SUPER QUICK REVIEWS: Thor: God of Thunder 22, Hulk 3

Thor: God of Thunder 22
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c) and Sabino (l)

Dario Agger continues to pillage Broxton with his Roxxon factories and, to add to the problems, massive sinkholes have begun opening up in the small town. To make even those matters worse, Roz Solomon has discovered those sinkholes are full of trolls. Though Thor has been banned from the area (and gotten a stern talking to from Roz), he returns to beg Agger to stop, saying that his care and concern for the people of Broxton is greater than his pride. As he says all this, though, Agger opens more of the ground, killing even his lawyers, and he goes minotaur while some trolls hold Thor. Meanwhile, in the distant future, Thor's granddaughters fight a charged up (from eating the Earth) Galactus in the hopes of finding Thor, while Thor himself races to the black hole in which he tossed Gorr's weapon, the Necrosword.

The key to this issue is seeing Broxton fall apart and, subsequently, both seeing how devastating and fast Agger can be while also seeing what Thor is willing to do to stop it. As Coulson points out to Solomon, this is the threat of the new age. It's not Nazi's and decoder rings any more, it's billionaire CEOs. It's a problem Thor can't so easily punch away. It's a problem Thor has to think his way out of which, as Loki would point out, is not particularly a strong suit. At the same time, Agger seems every issue to sink lower and lower into full-on psychopath, which makes it a little harder, in this case, to find him as compelling for me. The King Thor vs Old Galactus storyline is still engaging enough, watching the fight, but the stakes are still a bit strange as it's hard to feel connected to it. I think it's there to show how much Thor loves Earth but it's still hard to feel that seeing Earth as a cold, dead place. Still, it's engaging to read and I guess we can't ask for much more than that.

Total Score: 4/5


Hulk 3
Waid (w) and Bagley (p) and Hennessy (i) and Keith (c) and Petit (l)

The Abomination has been set loose in the small Colorado town Banner has been hidden in and Maria Hill wants answers. She gets them from a small attack force sent to grab her who find themselves outmatched. She learns that Abomination is nothing more than a zombie reanimated with brain tissue from the Hulk but before she can learn more, the force is teleported away. The Avengers (Captains America and Marvel, Iron Man, and Sunspot) show up on the case, having been looking for Hulk since he disappeared, and begin to drive Abomination back, though they can't hold him without Hulk's help. Out of the fight, Hulk reverts to Banner and we see that his brain has healed a little more. Hill warns that switching back and forth like this will do more harm than good though and that the brain needs time to adjust and to mend. However, Banner refuses to leave the Avengers on their own and takes the risk, hulking out to help.

There are still perhaps more questions than answers here as the explanation for the healing of Banner's brain helps but also feels more than a little like "hey, hang on, these are very clearly made-up rules." Okay, so OBVIOUSLY they're made up rules, Hulk doesn't exist in a place where we study brains, just as an accelerated healing factor doesn't exist in a place where we study brains. Still, typically you can allow for a bit of soft science and either have it hit you so hard that you go "ugh, shut up Reed, I believe you" or you go "hey, you know what, sure, that seems right." I'm not feeling either of those here and it's making it harder to buy into the storyline. On top of that, we still need to learn a little more about this villain with all his crazy resources and his absolute disregard for morals. Also, the Avengers really booked it to Colorado, huh? WHATEVER, it still reads fine and the art is fine.

Total Score: 3/5