Thor: God of Thunder Reborn and Inferno: Warzones!

Thor: Vol 1: God of Thunder Reborn

Collects Thor (2018) #’s 1-6
by Jason Aaron and Mike Del Mundo

I started Jason Aaron's Thor run in 2014, with the Esad-Ribic-drawn God Butcher and Godbomb. We last left it at Jane Foster's turn with Mjolnir, in 2021. We pick up the hammer once again, with a newly-worthy Thor Odinson, in God of Thunder Reborn, in this year of our Lord, 2024. A whole decade later, and 6 years after its original publication date! Thor is a whole new book today. I am a whole new person. What have I missed?

Well, not much but I can’t say it was a great experience coming into this series cold, for all intents and purposes. You’re expected to know about all these Thor side characters and what they’re going through in the 6 issues told. Thor has a new arm, a new hammer and a new dog but those are backstories at this point, told in other stories.

For the uninitiated, the primary backdrop of the story is Queen Cinder’s war on the realms, these 6 issues focusing on her attempt on Niffleheim, the cold and misty land of the dead of Asgardian legend. Thor and Loki reunite with their other brother (which I guess has always been around?), and attempt to save the realm from the Queen. There’s a wedding somehow shoehorned into the story, along with a side-story set at the end of times, with King Thor, Old Man Logan as the Phoenix and a Sorcerer Supreme Doom. It feels like a mash-up “What If?” Story that’s allowed to be canon because it’s so far in the future.

Serviceable, and it has all the dry humor you’d expect from Jason Aaron, but without being immersed in the story for so long, you feel behind right from the start. The art feels “premium,” and matches the lofty themes of the magical world of the nine realms, though I didn’t find the painted art to my liking. Shapes blend into each other and digital effects take away from the painted feel of the art.

I’ve already collected all the way to the War of the Realms. See you in Volume 2, which, at my rate, could take another half decade!

More Thor? I say thee...yea!

Thor: God of Thunder -- The God Butcher and God Bomb

Thor: God of Thunder -- The Accursed and the Last Days of Midgard

Original Sin

Thor: The Goddess of Thunder and Who Holds the Hammer

The Mighty Thor: Thunder in Her Veins and the Lords of Midgard

The Mighty Thor: Asgard/Shi'Ar War and The Unworthy Thor

The Mighty Thor: The War Thor

The Mighty Thor: The Death of the Mighty Thor

Thor: God of Thunder Reborn

Inferno: Warzones!

Collects Inferno (2015) #’s 1-5

By Dennis Hopeless and Javier Garron

This is a small side-story that's part of the mega-event Secret Wars from 2015, but it's a whole lot better than it needed to be. Inferno: Warzones! is a strong, character-focused story that reads like a “What If?” that you just want to keep following after the last page. The original Inferno was a crossover X-Men event in 1989 that opened the gates of Hell to Manhattan, unleashing hordes of demons while unlocking new powers for Magik, AKA Ilyana Rasputin, a New Mutant and the younger sister of Piotr Rasputin, AKA Colossus of the X-Men, and Madelyne Pryor, a clone of Jean Grey. Magik learned about her demon half in that story, and Maddie channeled her magical powers and became the Goblin Queen.

Wow, talk about backstory. If you are or can get familiar with the three mutants above, you're in for a good time. The primary focus is on Colossus and his annual attempt to free his sister Ilyana from the clutches of evil, but it's really an arc: Ilyana is too far gone, overtaken by Darkchylde, her demon persona, and Colossus needs to learn when to let go. There's tragedy in that.

Plus, that arm later becomes a bad-ass demon arm that allows Colossus to wield the Soulsword.

Cue in some great side characters in a post-apocalyptic Mr. Sinister, a snarky wisecracking Boom Boom, and a darkly ambitious Goblin Queen, and you're in for a good time. Nightcrawler joins the gang, and is woefully/awesomely transmogrified into a teleporting demon dragon. It's glorious.

What makes this comic so great is that it tells such a refreshing story with fan-favorite characters that I've been reading for years. The fact that it's an "Elseworld" means that you can take liberties with the characters -- turn them into badass creatures, kill off adversaries that you couldn't kill off in the mainline universe, for the catharsis. The story feels brand new, and I just want it to keep going after the last page. The stuff of great comics.

And by that, I mean SPOILER: The Goblin Queen takes the throne of Inferno, absorbing the Hellfire from Darkchild's smoldering body and becomes something new. Glorious.

