Thor by Donny Cates vol. 2: Prey

The first couple of Aaron Kuder-illustrated issues of this volume are fun as they address the fallout of the first volume, show what happens when a random man gets the power of Thor, and feature a satisfyingly tense encounter between the title character and Iron Man.  This is good because the next six issues are considerably darker.  The reason for this is that Thor has figured out a solution to the threats he and Asgard currently face:  A vacation.  The God of Thunder has figured that it’s time for him to switch places with his old persona of Dr. Donald Blake so that he can have some time to decide what to do next.  Except that when he makes the switch, Thor finds out that the doctor hasn’t been doing well as of late.  You see, it’s been a long time since Dr. Blake was consigned to the idyllic dreamworld he’s been residing in.  So long that he finally woke up, realized what had been done to him, and is now hungry for vengeance.

What happens to a secret identity when it used to be a real person and was then forgotten about by the person it belonged to?  The answers are predictable (did you miss what I said about “vengeance”) but writer Donny Cates and artist Nic Klein do some smart things to keep this six-issue arc from becoming a real slog.  That they make Blake’s rage understandable counts for a lot, as it keeps him from becoming a one-dimensional cudgel used to beat on the main cast.  We also get to see the doctor struggle in his efforts to get what he wants, which is always welcome in any conflict, and especially in seeing who first lays the antagonist low.  There are other things, like Donald’s dinner with Jane Foster, the current sad state of Odin, which also elevate the story, leading to an ending whose emotional beats hit as hard as the fisticuffs.

…well, at least until the final pages.  That’s because the actual finale to this tale feels just too mean even when you consider what Blake has done up to this point.  It also bothers me that Loki is the architect of this as it implies a return to straight-up villainy for him.  I can’t say I care for him to go back down that route.  After everything that has come before in this volume, however, I’m willing to give Cates and Klein the time they need to spell out their plan.