Thor #800: The Return of Thor

Warning: This review will contain some spoilers for Thor #800, including the two bonus stories in the issue.

Thor’s monumental 800th issue is split into three stories in total across its 40+ pages. Those stories are: “Ouroboros” by Al Ewing and Pasqual Ferry, “Worthy” by Kieron Gillen and Declan Shalvey, and lastly “Decide” by Chris Condon and Jesse Lonergan. Each of the three stories is lettered by Joe Sabino with different styles.

As the main writer of Thor’s current and previous run, Al Ewing’s story is the main story of the issue lasting for over 20 total pages. Ewing’s tale, drawn by Pasqual Ferry and colored by Matt Milla, is a thrilling trial that puts the mortal god of thunder under the watchful gaze of the world serpent Jörmungandr! After the events of The Mortal Thor #12, we resume Sigurd’s journey in prison as decades pass. Sigurd finds himself homeless until an old fool flanked by two ravens comes to him and reveals the truth.

Sigurd has been trapped by the serpent inside its own world, intended to sap the mortal Thor’s will until he submits to the serpent. His only chance at surviving the trial is persistence against the serpent’s creations. Ewing’s “The Mortal Thor” could be seen as an allegory for life and some of the harsher aspects of the world, Thor #800 continues that by forcing Sigurd to endure… life. What’s interesting is how Ewing shows readers both the world within the serpent and the one outside, where Loki, Kirstin, and Odin work together to free Thor from the serpent’s clutches. Ewing’s scene transitions between the two worlds are brilliantly written, but they require exceptional artistic control to work.

Pasqual Ferry’s art is a thunderous furry full of cosmic serpents and gods turned into men. Traditional white space gutters are replaced by black spaces, which give the story a fittingly darker tone. Ferry’s line work is round and heavy with thin lines that give character designs a bit of personality. The panels are laid out in a way that depicts how characters move through a scene, such as using side-by-side panels for one of Loki’s (disguised as Lucky) explanations or using one large panel above two others to show the world serpent literally looking down on the characters in the other two panels below his own.

As for the two bonus stories, Kieron Gillen and Declan Shalvey’s “Worthy” is a five-page story focused on Mjolnir, Thor’s legendary hammer, and what it means to be worthy, while Chris Condon and Jesse Lonergan’s “Decide” is a tale about gods and mortals in another universe after the assassination of Loki, that universe’s All-Father.

Gillen’s story asks whether the hammer is worthy of Thor, a question that has gone unasked for far too long in comics. Declan Shalvey does a good job illustrating the passage of time as the hammer changes wielders and Thor faces new threats. The characters are a little stiff because of the five-page constraint, but each one looks distinct on the page, especially Surtur, who inhabits a page with his signature shroud of fire.

Condon’s story is a meditation on mortality and the difference between the nebulous lives of mortals and gods. “Decide” is ten pages and has a bit more time to build its tone than “Worthy.” I don’t want to spoil much of what happens in Condon’s story here since it ends with a “To be continued…”

Longergan’s artwork is segmented and scattered into numerous thin strips, some in the present while others are in the past, and curving transitionary panels that change the flow between scenes and revelations. Nothing about the panel layout is normal, and its uniqueness brings a novelty that elevates Condon’s already strong writing.