Thor [2020] #35 - Marvel Comics

THOR No. 35, August 2023

For those comic book collectors who were enticed into purchasing “the Midgard-shattering finale of Blood Of The Fathers” on account of its seemingly shameless solicitation synopsis misleadingly claiming it concerns Doctor Victor Von Doom making “his final stand to control all if humankind – past, present and future”, the contents of Issue Thirty-Five of “Thor” must have come as something of an unpleasant shock. True, the twenty-page periodical does feature a fleeting visit from Latveria’s monarch. But the supervillain is already beaten by this stage in Torunn Gronbekk’s impenetrable storyline, and rather bemusingly appears simply so the Goddess of Death can absurdly threaten him with grinding “up your bones to sugar my tea” – even though Jack Kirby’s co-creation has held Hela helplessly captive for almost the entirety of the multi-part tale.

Instead, the “portrait painter from Norway” provides an admittedly charming, though utterly bewildering, flashback adventure involving a much younger Thor and Loki temporarily outwitting King Bergelmir in Jotunheim, so that the Asgardians could claim a knife “forged by the light elves in the depths of Alfheim.” This contest of strength, superbly sketched by Spanish illustrator Sergio Davila, certainly seems to contain an allure all of its own, especially with its rather enjoyable tongue-in-cheek banter between the two siblings. However, just what it has to do with the mighty Thunder god fighting for “the future of the Ten Realms” is anyone’s guess, with the protracted sequence’s point apparently solely being to introduce the God of Mischief to his future daughter.

Just as bizarre though, has to be some of the Jessheim-born author’s irksome dialogue for Laussa Odinsdottir. Despite her own naïve adolescence, the second born daughter of the All-Mother Freyja repeatedly berates her new sovereign and his half-brother by calling them “Nitwits” and “idiot boys”, debatably making the Asgardian noblewoman’s ‘holier than thou’ personality increasingly dislikeable as the narrative progresses. Furthermore, these speeches prove surprisingly poorly penned when compared to Gronbekk’s genuinely emotional ending, in which she has Thor warmly reminiscing over Odin’s bedtime stories with a respectful Jane Foster; “He was not the King in those moments. He was our father. And we would never let Ostegompen find his way back home because we knew it would mean the story would end.”

The regular cover art of "THOR" #35 by Nic Klein