Mighty Thor #700 *Spoilers*

[JKtheMac]

Mighty Thor #700 - The Blood of the Norns

This is a comic I have been anticipating for months now, and overall I am very pleased with it, but before I give my first impressions here is a synopsis. This is a complex book, so I will take it a story at a time.

Thor Odinson Splash Walter Simonson & Matthew Wilson - p1
Norns Story Dauterman & Matthew Wilson – Pgs. 2-5, 29-31, 34-37 & 42
Karnilla shows Odinson a vision from the golden sap of the World Tree. He sees himself as he was when he was Thor flying over New York.
Karnilla explains she called him here because the Norns are in danger from Malekith, who is seeking to control his own destiny. While discussing it Malekith's multi-realm army attacks. Odinson, Toothgrinder and Thori put up a solid defence while Karnilla orders the guards to hide the Norns in three separate places. She then goes down to the Well of Wyrd and severs her own strands. Thor is still fighting but Thorgi and Toothgrinder are struggling and let a couple of elven attackers pass, but Karnilla confronts them with the strands of fate and chokes them. She can see where the threads will lead and we glimpse her vision.

We see:

• Loki wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. Celestials judging somebody negatively.
• Mangog.
• Thor Odinson wielding a golden hammer with a golden arm holding Jarnbjorn.
• Jane in a hospital robe lying apparently dead and emaciated.
• Frost Giants in a frozen New York.
• The gates of Valhalla.
• Asgardia crumbling in flames.
• Namor with crown and trident
• Valkyrie in a battle pose.
• Old Loki with a dark cloak the Necrosword the dark blade.
• Thor fighting with a bloody face and arms wearing a damaged helm.

Frost Giants hack at the roots of Yggdrasil to bring down the Nornkeep on Karnilla. As this happens she speaks of "deaths coming for..." Odinson rushes to her aid finding her dying in the rubble. She explains she did her best to twine the tale and with her dying breath warns of other deaths coming and not to "Let Jane..."

She-Hulk Story Daniel Acuna – pgs. 6-12, 28, 32-33, 38, 41 & 46
Jane battles a maddened Jenifer as Hulk. She is out of control and in the end Jane has Mjolnir bring down an empty airport control tower on them both. She cant reach Mjolnir and realises she will die if she cant reach it. She begins to change, see later story.

War Thor Story James Harren & Dave Stewart – pgs. 13-15 & 47-50
Volstagg is being taken somewhere secure so the healers can examine him, he calls his Mjolnir and transforms into War Thor. He flies to Old Asgard, apparently to be alone, and fights with Toothgnasher who was assigned to protect the hammer by Odinson. Another enemy approaches and the goat runs to confront it. His head is ripped from his body by Mangog who declares it is "Time for gods to die screaming and wailing." War Thor and Mangog rush towards each other.

Young Thor Story Becky Cloonan & Dave Stewart – pgs. 16-19
A montage of Young Thor seeking worthiness, fighting a ship of bones, Loki and Fenris, competitive drinking with Atlanteans, and a father/teenager argument with Odin. He asks Heimdall to send him wherever someone needs smiting.

King Thor Story Das Pastoras – pgs. 20-21
While Thor's granddaughters squabble about how best to bring rain King Thor tells Jane and Steve they are not here to worship but to live. He tells their children the story of how he defeated Galactus.

Necrosword Story Chris Burnham & Ive Svorcina – pgs. 22-25
Galactus after the events of Odin's story merges with the Necrosword (as seen in TGoT #24) and fights Ego the Living Planet. A supposedly killing blow has Ego wielding the Necrosword and devouring Galactus while old Loki watches on and schemes.

Loki Story Andrew MacLean & Dave Stewart - pgs. 26 & 40
Loki and Lufey are returning from an ambush by mountain giants, where their guards were slaughtered. Lufey calls them cowards and explains to Loki that real giants fight face to face. Loki asks about how his mother died, if it was at her own hand or Laufey's when Loki was born, but Lufey collapses unconscious.
When he awakens Loki explains he killed the pursuing giants, staring each in the face as he did so. Laufey is impressed Loki looks stoic.

Frog Thor Story Jill Thompson – pgs. 27, 39 & 45
Throg finds a murder victim in the park. He makes the perpetrator hand himself in by making it relentlessly rain on him wherever he goes, indoors or out.
He hears of a disturbance in Lagurdia and overhears who is involved.
She-Hulk Story Reprieve He arrives in the rubble and saves Thor from turning into Jane by touching her finger with his sliver of Mjolnir.

Malekith Cutaway Mike del Mundo - p43
Malkith is pleased his fate is now his own and declares it is not just his fate but that of all the realms.

