This year’s THOR ANNUAL #1 is out today by the writing duo of Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and with art by Ibraim Roberson. Taking away nothing from their work on the main story, perhaps the most interesting part of this year’s annual is the sneak preview of August’s IMMORTAL THOR #1, a new ongoing series written by Al Ewing and with art by Martin Coccolo, that appears at the end of the book. I’ll get to that in a bit, but let’s get back to the main story.

Nearly the entirety of the story is focused on an epic battle between Thor, the new All-Father, and M.Y.T.H.O.S. (Master of Yggdrasil, the Tyrant of Humanity, the Omnipotent Savior), a version of M.O.D.O.K. after he fused himself with the Bifrost to create an immensely powerful new being. I would have loved to see this story fleshed out over a few issues, but as an annual, it gets wrapped up in this self-contained story. We witness Thor fail in his attempt to defeat M.Y.T.H.O.S. multiple times, but true to form, refuses to give up as me measures himself against what his father would have done — definitely big on daddy issues that Thor is. The conclusion of the battle does feature a nice reflection from Thor that he can rule as the All-Father differently from his father and those differences can be a net positive.

Kelly and Lanzing’s writing is primarily focused on Thor’s internal dialogue, which could be tough for an over-sized issue. However, the two give Thor a lot to chew on in his own mind and his inner conflict is palpable. Thor has matured over the years and this annual felt like another growth moment to set the stage for what will occur in IMMORTAL THOR.

Roberson’s artwork is stunning, especially paired with the colors by Dan Brown. It’s hard to make the rainbow bridge look bad, but these two artists blew it out of the water. They beautifully depicted M.Y.T.H.O.S., the rainbow bridge, and the accompanying scenery. The slight, almost sketch-like line-work of the mind-wiped civilians was a triumph and aided in the world building of the reality M.Y.T.H.O.S. created. Overall this was a visually stunning book with new delights on every page.

If I had to nitpick one complaint with the issue, it would be Joe Sabino’s lettering for the M.Y.T.H.O.S. text bubbles. It was a jarring font to read at times and was my lone criticism. The rest of the lettering throughout the book, especially the sound effects during the major battle scenes were superbly done.

The IMMORTAL THOR preview looks awesome. I loved the colors, the character designs, and the story seems to be in perfect hands with Ewing. I have been an infrequent Thor reader of late but I am very much looking forward to this new series based on the few pages we’ve seen.

Rating: 8/10

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