Original Sin: Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm

by Al Ewing and Jason Aaron

[inlibrisveritas]

The Thor and Loki story arcs for the Original Sin event were sort of a let down. Thor has always been a title to hold it's own in terms for story, with only a few instances where an outside story event affected your knowledge of what was happening. Loki started out this way, but Original Sin marks the starting point where his story becomes a mere companion piece...and that's sort of upsetting.

Thanks to the death of The Watcher heroes and villains a like are now dealing with hard to swallow truths about themselves, and Thor and Loki are no exception. They are given the info that they have a sister and thus they embark to the closed off Tenth Realm to find her. Angela, is an Angel Assassin...or so she thought until her world is changed by the knowledge that she is actually Asgardian, with whom the entirety of Angel kind hate. I enjoyed the over all storyline with Angela and the Angels. I like the representation of the angels as fighters, or more precisely mercenaries, who expect payment in some form. I loved how Loki and Thor choose to deal with them...though Loki is more of the push in this one and enjoyed the overall outcome.

However I had several issues with this one. The art style changes quite a bit at times, and toward the middle it becomes so sketchy and stylized it became visually unappealing. I can see the sort of art style they might have been shooting for but I just thought it looked messy and under detailed. Also the major event in Thor's current storyline, which takes place in the Original Sin event, is not even mentioned in this...not a single trace of it. It's all the in the main story arc, and I had no intention of purchasing every single Original Sin comic that came out.

So while it's not a solid piece that I would recommend to anyone who was interested in Original Sin (stick the main arc or wikipedia the entire thing), I did enjoy it for what it was.