Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Color Artist: Matt Hollingsworth
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Thor and his allies, Skurge the Executioner and Hermod the godly speedster and fellow son of Odin, journeyed deep into the Endless City within Utgard. They faced threats from the maze’s sting defenders but overcame them in due time. Now, they have traveled to the center of the Endless City to find their old friend and comrade Heimdall, chained to the throne of a giant, Mintaur, an elder god called Kemur. Read Immortal Thor #23 to see this mighty clash of godly kings.
Review:
Alright, Thor and his allies have reached the center of the labyrinthine Endless City where they find the Minotaur-like elder god Kemur, primal personification of kingship, waiting for them with Heimdall chained to his throne. The stage is set for a mighty clash between warriors and kings as Thor faces an ancient king of the primordial age of Earth. What comes of this? Well, a fierce yet short lived battle. Fair warning, there will be SPOILERS in this review.
So, the comic starts with a brief background on Kemur, the villain of this comic issue, a mighty primeval god who fought and conquered his way to the top of the food chain among elder gods. He was brutal, treacherous, dominant, he was the king. Until the birth of Atum, the child of Gaea and the ancient Demiurge who created the primeval gods of Earth, emerged to end the Gods’ war for good. It was at this time that Kemur knew fear and a true threat to his rule and very existence. And now he stands in the present day facing another child of Gaea, this time Thor the God of Thunder and newly crowned King of Asgard.
I’ll get into the positives then the negatives. First off, Al Ewing does a lot of the characterization of Kemur through Loki’s narration. Which is odd considering Utgard-Loki was supposed to have taken over the narrating responsibilities while Thor’s party was in Utgard, but whatever. Kemur is very much the archetypal primeval king or rather conqueror who is all about domination and breaking your opponents so they yield and bow to your dominion. But he doesn’t get that from Thor, and what’s cool here is seeing Thor put his wits and magical items to good use as he outwits Kemur rather than purely overpowering him, with the help of Skurge and Hermod to assist. Jan Bazaldua does a good job in capturing the heavy impact of Kemur’s hits and blows carrying the weight of a giant, as well as Thor’s blows with Mjolnir and Skurge’s attack with his ax having their own sense of impact too.
Now, on to the negatives. Once again, Al Ewing is trying too hard to be deep and abstract with the concepts at play via characters like Kemur, who’s supposed to be primeval personification of kingship. The thing is, Kemur’s not really a king, he’s more of a conqueror or warlord who never settles for ruling and is always lost in the act of conquest itself. I say this with confidence because many writers like Al Ewing tend to conflate conquerors with kings when many kings barely conquered things themselves with several exceptions across multiple centuries. You don’t see Kemur rule, you don’t see him command any kind of domain or subjects, it was all about dominance and the act of dominating others. Again, that’s a conqueror who just never stops conquering for the sake of it, not a king who seeks to rule.
Not to mention, he overplayed his hand in the narration when he digs into Kemur’s backstory when he fled before Atum at their main confrontation and how that’s supposed to be representative of the “truth” of kingship itself. In reality, it speaks less to kingship as a concept and more of Kemur and how he fled in cowardice (understandably so since Atum was like an ultra god of fire) before a mightier foe then him. We’ve seen actual characters who are kings stand their ground against overwhelming forces, even if they lost or died, such as T’Challa the Black Panther, Namor the Sub Mariner (when he’s king of Atlantis), and even Dr. Doom on many occasions in past stories, even now in One World Under Doom #4 where he faces Dormmamu by himself to protect the Earth.
And of course Thor in this series and several other titles after becoming All-Father of Asgard. And lastly, as I said earlier, while the fight had its moments, it was too short lived and Thor and company didn’t really do much other than play a simple trick on Kemur to just get him on his knees. And they’re not even the ones who kill him, it’s freaking Loki showing up and stealing the kill by shooting an arrow at Kemur with a piece of the Eternity Mask that most readers won’t be familiar with. It felt so anticlimactic. But since Loki is here, it only means they’re up to mischief that will inevitably bite Thor and his party in the butt when the time comes. For they still have Utgard-Loki and the rest of the elder gods of Utgard to deal with.
Final Thoughts:
Immortal Thor #23 brings the thunderer and his allies face to face with the Minotaur-like god Kemur, the primal god of kingship. The fight between them is good, and the narration and backstory do the heavy-lifting with characterizing Kemur who doesn’t speak the entire comic. The narration goes a little overboard with the concepts it’s playing with, but the art and the fight make up for it. While the ending feels a little anticlimactic, it does set up that more is still to come as Thor has yet to face Utgard-Loki and the rest of his elder gods.