Comic Review: War of the Realms #6

War of the Realms #6

Marvel Comics

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Russell Dauterman

The War of the Realms may have taken a turn for the better, but Malekith is far from giving up. He has taken All-Father Odin and Lady Freya as his prisoners, and requests only Thor comes to rescue. Or else. To make matters worse, he has taken the Venom symbiote and made a powerful sword out of it. All hail Malekith, the Thor Butcher.

Thor isn’t one to sit and wait, so he has embarked on a journey to find wisdom. He came across the World Tree, now growing in our Sun. So, like any sane and completely normal person would do, he ordered Daredevil to nail him to it. As he hangs on the Tree, it requests him to pay tribute – his eye and the last remaining piece of Mjolrnir. What happens next will shock you!

For those of you trying to avoid spoilers, just stop reading or go to the bottom of the page. For those of you who don’t care – be my guest. Either way, thanks for the click!

Last warning. SPOILERS.

Basically, everything we expected would happen – happened. Old King Thor and Young Lad Thor came to help, as did Lady Jane FosThor. Malekith may have put a spell that allows only Thor to come close, but he didn’t specify how many Thors. Just something he should consider the next time he tries to pull off something like that. Also, Loki is back. And… So is Mjolnir. Shocking, I know.

But even though this was all very much expected, it doesn’t make the book any less Worthy (heh). The book is fantastic, possibly the best event since Hickman’s Secret Wars in 2015. It’s a non-stop high octane endeavour that doesn’t hold back on the spectacle. You got Thors flying into battle, hammers falling from the Sun, Demon Symbiote Dark Elves getting amputated, Loki coming out of his father’s guts, the Fantastic Four traveling through time… You know the usual.

Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson do a wonderful job at making all these crazy ideas come to life. The fights look gorgeous and the book flows flawlessly from scene to scene. However, there are a couple of things that are bugging me with the art, and it mostly concerns the pencils. 

First of all, I’ve grown a bit tired of Dauterman’s crazy paneling. I still can’t get behind all the wasted space he has. A lot of the pages have some weird, quirky paneling going on that leave a lot of empty, white space on the page. Sometimes, it looks cool and actually makes the page flow even better. Other times, though – it makes the pages and panels feel needlessly crammed.

Secondly, the way Dauterman draws (clean shaved) males is kinda funny. They all have these silly, baby faces. Some even look like he just took the female design and added a square jaw to it. It can get hilarious and, sometimes, a bit annoying.

War of the Realms the culmination of seven years of buildup and the result couldn’t be better. Jason Aaron gave us payoff for so many story beats that he set up over the years and I couldn’t be happier about it. Love him or hate him, he is definitely one of the defining writers of Thor, up there with Walt Simonson. And the guy isn’t done yet! Not only is he moving forward with the main Thor series, but he’s also teaming up with Esad Ribić this September to finish the story of Old King Thor. AND he’ll be co-writing a new Jane Foster book, Valkyrie, with Al Ewing. Looking forward to all of those!