Thor #602

I get the impression that JMS is clearing the decks and re-setting Thor's pieces for the next creative team.

Thor finds out where Sif's essence is being stored in NYC in a dying woman. Thor is understandably desperate to get to her and seeks out Dr. Strange to help him get his hammer into working condition. Earlier in the issue the transformation from Don Blake to Thor knocked out Thor, so he needs this fixed pronto. Dr. Strange mumbles some hocus pocus about bonding Thor and Mjolnir and how any great damage to the hammer could kill Thor, but I can't imagine this is going to be a long-standing effect, it is too vague and hard to quantify. The bigger impact is that Thor had to imbue much of his Odin-force into the hammer to fix it, so I assume Thor is back closer to his old power levels. The rest of the story deals with Baldur and his dealing's with Loki's machinations to bring the Asgardians to Latveria. Baldur is nobody's patsy though, and he reveals his true craftiness to the mortal William. I was pleased to see that no one has forgotten who they are dealing with in Loki. It also looks like Loki is back in his normal form, since Sif reappears as herself at the close of the issue. Again, it seems things are "mostly" back where they normally are, except that Odin is dead and Asgard is in Latveria. JMS has set up some nice ongoing conflicts during this run, but overall, I still prefer Thor doing more smashing than talking.

Marko Djurdjevic's pencils are somewhat inconsistent. Some of his panels look tremendous, and he does a wonderful job dealing with costumes, especially Thor. Some of his "normal" people look a little sketchier and the inks make some faces a bit lumpy.

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