Bonus content: The Goblin Queen introduces her son, and, proves why she would fare much better in Battleworld than Jean Grey.

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The Uncanny X-Men: From the Ashes

In the 1990's, just like there was Marvel vs. DC, there was FOXKids vs WB studios. They both competed for the precious Saturday mornings of 9-year old chezkevin, mining the decades of comic book storytelling before them. Batman: The Animated Series begat Justice League: The Animated Series begat Static Shock. X-Men: The Animated Series begat Spider-Man: The Animated Series (and that kick-ass metal theme song), begat Spider-Man Unlimited, begat me losing interest and moving on to video games.

Point being, this was the utter water I swam in. I had Spider-Man: The Animated Series action figures. I wore BTAS sneakers. I had a deck of X-Men playing cards, with the kick-ass Jim Lee art on them. I never watched the series religiously, being a fan moreso of the Spider-Man series, but I'll be damned if they roped me right back in with X-Men '97, the semi-sequel to the series that started in 1992.

X-Men '97 released this summer on the Disney+ streaming series, dropping new episodes on a weekly basis, and as an adult in 2024, it's a completely new experience from watching the original series as a kid in the 90's, but it's the same post-racial bigotry, the same melodrama, and the same bad-ass theme song that makes this show so great. Waiting for the new episode to drop every week was its own pastime. Skimming the Reddit boards for new theories, and watching YouTube to relive the episode highlights, was like being on the schoolyard again arguing about who would win in a fight. More than a nostalgia grab, the X-Men don't pull their punches. All the soap opera elements you'd expect are here, with sharp storytelling and bombastic action scenes. I was sold from episode 1.

It's the kind of content that inspires you to find the source material, and that's exactly what I did. X-Men '97 introduced Madelyne Pryor to me, a Jean Grey-lookalike that bewitches Scott Summers, leader of the X-Men and falls in love with him. They collected her "first stories," so to speak in the poorly-named trade paperback, "From the Ashes." As far as I can tell, it was merely meant to be a comic book end-of-issue bait-and-switch in terms of Maddie's uncanny resemblance to Jean Grey, but the TPB unfortunately makes that the top billing, making the Phoenix costume front and center on the cover and titling it "From the Ashes."

The Uncanny X-Men: From the Ashes

by Chris Claremont, Paul Miller, John Romita Jr and more

collects Uncanny X-Men #'s 168-176

This TPB is so much more than that, and it's absurd that Chris Claremont covered so much in a mere nine issues. The way he juggles subplots and solo character stories in this ensemble book is masterful, and his mark on the X-Men is invaluable, reaching decades after their original telling. The amount of depth he imbues in 9 issues is enough to shame some modern comics. Here're some highlights:

1. Wolverine's raw Chad energy when he murders a Yakuza boss, participates in a traditional shinto wedding to marry the boss's daughter, only to get rejected by her under the psychic control of a mysterious villain.
   
   
   
2. Kitty Pryde proves her worth against a basement invasion from some aliens, earning her place as an X-Man. She continues to explore her powers and a budding romance with Colossus emerges.
   
3. Ororo Munroe (Storm) keys in to her powers and begins to unlock a cruel side of her powers. That reflects in her personality, as she takes over from Scott Summers, stricken with grief over the death of his girlfriend Jean Grey. Storm has no choice but to fight to the death in combat against Callisto, leader of the Morlocks for the safety of the X-Men. The wordless final page of the fight scene is just brilliant.
   
4. This further reflects in Storm's costume change a few issues later. Wouldja believe: Punk Rock Storm!
   
5. Xavier extends a hand of goodwill to Rogue, inviting her to join as a tentative member of the X-Men, despite her ties to the evil Brotherhood of Mutants. Rogue struggles with adjusting to the team, and fighting against the perception that the X-Men have against her. In a display of trust, Wolverine lends his healing factor to her and incapacitates himself after a nasty fight.
   

Scott Summers and his new girl, Maddie Pryor get the top billing in this collection. Since all of these issues released monthly, each story provided the framework for a larger story to develop in the background. The mysterious villain that sabotaged Wolverine's wedding is none other than the Mastermind, AKA Jason Wyngarde, a mutant humiliated by Jean Grey in the past, and motivated to take revenge on her by torturing the friends that have survived her. It results in a double-size issue where Jason uses his illusionist powers to convince the X-Men that the Phoenix has returned, in the form of Maddie Pryor, seemingly wiping out the Avengers, the other heroes of the Marvel Universe as well as killing the world's leaders.

