348. Thor vol 1 Annual 10 ... Marvel ...

Now, for something a little different, we are going to tackle Thor's (I know, I know, we did his reviews not that long ago but bear with me for a sec) Annuals ... yup in the past we have been reviewing regular issues of ongoing and limited series. But this and next review is on Annuals

Firstly, check out that cover. Admittedly, it conveyed the tale within. However, we believe in this case, it could have been much better and am not sure if the inking is insufficient or the penciller was not that tight. Colouring ... you cannot fault it

But fear not because the contents inside more than do justice to this cover because it doesn't let down for within these pages ... we have the god-eater!  Now before you think me a huge fan of Thor, while I like big slugfests, somehow I never collected Thor except via back issues ... and only during Simonson's run

So the villain is a surprise to me. However, the writer of this issue did it justice because in the opening pages, we actually have the entire origins of how the villain or rather in this case, the opponent came to me ... how he was created in the early days of the world to bring a cleansing when the planet was corrupted with too many demi-gods ... and how he had been away for eons since

Then why is he back? Well ... greed is the reason for you see Mephisto and a team of rulers who oversee the underworld has had a meeting of minds, so to speak and debated the fact that individually, they all rule over a minute aspect of creation ... with some weakening as the believers of their faith fast vanish from Earth ... so they sought to consolidate their presence by breaking the barriers between each other's realm ... only this is one spell of summoning that is beyond anything even they know and before they realized it, they have released Atum, the God-Eater!

As the cover tells it, we know that it will soon be Thor and his legions turn to do battle and what a magnificent battle it is. Similar to our review of Namor, this writer did not cop out and let Thor and his people get consumed by Atum! Yup, defeated and eaten alive! Now that's a rocking good read and as for the escape, we leave it up to you to read the actual comic, eh?

Ratings: 6/10