Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Original Sin 5.5: Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #5 of 5
Marvel Comics
Aaron, Ewing, Bianchi, Dall'Alpi & Woodward
The last of the Original Sin event-based comics ships this week in a very odd issue of what proved to be a very odd mini-series. As just about everyone knows by now, there will be a new Thor, a female, come October. You might think this is the de-crowning of Thor comic. It isn't. Instead it simply sets free the one who will take up the hammer.
As it turns out, the previous issue was much more climatic than this one. Loki pulled out a victory with some trickery and made his way to his father, Odin, to set him free. This issue is largely the reunion of Thor, Loki and Odin. As they confront the Queen of the Angels we get some background of the whereabouts of the missing daughter. Oddly, rather than some angel having some knowledge of the missing daughter, it turns out Odin merely has to look the woman in the eye to recognize her.
What occurs next is even stranger. The Queen orders the angels to vacate and ignore the daughter that she raised. Then, the daughter shuns Odin when Odin looks to embrace his long lost daughter. We are then left to believe that no one, not one character, knew that the only woman among the angels without wings, was Odin's daughter. Even as Thor was laying waste to the kingdom, screaming to find his sister did anyone, including the missing daughter, stop to think, "maybe she is here after all." This was so bizarre in both execution and believability.
Unfortunately, the artwork is all over the place. There seems to be an army of artists and styles putting their hands into this issue, whether the credits are on the title page or not, and it simply isn't helping matters. Character depictions are a wide array, line point width varies greatly and the colors take a bright tone in some spots, a dull one in others and an absent-like tone in others. The book isn't bad, it simply follows no method or consistency.
This mini-series started as a good Loki/Thor story and morphed into some good character moments for Loki. In the final issue it seems to simply exist to pull the next Thor out of her current situation. Not much to do with Original Sin or to do with Thor. This was a disappointing and unnecessary issue.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