It's secretly a Scott Summers issue: he's the one that figures out what's actually going on, and when all the X-Men turn against him, convinced that the Phoenix has possessed him, he uses his tactical skills to turn them around, without harming them (too much), so that they can all band together to fight the actual threat. Finally, to make a statement on Storm's evolving personality, she whips up a vicious storm to flush out Jason Wyngarde, and Scott has to revive his lover back to life:

Claremont gets how to make an ensemble book. He understands the dynamics of these character's relationships with each other and with themselves. He allows the characters to grow and evolve, and what a sight to behold. What a great X-Men trade, and I can't wait to read more.

More highlights:

An instant classic, Kitty Pryde tells it like it is:

This issue cliffhangs on the first appearance of Maddie:

Their relationship evolves as Scott reveals his superpower to her:

Scott says goodbye to Jean:

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JLA: The Deluxe Edition Volume 3

by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and more

collects JLA (1997) #'s 22-26, 28-31

"Perchance to Dream," 22-23: Starro the alien conquerer returns! The world falls under a spell, trapped in their dreams, when the Sandman appears to warn the JLA of this psychic attack. In order to wake everyone up, the JLA must send a team to sleep and find the boy dreaming of something other than "It", It that conquers, It that sees all, It that enslaves.

It's a pretty easy problem for the JLA to solve, once they know what to do, but a nice cameo from the Sandman, and a unique, suspenseful build-up to a seemingly indomitable foe make this one unique.

"Executive Action," 24-26: The Superhuman arms race begins as USA General Eiling unveils his thrilling "Ultramarine Corps," a team of 4 Marines who travelled to an alternate dimension and came back with super-powers! Sound familiar? While majority Americans, the JLA has sworn to protect the whole planet and not a single nation, so, this team is born of the idea, "what happens when the JLA assists a nation hostile to America?"

What a concept, but it's all a cover-up for a military coup anyways with Eiling transferring his consciousness to the body of the immortal "Shaggy Man," shaving himself and rebranding it as "The General." Great conceit that leads to a bombastic battle. I think they could have gone farther with the idea, but it went far enough for a great story.

"Crisis Times Five," 28-31: Apparently, there was a founding member of the Justice League, who was wiped from everyone's memories and became destitute -- Triumph. As a form of income, he stole JLA paraphernalia for cash, and one of his relics was an interdimensional imp with the very power to shape reality -- a Djinn. Another Djinn appears and the two of them wage war on Earth! It's a battle between colors, and these two DON'T mix!

There's a lot of dense world-building in this storyarc: the idea of 5-dimensional beings, the "original" founder of the JLA wishing his new future into existence, as well as the various team-ups between the members of the JLA and the Justice Society of America. That leads to several subplots as the JLA scramble to save the world, but the payoff is well worth it. Another world-shattering crisis averted by the JLA. 

These are some very tightly-plotted super-comics that are sometimes hampered by their density, but well worth the read at least once.

JLA #1,000,000 is collected here, but only perfunctorily. It's part two of some line-wide crossover event, where the JLA of the year 1,000,000 have appeared in the year of our JLA to save the world from a techno-virus. It's not even a full story, but a place to show off the "look what these new guys can do while they fight the guys we know, and then team up" formula.

BONUS:

Flash and Aquaman work together to beat Flow, the living liquid:

How do you depict 3-dimensional beings in a 5-dimensional world? Well, here's their take as 2D characters that can interact in a 3D world:

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Means, Motive and Opportunity: Solving the Murders at Karlov Manor

I've got a curveball for you today. It's not comic books, it's not even regular prose books. It's a review of a trading card game set. Wild!

Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game published by the Seattle-based Wizards of the Coast. It's also the oldest trading card game, and in my opinion the most robust. The idea is that you're a wizard, battling it out with other wizards while drawing spells from your library (deck), and summoning creatures to attack the other wizards. You draw mana from the universe itself to be able to cast all these spells. The five colors of mana underpin the very foundation of Magic: The Gathering, and each color defines a unique style of magecraft:

1. White mana comes from the plains and focuses on peace, law and equality.
2. Blue mana comes the islands and emphasizes knowledge, caution and perfection.
3. Black mana comes from the swamps and revolves around power, death, and self-interest.
4. Red mana comes from the mountains and focuses on freedom, impulse and action.
5. Green mana comes from the forests and revolves around harmony, spirituality, and nature.

