The Mighty Thor #445 - Marvel Comics

THE MIGHTY THOR No. 445, March 1992

For those Thunder God fans not following the New York City-based publisher’s “Operation: Galactic Storm” multi-title event, Tom DeFalco’s opening to Issue Four Hundred and Forty Five of “The Mighty Thor” probably brought them bang up to speed with past incidents, courtesy of some fast-paced dialogue and a momentary “spacequake!” Indeed, the American author sets out this twenty-two page periodical’s stall rather nicely, and soon throws his audience into a truly titanic tussle between two of the Avengers’ strongest members and a disagreeably arrogant Gladiator; “For the safety and security of my people, I cannot suffer this interloper to live!”

One of this comic’s biggest draws however, is arguably the uncertainty surrounding Eric Masterson’s place within the supergroup’s roster, and his lack of belief at successfully wielding Mjolnir. This internal struggle really lies at the very heart of “The War And The Warrior!” by depicting Ron Frenz’s co-creation as battling both his own inner doubts and demons, as well as the formidable superhuman strength of the Shi'ar Empire’s egotistical Praetor of the Imperial Guard.

Likewise, there’s arguably a fair amount of satisfaction to be had in this book’s later stages by witnessing the utterly insufferable Kallark getting his clock well and truly cleaned by the titular character. Admittedly, some bibliophiles may well point out that the extra-terrestrial probably didn’t deserve the death which the new Thunder God momentarily had in mind for him - having allowed his towering rage to blind him from sound reasoning. But the Gladiator definitely deserves a good beating bearing in mind he completely refuses to listen to a surprisingly reasonable Wonder Man in the first instance, and then goes on to covertly conclude that Masterson must be executed immediately due to the human having too much power for the extra-terrestrial’s grand civilisation to permit.

Undeniably imbuing all this pulse-pounding pugilism with plenty of “KRAK!”, “TWAKK!” and “SPWATT!” are Patrick Olliffe’s pencils and Al Milgrom’s inks. Together, the duo make every punch thrown and hammer-blow landed reverberate within the readers’ minds, and help sell the notion that this tale features some seriously sturdy powerhouses trading shots with one another which would easily flatten an ordinary hero within mere moments.

Story: Tom DeFalco, Pencils: Patrick Olliffe, and Inks: Al Milgrom

Monica Rambeau: Photon #5 - Marvel Comics

MONICA RAMBEAU: PHOTON No. 5, June 2023

Simply consisting of one long, dialogue heavy conversation between the titular character and “the emotion-manipulating prince of desire, Starfox”, it’s highly unlikely many bibliophiles perusing Eve L. Ewing’s conclusion to this five-issue mini-series were particularly impressed with its storytelling. In fact, it's arguably quite clear early on in this twenty-page periodical that the American sociologist quickly ran out of plot and thus had to heavily rely upon artist Luca Maresca to pad the comic’s contents out to the required length with numerous wordless panels and splash-sized sketches.

Leading a disappointingly long list of concerns is that frustratingly none of what transpires within this sedentary tome debatably explains any of the title’s previously printed senseless shenanigans. All the audience are told is that one of the former Captain Marvel’s unreconciled aspirations has caused the galaxy to quite literally unfold before her eyes and only by accepting that she has already “done enough” as a super-hero will the Avenger mysteriously manage to right all the fractured multi-verses her apparent lack of focus created in the first place; “Everything appears frozen as it was at the moment just before you had your epiphany.”

Just why any of these problems occurred in the first place, or how they were supposedly connected to both the American author’s dislikeable “new incarnation of the Beyonder” and seemingly forgotten Stone of Hala, is entirely avoided. Indeed, considering that Ewing bemusing skips the scene where Rambeau explains the situation to Eros of Titan with an unsatisfying “few tense minutes later…” text box, some within this book’s audience will probably be thinking that the writer didn’t quite know the finer details of her own narrative herself.

Sadly, the aforementioned contribution by Italian illustrator Maresca doesn’t add that much extra to "Monica Rambeau: Photon" either - albeit the Graphics and Advertising Photography graduate’s pencilling is perfectly proficient. Foremost of these faults is the disconcerting redesign of the Beyonder and Starfox, which look absolutely nothing like their much more recognisable classic counterparts. Of course, some case can be made for these redesigns as they’ve been specifically caused by Photon’s ill-fated influence upon the cosmos. But the gaunt, vampiric Eternal genuinely appears more likely to drink Monica’s blood than help her save anything and coupled with this comic’s other problems just adds to the overall sense of dissatisfying disorder.

The regular cover art of "MONICA RAMBEAU" #5 by Lucas Werneck