Writer: Al Ewing

Artist: Valentina Pinti

Color Artist: Espen Grundet Jern

Cover Artist: Alex Ross

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $4.99

Reviewer: StoryBabbler

If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Immortal Thor #12 Review.

Review:

Okay, so I said in my review for the previous issue that this story arc has the potential to be either a cool family adventure or a dull side quest for Thor and the readers. It ends up being the latter, unfortunately. There will be SPOILERS in this review.

Okay, so the children of Odin split up into two groups to find Tyr; Thor’s crew followed one trail and the others followed the second trail. The second group’s members end up finding Tyr, who’s clearly influenced by Oblivion and kills one of them. Meanwhile, Thor’s group end up on a faraway alien world and find Tiwaz, an ancient and wise, towering wizard who is revealed to actually be Buri, Thor’s great-grandfather. And in Tiwaz’s hand is the rune of Tyr which may heal Tyr and restore him to normal. But the old wizard, though he is an old acquaintance of Thor’s, won’t just give it up without a challenge.

Now, at first this all seems like an epic story, but upon actually reading and seeing it, it doesn’t pan out. Again, because of their choice of artist to stand in for Coccolo, the comic isn’t that dynamic or just cool to look at, especially Tyr and Tiwaz. Once more, nothing against Valentina Pinti, but their art just isn’t dynamic or excitable, it’s jsut very plain. Surprisingly it’s Tiwaz/Buri who ends up being the standout here in terms of his design, personality, and power as Al Ewing follows through on depicting him as a primeval wizard and former All-Father. The problem is that the art doesn’t do him justice. However, the art does work when depicting Tiwaz’ facial expressions compared to most of the other characters.

But the problems don’t start there. The biggest issue is the conflict resolution feels so…undercooked. For once Al Ewing couldn’t come up with something interesting, abstract, or thought-provoking for the big resolutions like he normally does. So he settles for a very simple solution to resolve this story. See, Tiwaz is shown to be an incredibly powerful wizard as he shakes off Thor’s lightning, and even halts Mjolnir in midair with magic and even politely sends it back to Thor. And Thor even speculated that he could likely withstand the All-Father force too, though he never gives it a shot. So, Thor challenges Tiwaz to a riddle game. If Tiwaz wins he keeps Tyr’s rune. If Thor wins, he gets the rune, and Tiwaz agrees.

Thor gives Tiwaz a riddle “What is big, red and eats rocks?” Tiwaz goes through several good answers such as Surtr, the Sun, but he admits defeat and Thor reveals the answer and it’s just…so stupid. The answer is just “A big red rock-eater.” Now, I don’t much care for that answer,  but Tiwaz has a good laugh and just gives them the rune, which gives me the impression he was always going to give it to them. Which leads to the biggest problem of the lack of stakes and genuine challenge. This story just felt so underwhelming, and the opposite of witty or funny. For example, Tyr ends up annihilating Hermod, who’s basically a brother of Thor and a speedster, but I feel nothing because I just met him in the previous issue. But just as soon as things start to heat up, Thor arrives in the nick of time with Tyr’s rune to end all that. Then there’s the matter of Ullr telling Thor at the end that he will die soon as a cliffhanger. And all I could say to that is, “Really? This again?” The previous Donny Cates Thor run tried the same move with the Black Winter, the vision of Thanos with the zombie army, and that went nowhere. But here, I’m both disenchanted with the idea, yet still intrigued because Al Ewing could do something interesting with it. So, we’ll see where he takes it.

Final Thoughts:

The Immortal Thor #12 concludes Thor’s family rescue mission of Tyr from the thrall of Oblivion. The story is sadly underwhelming as things happen but there’s little stakes since we just met most of these characters, and the action is short-lived. Also, the resolution to Thor’s challenge with the towering wizard Tiwaz is disappointing. However, the standout character here is the man on the cover Tiwaz, notably for his affable personality that contrasts his power and wisdom. Hopefully we get to see more of him later in the series.

6/10