Gameplay expresses itself differently depending on what color(s) you choose to play, and Magic: The Gathering has been running it well enough since 1993.

Most recently, a set came out with murder mystery themes. As you know, I enjoy a good murder mystery, so it was the right time for me to jump in again. I attended a "prerelease" with my buddy, an event where you open six booster packs and build a 40-card deck to play with other people. It was a blast. I opened a mythic rare angel, along with an awesome blue-white Detective creature card. I was firmly in blue/white and added some powerful green cards to bolster the top end of my mana curve.

I went, technically, undefeated with a record of 1-0-2 at the store: 1 win, 2 ties. If I played more tightly (AKA if I knew what I was doing), I probably would have been able to convert those ties. And if I'm being honest, my last game I intentionally drew with my opponent so that we could both get booster packs. I ended up beating him in the first two games, so I could also call myself 2-0-1. I never did draw into my mythic rare angel in any of the 7 games I played, so that's too bad.

I really enjoyed the "flavor" of this set, and it made me feel like a detective: cracking clue tokens to get further into my library and "solve the case" of how to defeat my opponent. This was expressed in gameplay by allowing me to interact with my opponent and make my detectives the strongest force on the battlefield. The last game I played was a landslide, simply because I started with a "Case of the Pilfered Proof" enchantment card, which made my detectives stronger every time they entered the battlefield.

A set is meant to last for approximately 3 months (a quarter). It's been a couple months since then, and they're already previewing the next set, Outlaws at Thunder Junction, a wild west-themed set. I don't feel like I really had enough time to fully appreciate Murders, so here's an attempt at that. What follows is a retrospective at some of the decks I've played in Murders. 

"Sealed" is a format in which you take 6 booster packs and build a 40-card deck from the 90 cards you've opened. It's mostly available in the early portions of a new set release and I like to play at least 1 sealed before venturing on to other ways to play the set.

• 0-3 WB and then WUg: I opened a poor pool of cards and lost three times to aggressive White/Red decks. Early on in a format, the best decks are in aggressive white/red, and I learned that for myself, the hard way. I thought I was in white/black, but spent my last loss on a last-minute pivot to white/blue that didn't seem any better. Blue/red might have been better for me.
• 2-3 RG Disguise: I must have had my blinders on to the Teysa, and chose to play a red/green undercover deck. At least I got to play the mythic red dragon I pulled, once.
  
  

  
  
• 4-3: Another white/blue detectives deck with some great WUG detectives. Second and third losses: it's going to be hard to win when your opponent plays 3 of their rares, one after another. This deck could have gone the distance.
• 3-0 (free Sealed) busted WB rares: Opening two Teysas just doesn't feel fair. Being able to play 4 rares below 4 mana is pretty nuts. Where was this pool when I was doing Sealed events :)
• 3-1 (free Sealed): Match 2, being able to answer an opponent's Rare on curve feels great.

"Draft" is a format in which you take 3 booster packs, sit at a table with 7 other players and you all take turns "drafting" your boosters: you take 1 card, and pass the pack to your right or left. At the end of the draft, you should have 45 cards in your pool of cards to play, and you'll select enough of them + lands to play a 40-card deck against other players. I find it's the most skill-testing, dynamic and novel way to play Magic that it is, in my opinion, the best way to play Magic.

• 2-1 UGw Disguise: My first (and only) best of 3 draft. After getting stomped in match 1 by an opponent's clearly superior deck, I redeemed myself in the last 2 matches for a huge confidence boost. My replays glitched and is missing my final game, the only game where I cast a mythic angel: https://www.17lands.com/user/game_replay/20240211/6546ccf4598d49baa9d3d3e17524f38d/0
• 3-3 R/G Disguise: First game was a nail-biter with some 11th-hour pulls from my disguise cards.
• 5-3 UGr: Really fun 2-color UG deck that allowed me to splash some powerful R cards. Missed opportunity to pick up the UG Evidence Examiner. Match 5 allowed me to gum up the board with a Detective's Satchel + Harried Dronesmith combo.
  
