Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star
Daniel Warren Johnson is one of the best artists working in comics today. Full stop. In addition to bringing an incredible level of detail to his art, he also brings a visceral energy to his action scenes and an impressive sense of scale that makes you wish that you could see his art on the largest scale available. I wouldn’t have minded paying $30 to read this comic in Marvel’s oversized Treasury Edition format, if I’m being honest. The thing is, that as good as his art is, his writing isn’t quite on the same level. At its best, we get something like “Murder Falcon” where his art is able to sell what he’s trying to say with his words. Other times, the art is left to prop up overly familiar or boring story tropes as it did in “Wonder Woman: Dead Earth” and both volumes of “Extremity.”
In the case of “Argent Star,” the end result is somewhere between the two extremes. It picks up on a story thread from his buddy Donny Cates’ current “Thor” run where the God of Thunder broke Bill’s hammer, Stormbreaker, in a fight. They’ve since patched things up, but the warrior has lost something greater than just a weapon. You see, Stormbreaker allowed the Korbinite to change back between his humanoid form and the hulking horse-skull-faced everyone knows him for. Feeling trapped in a body he doesn’t belong in, Bill seeks out Odin to forge a new hammer for him. Unfortunately the former King of Asgard doesn’t have that power anymore. He does know where it can be found, and the warrior is going to have to go to a kind of hell in order to get it…
This is a miniseries that starts off with the title character slugging it out with a Knullified Fing Fang Foom and ends with him throwing down against one of the most infamous Gods of Asgard. In between are bar brawls, battles against fire goblins, and dives through seas of lava. All of it is gloriously rendered in Johnson’s hands as it makes the most over-the-top elements of Marvel’s cosmic and mythological realms feel like something he was born to draw. Even though a two-page splash showcasing a flashback to the destruction of Bill’s world isn’t really relevant to the main story, it’s hard to begrudge its presence when it looks as breathtaking as it does here.
The art is so good that I wish the story itself was better than it is. It’s not that Bill’s quest to regain his true form is bad, but the discussion revolving around it and its resolution feel perfunctory at best. I did appreciate the creator’s effort to do something new with the character’s ship, Skuttlebutt, though the changes are better appreciated from a visual rather than storytelling perspective. There’s also the fact that Pip the Troll comes off as way too maudlin than I’m used to seeing him, though that’s offset by the unmitigated glee that a certain returning character brings all the way from Valhalla to help his Korbinite wingman.
This is a rare case where I’ll say that the story’s flaws matter little in the face of the amazing spectacle Johnson brings with his art. I know I said it above, but I really would have liked to see his art in an oversized format – it’s just that good. I also wouldn’t mind seeing him tackle another project in the Marvel Universe, maybe a “Nextwave” revival or a “Ghost Rider” project. If “Murder Falcon” is any indication, though, then I’d rather see him get back to creator-owned work in the future. Whatever it is, I’ll be looking forward to the day when I can read one of his projects where the writing helps carry the art, rather than the other way around.