Daredevil 31, Thor: God of Thunder 13

Daredevil 31
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

Current events mix with the Marvel Universe as a case very similar to 2012's Trayvon Martin case (the trial was this year, I know you guys, I keep up with current events too) has cropped up in New York City. The details are extremely similar and, like in that case, the defendant walked free. However, that's where things change in the 616. In the 616, prosecutor James Priest, who has been hailed as a civil rights leader, leaves the courthouse, upset with the verdict, and produces a page with names, addresses, and pictures of everyone on the jury, should people want to exact revenge for their blowing the trial. The city is instantly whipped into a frenzy and only Daredevil knows that someone interrupted the live feed with an excellent impression of Priest and flashed those names. It's confirmed when everyone physically near Priest as he made his speech shows confusion at what they've been told happened on the television broadcast. That doesn't matter to Daredevil, though, as he needs to concern himself with protecting the jurors and finding out who did this. The Serpent Society is clearly behind it, considering their recent infiltration of the legal system and the case being one with such connections to race, but it's the Jester who actually did the impression of Priest and interrupted the feeds. Daredevil discovers that Jester left a trail; his name and address are on the lineup of the jurors though he wasn't one of them. Matt goes to Jester's house to find someone in a Daredevil t-shirt, distributed by Foggy at the hospital, hanging in the house.

You guys, it might be Foggy. I'm not sure I can objectively analyze this issue if that's Foggy so I'm going to pretend, for the moment, that it's not or that it's a ruse or something. Maybe even that he's not dead but even if he's not dead, the dude is still a cancer patient and he was brought there by Jester as part of this whole game and WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FOGGY LATELY? Crap, AND Matt and Foggy's last conversation ended with Matt angry because he found out it was Foggy who hired Kirsten in his place. You guys, that better not be Foggy Nelson. Everything about this issue is really intense and pretty good. There's another DD-Hank Pym team-up as DD gets Pym to use his ants to create rain throughout the city, pretty good at dispersing the riots that have started. Really interesting story rooted in a sad sort of realism with great art and solid writing. It's not Foggy though, right?

Thor: God of Thunder 13
Aaron (w) and Garney (a) and Svorcina (c)

A very small troop of Dark Elves (from the realm of Svartalfheim) have journeyed to Niffleheim to free their imprisoned king Malekith the Accursed. It's not an easy trek and most of the group die, leaving only one alive when Malekith is freed. Together, the elf Scumtongue and Malekith leave Niffleheim for Svartalfheim, where Malekith assumes he will be welcomed back to the throne. Meanwhile, in Asgardia, our Asgardian heroes are enjoying a feast to celebrate Volstagg's election to the congress of worlds. One of the Dark Elves living in Asgardia suddenly feels Svartalfheim's pain and alerts Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three to the issue. They journey immediately to Svartalfheim and find Malekith standing over the bodies of a village of slaughtered Dark Elves. He tells them of the civil war brewing (Svartalfheim, it turns out, was not exactly eager for Malekith to take over the throne again) and disappears before Thor and company can stop him. Malekith, for his part, swears to kill every single Dark Elf who goes against him, no matter where they hide.

This may be the most spell-check has ever disagreed with my posts. And I write a comic book blog. Anyway, solid issue and story, happy to give readers a look at Malekith before he stars as the main villain in Thor: The Dark World. Or cash in on that connection, LOOK, IT DOESN'T MATTER. It's still a good story and it seems it will be a nice reintroduction to the nine realms as this arc continues. With Dark Elves spread out across the nine realms, it seems we'll spend a bit of time in each and maybe give people a chance to, with relative ease, learn a little bit more about Thor's history. There's even a nifty map of the nine realms (drawn by Haemi Jang) at the back of this issue, which will certainly be good for spelling reference in the future for anyone who may have a comic blog. Always a little wary of books that aren't quite movie tie-ins but are clearly movie tie-ins, but this one seems like a story worth telling so far. This five-issue arc will be in full swing by the time Thor: The Dark World premieres, giving movie fans a quick book to jump into (they need only pick up the two to three issues prior to the newest one by the time they wander into a comic shop) and will give comic fans a nice introduction or re-introduction to Malekith before his big screen debut. Nice little mix. Well-respected comic veteran Ron Garney hops onboard for this arc as the new artist and his art is pretty stellar.