This
small reader is geared towards young readers as a sort of primer. It contains a
couple of stories from the Marvel Adventures line; an all-ages imprint that I
just adore. It’s classic, wholesome and captures the Marvel Age of Comics
beautifully.
The first story gives a very good
introduction of the characters of Thor, his alter-ego Don Blake, his unrequited
love Jane Foster, as well as his father Odin and evil step-brother Loki. It
also gives a brief synopsis of Thor’s origin while also telling a very good and
action packed original story. I’ve read this story before and thanks to it
being both wonderfully written and dynamically drawn, I read it again. If a
parent came to me saying that their child wanted to get into Thor but did not
know where to start, I would select that tale and thus, this issue.
However, this reader does something that I
HATE- it has a cliffhanger. I mentioned earlier that this book had two stories.
Well, the second tale has Thor facing both and Ice Giant and a Fire Demon.
Unfortunately, before Thor can really get his thunder rolling, the story ends
with a “To Be Continued.” Even worse, the library doesn’t have volume 2, so I’ll
have to wait to see how this story unfolds.
I don’t think that tale originally was a
two-part story. The few pages printed were just too short. If this was Marvel’s
idea of gaining a younger audience for the God of Thunder, leaving the book
with a cliff-hanger wasn’t a smart idea. $4.99 is a lot for a child to pay for
a comic book-even if it is a primer. It’s even more of a stretch to expect that
child to A) be okay that their book ends with a cliff-hanger and B) expect that
child or mom and dad even to shell out another $5 plus tax for the second book.
Maybe I’m just a spend-thrift. But I think
parents should be aware of this. It just makes good dollars and sense to make
potential readers aware of such a format. Marvel, I suggest in the future
taking these matters into account if they truly want to engage and capture the
next generation of readers.
Worth
Consuming (but only for the first story!)
Rating:
7 out of 10 stars.
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