War of the Realms Strikeforce: The Dark Elf Realm #1: Killers

I liked the issue fine, but if you asked me if it’s integral to the plot of War Of the Realms it really isn’t. What it does provide is backstory to the team dynamic and one thing the main series does not, Freyja is afraid of more than losing. From the appearance of things there is dark magic in play in Svartalfheim and she’s worried that overuse will leave her tainted, possibly just as bad as Malekith.

I liked the cross section of the recruitment of the team enough, this issue is pretty oversized but was still a fairly quick read. As I said the broad strokes of this issue are covered in the main series but I enjoyed this issue enough to still recommend it. Bryan Hill managed to turn this into a decent team book, giving the team motivation, dynamic, and reason to exist, really good.

The art by Lenil Francis Yu is excellent, the whole team looks great my only complaint is I wish we had gotten more of Svartalfheim and less dark dreamscapes and time in the Avengers boardroom. Not that that’s the artists fault, or Hill’s even, this book does exactly what it should, and looks great!

This is the kind of event tie in I like, in that it’s optional background material. Granted a bit more substance would be nice but WOTR feels very much like you can read the main title and nothing else and follow it fine, which is great for readers who don’t want to read every tie in.