Thor: God of Thunder vol. 3 — The Accursed

“Thor:  The Dark World” had its virtues, but its plot certain wasn’t amongst them.  A bunch of incoherent gibberish about the evil plans of the Dark Elves that didn’t give Christopher Eccleston anything to work with as their leader, Malekith, it actively worked against my enjoyment of the film.  As these things go, Malekith was also the featured villain of the current arc of “Thor:  God of Thunder” when the film hit theaters.  While it was clearly a way to attract some of the same interest that accompanied what was a hotly anticipated film, writer Jason Aaron and artist Ron Garney delivered a rollicking adventure story that was easily more coherent and enjoyable than the one offered in the movie.  Even if it does kind of fall apart at the end.

Things start off with Malekith being broken out of captivity in Niffelheim and then making his way back to Svartfelheim to remind all of the other Dark Elves who their leader really is.  Malekith’s murder spree quickly comes to the attention of Thor and the other Asgardians, but some inter-dimensional politicking gets in the way of their pursuit of the mad-elf.  As a force of Asgardians gallivanting through the Nine Realms is something that would be frowned upon by the inhabitants of said realms, a more cosmopolitan team is put together to track down Malekith.  It includes the gun-toting Light Elf Sir Ivory Honeyshot, Screwbeard of the Dynamite Dwarves, the silent giant “Oggy,” Ud the Troll, and Lady Warzia of the Dark Elves who is taking the loss of her arm to Malekith personally.  Together with Thor, they all aim to bring Malekith to justice in short order.  Assuming that one of them doesn’t happen to be a traitor or anything.

What follows is the kind of high adventure that Aaron has shown great facility for on this title.  This time, the stakes are lower and the scope is more varied as Thor and his crew, nicknamed The League of Worlds, pursue Malekith to the Dwarven stronghold of Nidvallir, the candy-festooned Sugar Woods, and the land of giants in Jotunheim.  The action is fast and furious, and as outlandish as you’d expect from the writer.  This is an arc which features Dark Elves carving their way out of a giant’s head, and being force-fed sugary treats from smaller and more vindictive elves in case you were looking for examples.

The members of the League of Worlds are also memorable in their own ways.  Aaron doesn’t flesh them out extensively, but gives them enough personality to make them stand out.  The writer also gives Malekith a gleefully psychotic disposition that puts the version of him we saw in the movie to shame.  I won’t say that the character work here is up to the standards of the writer’s creator-owned work, but the characters and story here are a lot more involving than what we got in “The Dark World.”  Based on this alone, the people at Marvel Studios could do a lot worse than to get Aaron involved in future “Thor” projects.  (I would’ve said the forthcoming “Ragnarok,” but it seems likely that will revolve around Walt Simonson’s definitive “Thor” arc.)

There is one part where “The Dark World” does outdo this comic:  In its ending.  Where the movie left me eager for the next film, “The Accursed” ends on a deeply anticlimactic note as Malekith manages to weasel out of paying for his crimes.  I can see where Aaron was going with this, and it does make a certain amount of sense within the story, but it’s still not very satisfying.  It is encouraging to see that the writer has longer-term plans for Malekith beyond using him as a token villain due to his role in the film, so I can only hope that the character gets what’s coming to him sometime down the line.

Bookending this story are two one-offs showing very different sides of the character.  “Once Upon a Time in Midgard” shows us what Thor does when he’s not partaking in adventures of the like we see in the main story.  It’s a fun little “day in the life” story as we see the God of Thunder bring some happiness and strangeness to a wide variety of ordinary humans in the Marvel Universe.  One of them happens to be his longtime friend/love interest Jane Foster, who not only has cancer but a new boyfriend as well.  It’s clear that Aaron was going for a “There are some things even a god can’t change,” message with this part of the issue except that it’s crammed into too small of a space to really work.  More successful are the teases for upcoming storylines including Roxxon being an evil corporation again, and Old Thor returning to Midgard.

Then we have “Days of Wine and Dragons,” which is a tale of Young Thor’s hedonistic days as it begins with him waking up in the mouth of a dragon with one hell of a hangover.  As it turns out, both Young Thor and the dragon, named Skabaag, had worked together to save a local village from trolls and have their own issues with living up to the standards their fathers have set for them.  Though they share a bond of friendship, it’s these issues that ultimately set them against each other and see Young Thor mature just a little in the end.

While that story is well told, it’s also notable for featuring work from European comics artist Das Pastoras whose painted art is striking in its detail and for just how far away his style is from what you’d expect to see from a Marvel comic.  Nic Klein turns in acceptably grounded work for the first story in this volume which complements its down-to-earth tone quite well.  As for Ron Garney’s work on the main story, it’s not bad but I’ve seen better from him.  Garney’s art has plenty of energy, but a lot of it looks rushed and lacking the detail I’ve seen in his best work.  In fact, Emanuela Lupacchino is credited with providing additional art on the last two issues of “The Accursed” which would seem to support my theory.  Maybe Garney was busy bringing his A-game to “Men of Wrath,” the creator-owned series he’s doing with Aaron through Marvel’s Icon imprint.  We’ll see about that when the collection comes out in a couple months.

Coming off one of the best storylines of the year (stay tuned for tomorrow’s podcast…) “The Accursed” doesn’t compare all that favorably to the saga of Gorr The God Butcher.  It does, however, hold up quite well when compared against “The Dark World” in telling a decent story, let alone one involving Malekith.  Even with its disappointing ending.  “The Accursed” and the other stories in this volume still show that Aaron knows how to tell some very good stories about Thor.  Ones that are well worth reading for fans of the character.