Hela Cutaway Oliver Coipel & Dave Stewart - p44
Thanos finds Hela on a murdered world, missing her realm. Thanos promises her she shall have it, but they will need to kill many more people. They embrace.


My opinions on the story and art to follow, but feel free to chip in because I need a coffee after all that.

[Prof. Warren]

This one is being saved for the bottom of this week's stack. Can't wait to dive into it!

[SignorMiracolo]

Very nice story. I start to have the suspicion that's not Jane the Thor that will die in the next arc, but that that's about a more metaphorical dead of a certain idea of “what being Thor” means. The “God Thor” that mortals worship, as foreshadowed in the part with Old Man Thor. This would also tie nicely with the first encounter of Thor with Old Man Thor, in the God Bomb arc, where the latter “spoiled” to the former some events of his future. Among them there was a “Thor Corps” that had adventure in space. Now that the run has set Unworthy Thor, Jane Thor, brought back Beta Ray and Throg and created War Thor, it would seem the perfect timing for these Thor Corps.

[Gortam]

Amazing. Simply Amazing.

One of the best comic i've read in a while.

[JKtheMac]

Art thoughts

As this is the beginning of a new arc, we get a whole heap of setup in this issue. I suspect we also get one or two red herrings as well. The art is obviously varied when you have eight stories and three cutaway pages each by different creative teams.

Overall, the issue reads a little like an annual except that the stories are intertwined. The standout pages are mostly Dauterman, especially the glorious double page vision of Karnilla. Dauterman gets to do plenty of his now trademark swirling lines with the strands of fate, and those strands feel like they invisibly run across the other artists' pages as Karnilla is influencing everything. Perhaps in a perfect world they would have wrapped around the gutters and the panels. Surprisingly Duaterman only provides twelve pages and the cover. I wonder if they sacrificed some of his pages for the splash page guests.

Talking of the single page guests, it is a little disappointing that the Simonson page that was previewed is the only page of his. I found myself also wanting more del Mundo, because he is a current favourite of mine. Equally it is a tease to use Coipel for just one dark page. Any of these artists could have provided some wonderful pages if employed to do so. Of these three the opening splash of Thor is by far the most iconic and joyful, in an otherwise ominous book.

Acuna is one of those artists that I can appreciate but don’t love. He gets more of this book than anyone else, and his style certainly works as an easy contrast to structure the issue. Both Thor and She-Hulk are powerfully rendered and the storytelling is always fluid. The colour is muted, with dynamic contrasts for explosions and some nice rainbow effects from Mjolnir. I would be disappointed if he filled in for an entire issue because his style isn’t ideal for fantasy books, but here in the New York rubble, it works well enough.

I am not very familiar with James Harren’s work. Here he seems to be doing a cartoonish approximation of Schiti’s recent Thor work. This is the kind of slightly cartoony art that works well for a backup story in an annual, and in many ways that would be what it was here. Except he is called upon to depict the gory Mangog reveal. Surprisingly it works, perhaps because we wouldn’t want a photorealistic depiction of the slaughter of Toothgnasher. His Mangog is equally well depicted. All uneven teeth and manic snarl. Almost a Kirby tribute.

Becky Cloonan’s Young Thor is youthful and enthusiastic, in a different cartoonish style, more screen cartoon perhaps. Cloonan’s line always look effortless and joyful, and even her snarling Fenris is full of expression and attitude. I would definitely buy an Adventures of Young Thor book from her.

Das Pastoras gets the short straw story wise but it is a joy to reach his detailed pencils and presumably ink washed colours. Like the single page artists his appearance is far too brief. His close-up of old King Thor is so poignant as he delivers his ‘live’ speech. Perhaps the biggest shock is to jump from Das Pastoras to Burnham’s dynamic and busy pencils made grotesque by Ive Svorcina. I am used to Ive’s amazing colours with Ribic, but here he makes the distant future look like grimy neon and organic putridity. I suspect these pages will divide the readers more than any other. I think they are amazing. The Ego the Necroworld is more terrifying than he has ever been as the mere ‘living planet’ as he stares out at the reader with menace.

Andrew MacLean is the type of artist I would not usually see. Very stylistic and cartoonish in yet another way. I can’t really say I know how to judge this kind of art, aside from the fact I can read the expressions clearly, but don’t really like the characterisation choices.

Jill Thompson’s water colour and ink work is yet another contrast. She renders Throg wonderfully, but I am not always a fan of her poses for the more human figures. She clearly eats landscapes for breakfast, and her city streets feel very real.

Perhaps the star of the show for me is Dave Stewart on colours. He colours four very different artists in four distinct ways. He shows amazing versatility on this book.

As to the story, I will need to digest it for a bit. This is surprisingly dense storytelling. More happens here than might first be apparent on a quick read through.

[JKtheMac]

This one is being saved for the bottom of this week's stack. Can't wait to dive into it!

