Things have been escalating in the world of Asgard as Thor has taken even more action to prevent the future he saw in the vision Black Winter showed him. This action has led Thor to investigate the recent disappearance of all the souls in Valhalla. Partnering with Jane Foster’s Valkyrie, Thor has traveled to Hel and found out that Hela and Karnilla are both missing. We learned that Hela has been captured by Doctor Doom. Now what will happen when Thor learns this? Let’s find out with Thor #32.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Torunn Grønbekk
Artist: Juan Gedeon
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Letterer: Joe Sabino
SYNOPSIS
In Latveria, Doctor Doom uses Karnilla to force Hela to tell him how to harness the power of the dead to rewrite the Gods’ mistake of giving humanity free will in order to save everyone in his vision.
Meanwhile, Thor and Valkyrie (Jane Foster) battle Nidhogg in order to get Odin’s soul back. While Thor is able to damage Nidhogg the death dragon still escapes into Midgar.
As all that is going on, sixteen years in the future Laussa Odinsdottir uses Corvus Glaive’s own weapon to revive him. Laussa asks about the Black Stone’s whereabouts. Before she can get an answer Thor shows up and admits her time to join the fight is now. Thor then hands Laussa the sword that is rightful hers.
Back in the present, when Thor and Valkyrie give chase, they find themselves in Latveria. While Valkyrie continues to go after Nidhogg, Thor goes to confront Doctor Doom. End of issue.
REVIEW
We know that Thanos is the endgame for this story with Thor. That is what the majority of the run in this volume of Thor has been about that vision from Black Winter. But as with anything the build is just as important as the endgame. And as Torunn Grønbekk and Juan Gedeon are showing Doctor Doom is the perfect villain to connect everything that has happened with Thor to get that transition into Thanos.
What is most effective about how Grønbekk writes Doctor Doom in Thor #32 is how she gets into how Doom sees himself. Doctor Doom always carries himself with a God complex, even when he says that is not exactly what he is doing as he does in Thor #32. But to Grønbekk’s credit, she taps into how Doctor Doom has experience with God-like powers from Secret Wars so he knows what it means to be in complete control of continuity. That knowledge of control is what makes everything Doctor Doom hold greater weight.
Making what Doctor Doom is doing something that you want him to be stopped is how he uses Hela. Having her captured in a test tube and threatening Karnilla is the dastardly thing you expect Doctor Doom to do. He is not someone that will go the easy route of teaming up with other villains. In Doctor Doom’s mind, he is superior in every situation and the way he manipulates Hela plays into that.
While Hela is forced to do what Doctor Doom wants Grønbekk makes sure to show she isn’t completely helpless in this. Hela clearly knows a lot about what Doctor Doom is doing and the ramifications that could lead to. This does give Hela a possibly greater role in the story where she can be in a position of power. This makes you keep an eye on everything Hela says as she is a character that won’t just let herself be used by anyone.
All of this happening with the villains does make you wonder how Thor will factor into this. We know that there is a connection between Bor and Thanos because of the flashbacks we’ve seen. Because of that whatever Doctor Doom is doing in using life and death connects back to Thanos. With that in mind, Thor will heavily question how this factors into his vision of the future with the future vision involving Thanos.
But as we’ve seen in these recent issues Thor has been fighting with his back against the wall. He and Valkyrie are in the dark about what is going on and are just in response mode. This is seen in how the fight with Nidhogg goes down. Even with all his powers Thor is unable to defeat Nidhogg or get Odin’s soul back. Because of that, you are left to wonder how ahead Doctor Doom is that Thor will struggle even more to achieve stopping or at least be prepared for the inevitable future.
The biggest question in all this is how the flash forward sub-plot involving Laussa Odinsdottir will factor into all this. There is some disconnect with how this flash forward is utilized during Thor #32. While the story is interesting the way we cut between this and the present-day caused the pacing of the overall to not flow naturally. The way this story is told it would’ve been better for everything going on that Laussa Odinsdottir’s story was a backup to the main story in Thor #32. That would’ve let the two timelines have a better flow to how the stories were paced and connect better for the long term.
In terms of artwork, Juan Gedeon’s art was at its best with the big action moments or when having panels with up-close shots of character faces. Gedeon nailed the power Thor uses against Nidhogg. Where the art didn’t work is in the panels with more than one character in them. The detail was not always there and it happened often. It did not get in the way of the overall story but a noticeable consistency problem when reading this issue a second and third time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Thor #32 works well to position Doctor Doom as a major threat that Thor and Valkyrie will have a tough time dealing with. How this connects to the greater story involving Thanos drives a lot of interest in what happens next. That is something we hopefully will see more of in the next issue of Thor.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10