STORYTELLERS: Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite
PUBLISHER: Marvel
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2011
PAGE COUNT 5 comics, Journey into Mystery 622- 626
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT WRITING / STORYTELLING #1
1. There’s a lot of life left to be mined in fantasy and mythology.
2. Anti heroes or characters with a dark edge can be a lot of fun.
3. Lonely children can make for interesting and sympathetic characters.
4. They do a prose-like opening describing the mission of some magical birds. This gives the beginning a mythic tone. It reminded me of this bit from Sandman where Gaiman is evoking children’s literature:
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT ART / STORYTELLING #2
1. Color can really set the tone. The art works well here and makes this not feel like a super hero book.
2. I liked this bottom panel focusing on Loki’s eyes, which I think signifies deviousness. Also its hard see see here but the top of the panel is diagonal which I think guides the eye towards the eyes.
RECOMMENDATION: C-
NOTES / REVIEW / SYNOPSIS
I wanted to read something by Kieron Gillen and this had really good Amazon reviews. The reviews did not make this seem like a crossover tie in that couldn’t stand on its own. Unfortunately, that was the case (or it was just incoherent, or it just didn’t make sense to me or whatever).
The plot: Loki junior is the son of the notorious villain Loki, so nobody trusts him or wants to be his friend. When he learns about a threat against the home of the gods, the isolated Loki needs to become a hero and save the world.
Ok, that’s not really the plot. That’s what the plot should be. The real plot is “Loki died in the crossover, Siege, but reincarnated as a kid so Marvel could have a second Thor book since those Ares books and Hercules books never caught on, even when they did a book called “The Incredible Hercules” to try to trick Hulk fans into buying it. Can Loki do things between scenes in other, more important crossover related Thor books? Will Kieron Gillen succeed in his heroic attempt to make something out of this awful assignment?”
This book is just a tremendous waste of talent. There’s no reason this should be a Marvel universe book instead of a creator owned mythology based title. (Aside from marketing reasons, of course).
There were amusing scenes, but I couldn’t get a sense of any coherent plot, it seemed to be weaving between stories in other books.
There are good scenes, There are several good scenes. Like this bit, when Loki tries to flirt with some hell girl in order to manipulate her, and she isn’t having it:
I don’t get what’s happening in this panel below. I’m baffled as to why the gods are having a strategy meeting at a playground on earth, but it looks neat, so I like it:
I guess this book is just for people reading the other Thor book and Marvel’s various crossovers. However, you wouldn’t get that sense from the Amazon reviews. One reviewer wrote a review titled “Good Place for Newbie to Begin”:
I’ve always been a fan of superhero movies and TV shows, but beyond a few graphic novels adapted from traditional novels, I haven’t really read comics before now. After seeing the blockbuster film Marvel’s The Avengers, I wanted more of those characters. However, I was uncertain where to begin since Marvel has 60+ years of existing history and continuity. So, I decided to start with Thor since I at least had familiarity with the Norse myths he is derived from (and yeah, I LOVE Loki). And, I went to Wikipedia. I learned that after major events like House of M, Civil War/Dark Reign and Siege, the Marvel universe had been reimagined. Specifically, the Aesir gods had broken a cycle with a final Ragnarok, instigated by the supervillain Loki, and been reborn. And Thor found Loki as a child and, inexplicably, chose to bring him back to the newly built Asgard. That is where Journey into Mystery, Volume 1 begins, with “kid Loki”.
I guess the target audience is people who read the other books or really, really love reading Wikipedia articles in preparations for reading a book. I still don’t see how it helps, though, because this runs concurrent to the other Thor title, you won’t know why Thor is in prison unless you read it in monthly form and the other Thor book in monthly form.
Marvel even includes their own Wikipedia article in the back (but what good does it do there after you’ve already read the book?)
(This goes on for 8 pages. It doesn’t even mention what comics its summarizing to provide context. I ain’t reading it.)
So, unless you already own this book because you buy every crossover Marvel puts out, do yourself a favor and avoid it. Instead buy “My Faith in Frankie” the standalone Vertigo series about a kid god who is bullied by the other kid gods, and runs away from heaven to find his place in the mortal world.
Skimming some more glowing reviews on Amazon
“This is among the finest work I have ever seen come out of Marvel, in any decade. Funny, touching, thought-provoking, full of adventure and razor-sharp continuity from the recent Thor books. If there was a time machine, Marvel would have put Gillen in charge of the Fear Itself storyline, and had Bendis fetch him his coffee, instead.”
Yipe…