Flavour saver!

Just read it first! Neglect your pile of comics like I have.

[JKtheMac]

Very nice story. I start to have the suspicion that's not Jane the Thor that will die in the next arc, but that that's about a more metaphorical dead of a certain idea of “what being Thor” means. The “God Thor” that mortals worship, as foreshadowed in the part with Old Man Thor. This would also tie nicely with the first encounter of Thor with Old Man Thor, in the God Bomb arc, where the latter “spoiled” to the former some events of his future. Among them there was a “Thor Corps” that had adventure in space. Now that the run has set Unworthy Thor, Jane Thor, brought back Beta Ray and Throg and created War Thor, it would seem the perfect timing for these Thor Corps.

There is definitely a strong hint that Karnilla sees her killing somebody else that she should not kill.

[Biclopcicle]

This read to me like Marvel Legacy: Thor Edition. The Norn device as a way to present several arcs planned for the future just didn't do it for me at all.

As for the Hulk scene, this was an off-base portrayal of Jennifer (if you've been reading her book post CWII).

On another note, I'm super pleased to see that Old Thor and that era has made a comeback. I wasn't really sure Aaron was ever going to touch on the future/necrosword again, but he pleasantly surprised me.

[JKtheMac]

This read to me like Marvel Legacy: Thor Edition. The Norn device as a way to present several arcs planned for the future just didn't do it for me at all.

As for the Hulk scene, this was an off-base portrayal of Jennifer (if you've been reading her book post CWII).

On another note, I'm super pleased to see that Old Thor and that era has made a comeback. I wasn't really sure Aaron was ever going to touch on the future/necrosword again, but he pleasantly surprised me.

I did wonder about Jenn's portrayal, but I am not reading that book so I can't comment. Also, maybe it fits later in her story?

As to being a little like Legacy, the comparison is very clear, but this is far more packed with detail and story, and compared to the normal pace of Aaron's book this feels like four issues. It is after-all part one of a new arc, and that is prominent on the cover. One would expect it to lead onto other things and kick off the new character arcs.

[InformationGeek]

As for the Hulk scene, this was an off-base portrayal of Jennifer (if you've been reading her book post CWII).

Yeah, I noticed as well. She Hulk really is having a bad time currently.

I did wonder about Jenn's portrayal, but I am not reading that book so I can't comment. Also, maybe it fits later in her story?

I one hundred percent doubt it. The She-Hulk book seems to be doing its own thing and it's... pretty weak. The story has been really blazing forward with her development and honestly, outside of one panel in the whole series, she's never really lost control or been a rage machine (one of the bigger problems with the series actually. It never really makes her hulking out seem as bad as the character says... also, no consistency for how she looks either).

[Biclopcicle]

I mean, she's supposed to be more primal and difficult to control, but still have at least normal intelligence when she is Hulked. Instead, Aaron made her like Savage Hulk. Whatever. The other stuff looks pretty promising.

[Raye]

As a whole, not bad, but i am still becoming increasingly frustrated with the insanely slow pace that the story is unfolding, yeah, we got a few teases of things to come, some of which seem like they could be interesting, but some of them are repeats of teases we got like 30 issues ago, so how long until they actually come to pass? And as a fan of Loki in particular, I was pretty disappointed. We still have no clue what the hell he is up to, and with one caption, they basically erased the ending of Agent of Asgard, which fucking sucks.

[JKtheMac]

I mean, she's supposed to be more primal and difficult to control, but still have at least normal intelligence when she is Hulked. Instead, Aaron made her like Savage Hulk. Whatever. The other stuff looks pretty promising.

Well in his defence the story hinges upon a big fight between the two. The notion of the Thor v Hulk legacy fight was clearly the main back-up story for the book, and it has to be action packed. The story does suggest this is her worst Hulk-out recently. The fact that she was incoherent even before she hulked-out is a sign that something is happening in her own story, and I would assume this was written with at least a chat with the Hulk desk.

[JKtheMac]

As a whole, not bad, but i am still becoming increasingly frustrated with the insanely slow pace that the story is unfolding, yeah, we got a few teases of things to come, some of which seem like they could be interesting, but some of them are repeats of teases we got like 30 issues ago, so how long until they actually come to pass? And as a fan of Loki in particular, I was pretty disappointed. We still have no clue what the hell he is up to, and with one caption, they basically erased the ending of Agent of Asgard, which fucking sucks.

I believe I said months ago that Aaron wouldn't be beholden to Agents of Asgard, but could you explain how, because I didn't notice anything glaring.

[Valamist]

I really liked this issue... except for the moments with She-Hulk. Even when considering this new iteration of her, she seems very out of character, and basically turned into a bland Banner-Hulk stereotype. Oh, and they make fun of her 'She-Hulk' name too...