Okay,
this is officially my favorite cover of the series to date. It takes all of the things that made issue
forty’s cover my favorite and amps it up.
There is more action, more characters, and they are all better drawn
than the last “favorite cover”. This is
the kind of cover that would jump off the spinner rack and grab you, prompting
you to want to pick up the issue.
Hopefully the interior work holds serve.
Right
away we get our first check mark in the “negative” column as Kevin West has
been replaced (temporarily) on pencils by Dale Eaglesham. This isn’t the end of the world as Eaglesham
is a competent illustrator, but it sucks that West can’t capitalize on his best
cover to date by featuring equally exciting interiors.
Anyway,
let’s see how the story holds up. We
start with a quick recap of everything that’s been going on the last issue and
a half, including throwing in the fact that Mephisto is pissed off because he
can’t find his daughter Malevolence.
We pick
up the action with the Guardians showing up on the rainbow bridge of Asgard,
ready to fight the Inhumans and prevent them from destroying the fabled city of
the Norse Gods. We then focus in on fat
Thor, who does absolutely nothing to Loki, to the point where Loki is pissed
that Thor has taken the real sense of victory from him. If you could finally beat regular Thor after
so long, how would it feel to beat fat Thor, a shell of his former self? In the process of getting knocked out (and
Loki taking off, a very “I’m taking my ball and going home” kind of move) fat
Thor drops his hammer. This wouldn’t
seem like a big deal, but after he drops it, Talon just goes over and
nonchalantly picks it up. If you know
anything about Thor, it’s that his hammer can only be picked up by those
worthy, and the only one worthy for pretty much ever, has been Thor himself. Does this mean that Talon is now worthy? Nope.
It just means that this hammer is a fake, something to stroke Thor’s ego
a little. This is something that Lady
Sif, Thor’s wife tells us. She also
regales the tale of how Thor himself became unworthy of wielding the hammer.
This is
a story that revolves around Thor and Sif’s love for one another, which begat a
child, Woden. Thor, being Thor was too
busy slaying frost giants and the like to stay home and raise his child, in
effect becoming a deadbeat dad. Odin,
Woden’s grandfather called Thor home to look after his son. Thor was pissed, but really, when Odin tells
you to do something, you do it. So he
came home and was actually a pretty good dad to the strapping young lad,
teaching him how to be a true Norse God.
The problem was that Thor grew to resent his Mr. Mom role. Apparently when Thor is full of resentment,
Thor also becomes full of beer. Thor
became a drunk, and as if that’s not bad enough, Sif called him out on it and
he went to hit her. At this point he
dropped his hammer, never to pick it up again as he was no longer deemed worthy
of wielding it. 
Of
course, while this whole story is being told, Charlie and Yellowjacket are
getting their asses kicked by the Inhumans, because why would Vance go help
when he could instead listen to storytime.
The rest of the Guardians show up in time for us to check in on
Mephisto, who is still watching his TV rock in order to see what’s going on
around him. We then check in on Aleta
and Heimdall, who were thrown into deep space by Loki, only to land in the
clutches of The Remora, some tentacle alien right out of a Japanese porn
movie. Apparently The Remora uses powers
in his tentacles to suck out memories and overall good vibes from his victims and
shares them with his flock, who are very cult-like in their devotion to
him. They don’t think for themselves, or
have their own memories, so they all depend on him for these good thoughts,
which makes it incredibly easy to subjugate the masses.
Back in
Asgard, Loki and the Inhumans are winning, about to deliver the killing blow
and planting Loki firmly on the seat of power in Asgard, when who shows up but
Woden, son of Thor, wielding his father’s hammer. Let me say, before we close, that where I really
like the character designs for the Inhumans, Woden looks like a reject from the
Masters of the Universe toyline. I’m not
super impressed.
Next: Woden strikes, and fat Thor eats a cheeseburger.
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