Journey Into Mystery 622

First, a warning: this has a big Fear Itself logo and the cover is designed like that crossover series, but it is far from obvious that there is any connection with that series at all. I dare say that since it is all Asgardian material, it could tie in, but it is not obvious or inevitable that it will.

I bought it not for that reason but because the recent X-Men 534.1 interested me in writer Kieron Gillen, and this increases my new very high opinion of him. In that X-Men comic he focussed on Magneto, doing a beautiful job of defining who he now is, where he is and what we might expect from him. In this, he does something similar for Loki, now resurrected (after dying in Siege) as a child. He makes him into a more interesting character here than I can ever recall before: brilliant, talented, very complex, powerful, with a precisely judged blend of chaotic risk-taking and genuinely cunning intelligence and planning. He also gives us plenty of magical moments along the way, young-Loki tracing through an absurdly complex series of clues to get into contact with some remnant-spirit of old-Loki. It’s not just compelling and intelligent narrative along the way, it tells us so much about a major character in a way that goes so far beyond the usual leaning over villain’s shoulders and giving them unsubtle nudges while leering. It also sets up someone who can be a much stronger and more exciting character in the future. It is all set-up stuff – no Loki plot starts here, so there is no knowing if the promise shown can be fulfilled, but I really want to follow it through to find out, and I can’t recall ever thinking that of Loki before, even in comics I’ve loved. This is outstanding writing on every level.

I’m not quite as keen on the art. Braithwaite’s rather painterly style strikes me as unexciting and sometimes lifeless, even a little muddy, but he does give us some good faces, and he lays out and paces one key scene just before the two Lokis meet with real strength. The colouring by Ulises Arreola adds to the muddiness, that same sequence and the subsequent use of green for the Loki-spirit being the only parts that had any force or impact.

Might be worth mentioning that, like Herc 1 recently, we also get eight pages of back-story material at the end, typeset text floating around too-tiny panel repros, but at least this is far better in layout and clarity of writing than was the case in Herc. It focusses on recent events of which I am mostly ignorant, and seemed genuinely informative, though it isn’t obvious how much of it I actually need to know for what is ahead.

I wonder if, as Thor gets his own title (one among several, what with the movie coming out) and this one gets retitled back nearly half a century, Loki will continue to be the focus here – the next issue ad suggests that. Whatever the case, I am now a big Gillen fan and will be back for more.