Thor #10 review

The truth of Balder is revealed.

So, it would seem that, so far, Loki isn't full of shit. Balder's dad really is Odin. Apparently banged his mother, Frigga, after some hardcore partying and kept his heritage secret after a prophecy was revealed to him through a dream and the word of an ancient demon. The prophecy was that should Balder die during Ragnarok, he would be rebron and continue Odin's line, but if he were to die before Ragnarok then Odin's line would be doomed. So Balder's nature is kept hidden from all but Thor (though Loki learned this somehow independently).

Very little happens, but I was engrossed in the mythological aspects of it. The tales of Odin's shenanigans, all that stuff is cool. It's those aspects of the storytelling that have really strengthened this title since about issue #7 (not to mention this is also what makes The Incredible Hercules work as well). Of course, you can't trust Loki, not one bit. Hell, reading this issue I kept it in the back of my mind that he's up to something. When Thor confesses the truth, I figured...Enchantress is in on it. She's gotta be. They're setting up something big that's gonna tear Asgard apart, aren't they? So we're finally getting somewhere with this series story-wise. The first six issues pretty much fell flat for me, going nowhere fast or being preachy and stupid.....Straczynski was really pissing me off. One of the greatest Marvel characters of all time and he was ruining it. Well, now that he got all that shit outta the way, he's really doing a helluva job crafting some really interesting stories. I mean, I'm not sure what I think about the notion that Balder is the son of Odin, but I'm interested to see where it goes from here.

One of the other things I've found myself loving is how the Asgardians are relating to the little bumfuck Kansas town that they reside near. The opening page is a shot of a little sparrow hopping from decrepit sign to decrepit sign until it lands on a brand spanking shiny new road sign that says "ASGARD 5 miles." I thought that was funny as shit. And then we see a group of gawkers paying five bucks a pop for the "Best view of Asgard." Just great. Also the continuing story of Bill! Go Bill!

This is another surprisingly strong issue from a series that was an early disappointment. I can't believe I'm gonna be dropping it soon. I...really want to stick around to see what goes on. Straczysnki is telling the stories he should have been telling from issue one. The social commentary was fucking killing me. If not for the fact that it was all ill conceived and never touched accurately upon what he was commenting on, they just weren't Thor stories. This is what I'm talking about. The trials and tribulations of gods!

Hell yes, pick this shit up.