War of the Realms #1: Helheim on Earth!

As a huge Thor fan and a big fan of Aaron’s Thor in general this issue was sure to hit home for me, and to the surprise of no one that knows me I loved it. I felt like there was a lot of fun to be had in this issue and there is a lot of promise in the early stages of Marvel’s spring event. I really liked the mismatched heroes that all show up to this first battleground in New York City. Why do they always start with New York? Drop 2 million Trolls in Ohio, no one would notice, I can’t help but think this is an advance force, obviously there are other attacks around such as Washington DC coming up in Avengers under the protection of the Squadron Supreme.

Obviously it can’t be perfect but I do like the amount of synergy between titles in a crossover like this, with obvious glaring issues in current books like Strange fighting Galactus in the mystic realm in his book, but I still feel like it’s pretty solid. There was a lot of necessary setup in this issue but I didn’t feel like it killed the pacing, which was pretty brisk for a slightly oversized issue.

One valid point I’ve heard from some is despite all the setup there is still a lot left unexplained for such a lore heavy event and new readers might be lost, if anyone has any questions let me know I’d be happy to explain anything left unclear. Some things i might like to see, an early event wishlist I suppose, some resolution to the whole Kurse debacle with the former league of realms member Waziria which has been a huge lingering thread. Also seen lately but still out of commission is Volstagg the Voluminous, recently beaten down by Mangog as War Thor. Another bit of wishful thinking, speaking Mangog, Malekith attacking Earth is pretty reminiscent of Odin’s mistreatment of Mangog’s planet, perhaps given a talk from someone (Cap comes to mind) Mangog might bring the power of a billion, billion beings to bear against true evil in the form of Malekith the Accursed in defense if yet another planet of mortals threatened as pawns in yet another war of immortals.

The art by Russell Dauterman with colors by Matthew Wilson is phenomenal with an insane amount of detail in the smallest panels. I also love when work is put into panel layout and almost every page is a stellar example of how to make a page dynamic and interesting. Especially phenomenal is the panel with Malekith revealing himself in Jotunheim, so great. The letters by Joe Sabino have some high points as well I’m a sucker for good sound effect work which this issue has in spades.

Such an amazing page