Thunder and Pain

The Mighty Thor #1

I didn’t pick up the previous series with this character — I was assuming I’d be able to buy the collected editions later. Turns out Marvel added an extra five dollars to the price tag of the trades — the bad news for me is I haven’t been able to read the previous issues yet. The bad news for Marvel is that I’ll wait ’til I can buy them used instead.

But of course, Marvel wouldn’t be price-gouging everyone if the character weren’t incredibly popular. At this point, the rest of y’all probably know the backstory — the new female Thor is actually Dr. Jane Foster, the old Thor’s former girlfriend. While she holds Mjolnir, she’s Thor, the Goddess of Thunder, ridiculously powerful, a righteous ass-kicker for the forces of good. When she’s just plain Jane Foster… well, she has cancer, and she’s dying. Every time she becomes Thor, in fact, the transformation burns out the chemotherapy drugs that could save her mortal body’s life.

So the trouble here starts when Roxxon Oil’s news satellite (which, because they’re a supervillain megacorp, is actually a TV news station located on a satellite) is suddenly hit by a bunch of dead, dismembered elves. The satellite is knocked out of orbit, but Thor manages to save it before it crashes in Washington, DC. After that, it’s off to Asgard — but not as Thor. Apparently, Odin has gone nuts, declared Thor a criminal, and imprisoned. Jane’s cover story is that she’s a senator in the Congress of Worlds, representing Midgard. The congress is currently debating — and not doing anything but debate — about whether the dark elves are responsible for the murder of all the light elves in space. The dark elves and their allies are plotting against all the other realms — but who’s their secret agent behind the scenes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Not sure I’ll care much for this probably endless “War of the Realms” storyarc, but Jane/Thor really is a wonderfully fun character. It’s great to finally be able to climb onto this bandwagon.

Rat Queens #13

The Rat Queens managed to avoid dying in the blizzard and wake up at Mage University. Violet visits the bars, Dee hits the library, Betty goes off to buy drugs, and Hannah goes to see her old professor — who sends her off to meet someone behind the mirrors. Meanwhile, Betty buys a rocketsled, and Violet, against her better judgment, joins her as they ride down a terribly steep mountain.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A little drama for Hannah and Dee, and a little comedy for Betty and Violet. Plenty of wonderful single-panel gags, too — I’m particularly fond of the terribly snooty King Bear.

I Hate Fairyland #2

Gertrude has slaughtered the assassin who’d been sent after her last issue and is now enjoying an evening boozing it up in a local tavern. Unfortunately, she’s been drinking magical wish beer, and when she wishes she could look normal for a day, instead of like a little girl, she ends up looking like a 40-year-old woman who eats nothing but sugar all day. The results are in no way pretty. Meanwhile, Queen Cloudia realizes that barbarian warriors are not the right opponents to send after the kill-crazy Gertrude, so she contracts a witch to come up with a magical plan. How is Gertrude going to handle an army of brain-eating zombie fauns?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Tons of great cartoon grossout humor. Not sure if there’s much more depth to the story than that, but maybe that’s enough…