Graphic Novel Review: Thors

It’s hammers time!

(Panini Books)

Meet the Thors Corps: police for the patchwork planet of Battleworld, they alone are the worthy wielders of the hammer of justice, controllers of the powers of thunder and lightning, the right hand of Doom.

Following the destruction of everything, the despot Victor Von Doom wields near omnipotent power as the master of Battleworld, where disparate kingdoms torn from the history of the Marvel Multiverse wage brutal war on each other in a never-ending bid for dominance.

The Thors are law enforcers made up of different aspects of the Norse deity plucked by a variety of realities, including Ultimate Thor, Throg the Thunder Frog, Runic Thor, the Unworthy Odinson and Beta Ray Bill, and serve to maintain a sense of order between the different sections of Battleworld.

The unity and honour of these peacemakers faces its greatest challenge following a series of brutal murders in different Battlezones, especially as the identity of the victim is found to be the same in each case. Someone is killing the same person in their different guises across Doom’s realm, but who, and why?

The beauty of the Secret Wars imprint is that despite its finite nature, the wide range of available titles means there is scope to offer a depth and exploration of the concept which would otherwise be skirted over in the main title. This is one such book, which uses the basic story of a murder mystery to probe not only the history and make-up of the Thors, but also to shed new light on the history and politics of Battleworld.

Featuring as it does, essentially slightly different versions of the same character, writer Jason Aaron has his work cut out ensuring this isn’t merely a book about big burly Norsemen hitting each other with a mystical hammer, but having already cut his teeth on the mainstream Marvel Thor book he’s long since proved himself up for the job.

A stand-out series among the hit and miss Secret Wars line, which also acts as a perfect coda to the career of certain Thors, while establishing new concepts and ideas for the future of the relaunched title in its wake.