Thor: Siege & Siege Aftermath

Given Asgard’s primary role in this crossover, it should come as no surprise that the events of the tie-in issues from “Thor” are more relevant than you’d expect from such things.  In fact, you could argue that a lot of this stuff should’ve been in the crossover proper.  Heimdall’s “absence” in the beginning of the attack, and Loki’s scheming are two such examples.  Even the stuff that isn’t immediately relevant to the crossover is handled well by writer Kieron Gillen as he further sells the relationship between Bill and Kelda and brings out the Thor-bot to take on Volstagg in the conflagration.  It would’ve been nice to know what the Thor-bot was doing prior to all this, but it’s a minor concern.

The “Loki” one-shot and a Gillen-scripted issue of “New Mutants” are also collected here and they’re just as good as you’d expect.  Loki’s single-issue-story is a great character portrait that sheds light on his motivations prior to the crossover as he realizes that he and the rest of the Asgardians are doomed to continue on in their own ways without some drastic intervention.  We also see him striking deals with Hela and Mephisto involving the Disir, Norse spirit-eaters of legend, to set up a future storyline.  The “New Mutants” focuses on Dani Moonstar and draws upon her deal with Hela back in the “Utopia” crossover that allowed her to become a Valkyrie again to take out Ares.  Now she has to act as Hela’s personal Valkyrie to escort the dead Asgardians to the Norse Hel, and Dani’s not happy about this at all.  Though she thinks that the worst has already come to her charges, the mutant soon finds out that there are fates worse than death for some.  It’s a bittersweet story as Dani learns a hard lesson about debts and responsibility, and it surprised by how I actually wound up feeling sorry for Hela in the end.

“Sige Aftermath” follows up on that above-mentioned storyline about the Disir as they find themselves with prime access to the Asgardian dead in Mephisto’s Hell thanks to some lateral thinking about the curses that bind them.  This leads Thor and Tyr, the Asgardian God of War, to Hel and Hell in order to save their departed brethren by getting their hands on the sword Loki used to bind them to his service.  The end result is a story full of entertaining straightforward heroism as Thor’s grim determination sees him through the horrors of Hell and Tyr faces his literal and metaphorical demons head-on.  You’ve also got some nice twists and displays of cleverness on the part of the title character along with some great art from Richard Elson and Doug Braithwaite.  Their styles aren’t very compatible, but they do excellent work with what they’re given and I wouldn’t have minded seeing the whole story illustrated by either (though my preference is for Braithwaite).

This collection is also padded out with a three-issue arc that’s older than I am.  The three issues of “Thor” #179-181 come to us courtesy of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Neal Adams and tell us of the time that Loki switched bodies with Thor and how the latter wound up in Hell because of it.  I have the feeling that I would’ve loved reading this as a kid thanks to its still-present over-the-top energy, but the storytelling hasn’t aged well at all.  It’s nice to have around as an artifact of the character and the times, but that’s about all it’s good for.