Thor by Donny Cates vol. 4: God of Hammers

Mjolnir went missing during the events of the previous volume.  Thor was already in a bad mood then and it’s now even worse at the start of this volume as he realizes what he’s going to have to do in order to track it down.  That’s right, he’s going to have to work with his dad once again.  While Odin is willing to help him out, there’s still the matter of a prophecy from a book that can only be read by the rightful Kings of Asgard.  It says that the God of Hammers will rise, ignite the Ten Realms, take the life of the last King of Asgard, and leave nothing in its wake.  Obviously this is bad news and this God of Hammers needs to be stopped before any of the realms get ignited.  Except that nobody knows who this god is or where they can be found.  Which is a real problem because they know everything about Thor, including where to hit him in order to really hurt him.

If you’ve been wondering where Cates has been going with the quirks regarding Mjolnir’s functioning in the previous volumes, you’ll get your answers here.  They’re not quite what I was expecting, which is good, even as they play off of one of the plot points from Jason Aaron’s run.  There’s also a nice escalation of action over the course of the five issues the story plays out over as the surprises reveal themselves and the stakes keep getting bigger.  It’s solid work from the writer and artist Nic Klein, even if it never quite hits the epic scale that the story is clearly aiming for.

One reason for that is because there’s a major death in this volume that really didn’t do anything for me.  Part of the reason for that is that their sacrifice feels so matter-of-fact, and another is that this character has been dead before and will likely be back again.  (Sooner than you think.)  We do get a series of stories celebrating the character in the final issue from “Thor” creators of yore – except for Walter Simonson who ignores the remit entirely to flesh out Beta Ray Bill’s origin some more.  (Which is absolutely not a bad thing as I’ll never say no to seeing Simonson tackle one of his signature characters again.)  The next major storyline is set up through this character’s death, however, which is good for this title’s momentum even as we head into the “Banner of War” crossover with “Hulk” next.