  
  My final win in Match 7 was just nuts with a huge board state on both sides, and me flipping a Greenbelt Radical to get just enough trample damage for the W.
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• 7-2: RGb: Staking a claim on red in my first pack, and then pivoting to green splashing black for a late pick Izoni. My first (and only) trophy during the season. Lamplight Phoenix is interesting because you don't exactly want to slam it on turn 3. You still want to build up your graveyard so you can continue to resurrect it when it dies. It won me a fair share of games here with aerial dominance. Match 4 was disgusting in that Yarus actually mattered, on curve with only my two disguise creatures in deck. In Match 6, I was missing one color and about to lose the next turn to a big flyer, until I drew exactly that color to remove the flyer and rally back for that game.
• 5-3 WB pint-size disguise: Really interesting draft in that I didn't even know my colors until the last pack. P2p1 taking the W common novice inspector was a big decision over the R/G rare Yarus. At this point, I've probably seen more Yarus than the white common! This was a big turning point for me in terms of knowing how to play black. Black is an aggro color in this format, and drafting two of the uncommon WB signposts helped me to see that. This deck could have gone the distance in my opinion. In my final win in Match 7, I finally cast the Wojek Angel, only to have it die the next turn.

  

  
  
• 1-3 UG Detectives: Total trainwreck of a draft. I probably should have been a different color? My own color bias appeared here. I admittedly don't know how to play R/B decks and I think both R and B were the open colors. My final loss is not recorded, because I had to take the game on my mobile device. I started the game with 10 minutes to spare before a date with my wife, and truly thought I would have enough time to finish it. Unfortunately, my opponent was playing a five-color control deck with Detectives' Satchel, and I couldn't comprehend his gameplan soon enough. I took the game over mobile and lost to his value engine. At least I don't have to look back at it :)
• 4-3 UB Spies: In my final win, Match 6, I came back from a 3-30 deficit! This was another turning point for me in terms of learning how to play black. It was a streamlined blue/black control deck -- if I could survive to turn 10, I had enough power in the deck to go the distance. In my final loss, it's possible I could have survived by playing a different card in my final turn. The hallmark of a great deck -- hampered by my choices. The emphasis on player agency makes the gameplay so great. The signpost uncommon, "Coerced to Kill," gave me the perfect feeling of this deck: allowing my opponents to build up a creature, and then stealing it for myself and using it against them. Why play my good cards when I can play yours? Projektor Inspector is a great common that does more than its fair share of work.
  

Overall, there was a weak color balance in the set, with white heavily favored, but this makes draft self-correcting: with 8 other players, it's not as easy to assemble a white deck when other players are on the lookout for this. I saw the R/G rare (Yarus) more than I saw a white common (Novice Inspector) in draft.

Limited is such a great format because of its variety. You can't do the same thing every time, and you have to be able to react and respond to the signals in your draft, to play the best deck that you can. I have biases that lend me towards certain colors, but a format is good when it can show me how to play colors that I don't necessarily lean towards. That's what this format did with me. Combine it with the flavor of murder mystery, and you've got a winner here. Hopefully I can squeeze some more wins out before this set goes away.

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And Then There Were None

by Agatha Christie

You get to my age, and you appreciate a good murder mystery. And nobody does them better than Agatha Christie. I had And Then There Were None on my list for a while and my library pulled through for me. It's a pulpy mass market paperback, and I also read it in hybrid format between that and an .epub version from Internet Archive. I much prefer to read my books digitally now, since I can have it on in the middle of night in bed, without disturbing my family, but there's nothing like cozing up on the couch alone at night with a book.

And Then There Were None was originally titled "Ten Little N*
****s", after a minstrel song from 1896, then toned down to Ten Little Indians, and finally to its current title, the last line of the song. Aside from the original title, there is no abject racism. That's just what the song was at that time. Reading it was really fun. I found it hard to put down and every chapter had something new and exciting to happen. For a book with 10 "main" characters, I didn't really lose track of people or where everyone was at (and it also helped that they were getting offed 1 by 1!).

Cribbed from my Goodreads account:

Classic for a reason! Taut without being terse, suspenseful without being horrifying. A story of the one-by-one murder of 10 otherwise upstanding citizens, if not for the crime/s that they directly or indirectly committed.

The epilogue neatly explains the murders in a satisfying, unexpected way and worth a re-read. I read this in hybrid format, between an .epub version from the Internet archive and paperback. Would not recommend the Internet archive; it's riddled with formatting errors and typos.

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