Thor: God of Thunder 19, Winter Soldier: Bitter March 1

Thor: God of Thunder 19
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

King Thor examines Earth millennia in the future, now a cold, dead rock, with his three granddaughters, who are less enamored of Midgard than Thor was. As King Thor laments the way the world defeated itself, we turn back the clock to see what's happening with Thor the Avenger. It turns out he's trying to land a date with SHIELD agent Roz Solomon, who is, herself, trying to bring down the somehow constantly re-formed Roxxon. Thor helps her bring down some whalers before the two of them head for a new Roxxon unveiling with new Roxxon head Dario Agger. Agger has led an expedition to drill ice from Jupiter to try to "cure thirst" or something along those lines but Solomon knows that it's just a way to control the profits of Jupiter water. Thor arrives at the press conference with way more ice straight from Jotunheim, killing a lot of Agger's profits (business, am I right, guys?) and putting Thor and Solomon right on the map for Agger. After this act, Solomon agrees to go for coffee with Thor. Now we go back...to the FUTURE to see King Thor and his granddaughters on Earth as Galactus approaches.

Very clear set-up issue as plenty of seeds for the new arc are planted. There's something remarkably endearing about Thor trying to win a date with Agent Solomon that's worth seeing in this book and, of course, Esad Ribic's art flourishes here as he gets to draw giant underwater scenes and some big Asgardian style scenes. The issue starts to lose a little bit of steam as Roxxon gets involved, as Aaron is tasked with setting up a new agenda for Roxxon and a new CEO for the always always always corrupt company. I'd say that the Jupiter ice thing falls a little bit flat too since it's such a specific thing and it's hard to really see the point of it (though I suppose you could make the case that it's readily available water that Agger, like the villain in Quantum of Solace, would have at his control but, unlike that villain, Agger doesn't control the entire region's supply of water). Likewise, it's a little hard to muster up some sort of feelings for the Midgard of the future as it's far out enough that it's, you know, kind of expected that it will eventually die. Like, Thor HAD to have been told this at some point, right? Still, the seeds could harvest interesting fruit (just how I like my fruit) given just a little more time.

Winter Soldier: Bitter March 1
Remender (w) and Boschi (a) and Chuckry (c)

It's 1966 and Fury and SHIELD have learned that Hydra has captured Nazi scientists who have perfected the alchemy formula, which would allow Hydra untold resources if they're able to glean the formula for themselves. It's up to Fury and SHIELD's number two agent Ran Shen to break into a secure Hydra facility (Castle Hydra on a sheer cliff face in a snowy, remote locale) and capture the Nazi scientists or, if they can't manage capture, kill them. Shen and Fury wager on who will find the fastest way into the castle and Shen goes in the front door, counting on his smarts and ability to blend in to get him through, while Fury scales the side of the castle and goes in the drainage pipe. Shen seems to blend in okay and ends up hitting it off with a woman who seems to know something about Hydra's inner workings. The pair of them leave the party to be alone and the woman reveals herself to be the absolutely horrible new creation Madam Worm. With worms crawling out of her and into and all over Shen, designed to show Shen the beauty of Hydra, Fury appears and flamethrowers her into a big ol' pit. They manage to find the scientists and escape, to Fury's chagrin, up through the castle. They manage to avoid all guards going that way and make it outside only to have their new charges instantly stolen from them by none other than the Winter Soldier. Shen and Fury pursue him, all three essentially hang-gliding away from the castle. Shen distracts Winter Soldier while Fury attacks, causing him to drop the two targets. Shen manages to catch them and land but Fury is shot in the chest and falls elsewhere. Winter Soldier's wings are damaged and he, too, falls into the forest. Shen lands with the two scientists in the forest, realizing that he's up against a man thought only to be a myth, on foot with two Nazis, in the middle of a frozen forest.

All of our players are here, all of our plot is right here, laid out for us for this limited series, as we get our first real, extended look at a Cold War-era Winter Soldier. It's a really neat idea and the idea of three superpowers, SHIELD, Hydra, and Russia, vying for the formula tucked away in the heads of a pair of old Nazis, is a compelling story in and of itself. Throw in the fact that it'll both pit Shen and Fury against Winter Soldier and will establish the relationship that Shen has with all the players today (appearing in CAPTAIN AMERICA as the villain Iron Nail) and we have a pretty fascinating limited series on our hands. The art and the tone of the book hit their mark, feeling like a pretty solid spy story (too bad I spent so much time talking about James Bond in my THOR review, huh? Requisite Bond time has already been taken up). Matching that tone perfectly, by the by, are Andrew Robinson's covers for the series. SECRET AVENGERS has been trying to go for a spy, '70s era feel with its covers and fonts and things for a little while now and I think they've been okay but often a little convoluted for my tastes. These ones are much cleaner and the cover for issue two is pretty astounding, really looking forward to that one. Of course, I say all this but I still ended up with Chris Eliopoulos' animal variant (seen at right) for this issue ANYWAY. Look, it had Batroc as a fox, what was I supposed to do, not buy it?