Trapped by Loki, The God of Mischief
While still sitting in some murky waters, Journey into Mystery improves once again this week, this time providing our Norse God with some trouble in the form of his pain in the neck brother (though this relation is never acknowledged here) Loki. It’s the third book in three months, making it the fastest published title at the time, and being penned by Stan’s younger brother, it has a definite fresh feel to it despite seemingly being rushed out.
With that said, there are still problems abound in the writing itself—Loki’s origin story is perhaps the most disappointing yet simply because it sets things up brilliantly before resorting to a ridiculous Deus-Ex-Machina (seriously, it took Loki that long to poke someone in the eye? And surely that sort of tear wouldn’t count—are magical contracts not without their fine print?), and everything seems kind of underdeveloped no doubt due to the 12 page limit restriction within this anthology title.
Despite such flaws however, this Thor guy, and his human counterpart are something I look forward to reading about. This time acknowledging Thor’s mythological background with Loki and Asgard itself in a couple of pages, plus Thor lifting a train track while the train goes over it, there are some great moments here. Which is more I can say for Bruce Banner who, even with 25 pages, continues to bore every other month.
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