The Mighty Thor #13 Review

by Dylan Duarte, CMRO Contributing Writer

The Mighty Thor

Issue #13

Written by Matt Fraction, Art by Pepe Larraz

Published: June 2012

Thor is back. After giving his life to defeat Odin’s long-forgotten brother the Serpent, the rock troll Ulik replaced everyone’s memories of Thor and took his place as the thunder god Taranus. Eventually, and with help from Loki, Thor returned from the dead, vanquished Ulik, and everything was business as usual. Unfortunately, business as usual in Asgard involves awakening a long-sleeping race of monsters.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, and I’ll most definitely say it countless more times. I love Matt Fraction. I love him as much if not more than I loved Bendis when I first got into his stuff. He’s taken Thor, a hero who’s often steeped in incomprehensible amounts of mythological nonsense and stripped him down to his bare, badass essentials. He still retains all of the Asgardian goodness, but he’s also content to let Mjolnir do the talking when it’s appropriate.

In issue 13, Fraction balances two storylines that satiate different desires. In one of them, a doctor realizes that some of his memories are not his own and that he is connected to a world separate from his. In another, Thor encounters a race of terrifying monsters and proceeds to smash them to bits with his trusty hammer. One plot is intriguing, the other viscerally satisfying. Sure, the best storylines combine those two elements, but Fraction is clearly going somewhere with the former thread and I’m more than happy to let these two run on side-by-side to see how it plays out.

This new Thor series has been very exciting and it’s not slowing down yet. With Fraction’s writing and Larraz and D’Armata’s visuals, Thor has become one of my favorite titles. This issue is a prime example why. It’s fast, it’s engaging, and it leaves me craving more.