Unworthy Thor 3 review

Odinson is in the clenches of the Collector, who’s also taken Old Asgard into his massive collection of trinkets from across the Universe. Why? Ultimate Thor’s hammer somehow landed on Old Asgard. Since he couldn’t lift the hammer, he instead took the entire city ruins. This issue picks up with another of Odinson’s attempts to grab the alternate universe hammer, only to be stopped just at the end.

Written by Jason Aaron, Unworthy Thor 3 explores how being unworthy is starting to drive Odinson crazy. He’s seeing flashbacks of all the times he’s been told that he’s unworthy, or flashes of Gorr during his attempt to wipe out all gods in the Universe from early in Aaron’s run. It’s kind of a brutal story that completely drives Thor mad just as Beta Ray Bill helps free him from his cell.

To make things crazier, other people are after the hammer. Several of Thanos’s allies show up to try to take it, starting an intense fight scene between them and the Collector. There’s a lot of introspective narration from Thor, but the mini-series is quickly becoming just as epic as the main Thor series by the end of this issue. That and Thori the hellhound is going to join the fight, which is awesome. The comic’s ending promises that the next issue will be intense.

The art by Kim Jacinto and Olivier Coipel is good. I’m not sure who handles what, but one artist handles the main story while the other handles all the flashbacks. The flashbacks are simple looking, with a bit of an otherworldly feeling. The main story doesn’t usually have too much background detail, but there’s plenty of detail in the Collector’s thugs and the excessive chains holding Odinson in his cell. The fight scenes flow well. Facial expressions do a great job at conveying emotions, like the hellhound’s aggressive snarls with flames coming out of its nostrils, the crazed look in Odinson’s eyes when he goes nuts, and the Collector’s cold hard stare. The colouring by Matthew Wilson is great. It’s an overall dark comic, but it’s still easy to see everything and there’s plenty of colour when the action gets going.

What started off as an emotionally rough mini-series is starting to give Odinson a sense of hope, despite him going crazy half-way through this issue. Throw in an epic struggle between multiple parties to control the hammer and you’ve got an intense comic. While it’s not completely clear whether Odinson will be able to pick up the Ultimate hammer or not, this mini is definitely worth looking into for Thor fans.

8/10