Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Color Artist: Matt Hollingsworth
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
After defeating the mad Zeus, passing Loki’s test, and making peace with the Night Goddess Nyx, Thor and his friends returned to Asgard. At his home, Thor had a meeting with the Enchantress which turned flirtatious then back to business as she made her ultimatum to Thor for the resurrection of her son. Meanwhile on Earth, Thor’s human adversary, evil CEO of Roxxon Corporation, Dario Agger, has resurrected himself through his own methods and now plans to make Thor’s life hell. Read Immortal Thor #16 to see the first phase of Dario’s scheme for Thor begin.
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Review:
Okay, last issue wrapped that whole business with mad Zeus, Thor got a spicy visit from Enchantress who left him with an ultimatum, and regrettably Dario Agger was resurrected via his own protocols to cause more havoc.
The story starts with the reintroduction of a classic Thor villain, the Radioactive Man returning on Dario’s dollar. While Thor and Sif wax poetics on whether Thor should resurrect Enchantress’ son from Valhalla, or even if he could do it. But immediately after that, Thor returns back to Earth in New York where the police try to arrest Thor. But as he tries to talk them down, Radioactive Man arrives to cause a scene and Thor gets the fight away from civilians to somewhere secluded. But this all goes according to plan.
Ultimately, this issue is about Thor returning to Earth to fight a small gathering of some of his lesser known and underused villains: Radioactive Man, Mr Hyde, The Cobra, and Grey Gargoyle. All of whom try to jump Thor but it’s really Grey Gargoyle who comes in as the real threat and petrified Thor. The rest of this comic is interesting on paper, but it amounts to nothing but justifying why Thor won’t bring someone back. Which is fine, but it didn’t need to take 4 pages to explain that.
The real issue is that the modern Earth villains still have no bite to them. For whatever reason, Al Ewing reeeally wants to focus on Dario Agger as a major Thor villain instead of the Utgard gods, and this is just one part of that storyline. But the problem is that this assembly of villains are basically no match for Thor and thus there are little to no stakes. The only exception is Grey Gargoyle as the only true threat because of his petrification ability. Make no mistake, this comic isn’t terrible, the art is the best thing here. And it’s not terribly written, but the story is simply not that engaging or fun to read.
Final Thoughts:
Immortal Thor #16 starts a new story arc where the newly resurrected Dario Agger begins a new scheme against Thor. This time he calls up the Radioactive Man and other old Thor foes to fight him. Granted, most of these villains aren’t that threatening to Thor, especially as he is now, save for one who shows up for a killer moment. However, because of that one villain, the comic has created an exciting situation for Thor to overcome in the next few issues.