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Marvel’s next big comic event is finally here…The War of the Realms! If you’re a little unsure about what War of the Realms is then fear not as I’ll be explaining exactly what this event entails as well as giving you my thoughts on the events debut issue. An epic battle for Midgard…otherwise known as earth involving the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, and so many more heroes. Strap yourselves in because this is going to be a BIG one!
The War of the Realms issue #1 is written by Jason Aaron with artwork from Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson and, Joe Sambino and is coming out of Jason Aaron’s recent Thor run but is still very much a Marvel Universe story. Malekith, the king of the dark elves is raging war across the ten realms conquering each one. Now only Midgard better known to us mortals as Earth remains. With Malekith amassing an almighty force of Frost Giants, Fire Goblins, War Angels, Ogres and of course his Dark Elf assassins it’s down to the heroes of Earth to defend the last surviving realm. Like all large scale events, the stakes are huge, the battles are of epic proportions and the number of characters to keep up with is astounding but thankfully it never felt overwhelming. Even if you aren’t caught up with Thors latest run you can come into War of the Realms completely blind and you’ll understand it fairly well, mainly thanks to the issues opening explanation which sets the stage nicely. The issue itself moved fairly quickly from the start, in order to set up the 2nd and 3rd acts but it was really heartwarming to see some time made for a tribute to Stan Lee. Rest in Peace Stan.
We move from Asgard to earth to Jotunheim very quickly and for newer comics fan this could be a little jarring but I never had any real problems with it. We finally rest on earth and see glimpses of various Marvel heroes all preparing for what they know is about to come. Spider-Man is used to great effect in this part of the issue not only for some great comic relief but also to help keep it feeling grounded.
The 3rd act is an all-out action set piece with heroes of all calibers battling Malekiths forces. From the likes of Punisher and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen to the Avengers and the Sorcerer Supreme and even some of the heroes of Asgard including Thor’s own mother Lady Freyja, it seems like everyone is joining in the fight. Seeing all these heroes battle the likes of Frost Giants and Orges was really sweet and was made even better by the epic artwork. Again with so much happening all at once and with so many characters newer readers may get lost in it all but I found it just fine. This is at its heart a Thor story and so he and Loki are the main characters at least for the start of the issue. Thor then takes a back seat close to the end but his brother Loki does not, leading to a cliffhanger I genuinely didn’t see coming. Obviously, with Loki, you can never really believe what you see but either way, it got me extremely excited for issue #2.
War of the Realms #1 is a pretty solid start off to Marvel’s next big comic event. The action was great, and whilst some characters only got minor background roles, which is to be expected, the characters that did get a spot in the limelight were fantastic. You absolutely don’t have to read up on previous issues to understand War of the Realms but if you’re new to these large scale comic events you might want to do a bit of reading up on things before you dive in. Or just dive in head first and stare in awe at the epic battles. The choice is yours.
Characters
We’ll only be talking about characters that have some substantial parts to play in the issue here, so as cool as Iron Man, She-Hulk, and Captain Marvel are they won’t be explored in detail here. We’ll start off with our 2 main characters, the Asgardian brothers. Thor felt fairly standard here. As soon as he learns of Malekiths plans he goes straight to him and starts smashing things up with his hammers. Yes, I said hammers plural. He’s removed from the fight on earth and so we don’t see too much of him after the first act.
Loki is definitely seen more than his adopted brother but looking at just this issue alone he doesn’t do a whole lot until near the end. He used as a great plot device at the start which, without giving too much away, demonstrated Malekiths powers brilliantly. Near the end, we see him again playing up to his anti-hero role helping his mother out. I enjoyed what I did see of Loki in this issue and we definitely haven’t seen the last of him yet so I’m interested to see what direction they take him in the future.
Spiderman was the only hero of Earth which got some decent time to himself. He’s full of quips and jokes and his back and fourths with the Asgardians currently staying on earth made for some great laughs. He gets sidelined a little once the rest of the heroes show up but he was still enjoyable.
Now, the big bad of War of the Realms…Malekith. He’s an abstract character which you might not know much about. Not only is he the king of the Dark Elves and a fierce warrior but he wields powerful Dark Elf magic and is shown off in this issue to be fairly intelligent when tricking Thor. Malekith comes across as a genuine threat to our heroes, mainly due to his huge armies but still, I’m excited to see him in the future. The same can not be said about his comrades, unfortunately. Malekith is accompanied by the likes of Enchantress, Sinder, Queen of Heaven and a few other baddies but most of them do absolutely nothing. A real shame but with an already crowded issue there doesn’t seem enough room to fit them in.
Artwork
The entire comic has this beautiful Asgardian feel to it. From the lettering done by Joe Sambino to the overall look of the monsters and magical beasts that invade earth the whole issue has a fairy tale type vibe to it which I really enjoyed. There are some truly epic double-page spreads here showing off all the monsters which have come to take Midgard with the Dark Elves and Frost Giants standing out the most to me. With a story all about war, it was crucial that the action here looks great and thankfully it does.
War of the Realms issue #1 is a great way to kick off this event with something for all kinds of Marvel fans to love. It may move a little too quick for some but personally, I didn’t have any trouble keeping up plus, it ends on a cliffhanger which is sure to keep fans anticipated until issue #2 releases. If you’ve caught up on Marvels latest comic event let us know your thoughts on War of the Realms #1 down below or over on Twitter.
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