Midgard And Asgard Strike Back In War Of The Realms #3
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Freyja is coordinating the counterattack against Malekith and his allies. The heroes of Asgard and Earth must capture the Black Bifrost, save Thor, and try to slow the advance of Malekith’s forces across Midgard. Also, they need the Bifrost active again, and, to that end, Heimdall grants his sword, Hofund, to the Earth hero Daredevil. The Man Without Fear is now the guardian and operator of the Bifrost Bridge. Three groups of Avengers go out to complete Freyja’s mission, with Freyja leading the attack on the Black Bifrost, Captain America leading the Thor rescue mission, and Captain Marvel taking a group of War Avengers back to Earth. The new All-Mother Jane Foster must watch over the Bifrost in their absence, and Black Panther defends Avengers Mountain.
War of the Realms #3 finds our heroes beginning their counteroffensive against Malekith with a multi-pronged operation intended to cripple Malekith’s brutal onslaught upon Midgard.
Even more so than last issue, this comic is trying to set up the spin-off comics to come, particularly the Strike Force and War Scrolls issues. That said, even the three teams that are clearly setting up the Strike Force mini at least have their mission and objective more-or-less summarized in this issue.
Tone issues are present too, and some of the one-liners do disrupt the flow of the drama.
Also, I am a little annoyed that every issue of War of the Realms is $4.99 US.
There is a little bit of continuity confusion regarding Venom, but, despite my love of the character, I’m personally not that bothered by it.
Russell Dauterman continues to prove himself the artistic powerhouse we all knew him to be. Each page is dripping with personality and detail, and Matthew Wilson’s color art keeps the pages popping and the tone compelling. The only complaint is that, for all the action in War of the Realms #3, not a lot of it is explicitly shown on the page and is instead implied. For a big Thor-centric blowout like this, it would be better if the reader was shown more of it in the panel. More collisions, less swinging at something off-panel.
War of the Realms #3 is another entertaining issue, with the heroes of Asgard and Midgard uniting for a counterattack to save the Ten Realms. The tone and pacing are far from perfect, but the comic has enough to offer as to remain fairly enjoyable. This one gets a recommendation. Feel free to check it out.
War of the Realms #3 comes to us from writer Jason Aaron, artist Russell Dauterman, color artist Matthew Wilson, letterer VC’s Joe Sabino, cover artist Arthur Adams with Matthew Wilson, and variant cover artists Giuseppe Camuncoli with Elia Bonetti, Marco Checchetto, Victor Hugo, Sean Izaakse with Edgar Delgado and Mike Hawthorne, Heejin Jeon, Greg Horn, and Billy Tan, Haining, and Gadson of Tan Comics.
