathering, led by a secret mastermind, Odin’s mysterious mission has gone awry and, in the gleaming city, mutterings have become desperate, traitorous acts. With even Valhalla, the glorious Hall of the Dead, threatened, and now murder in the streets, Thor needs all his powers to help him, but even his faithful magic mallet has betrayed him: it has been long indeed since the Prince of Asgard was worthy enough to wield the Hammer of the Gods…
With chaos and destruction all around can the hard-pressed Thor hold things together or would the truly heroic thing be to let Ragnarok come and start fresh amid the ruins…?
Bleak, subtly allegorical and utterly enchanting, this moody epic of endings and new beginnings is a powerful tale of a deftly different pantheon that will delight newcomers to the character but possibly irritate long-term Marvelites.
Moreover, by ending on a foreboding note – completists should take heed – the tale is not completely done and there may be more to follow…
™ and © 2010 & 2011 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. A British edition released by Panini UK Ltd.