Indie Comic Review: Magni the Mighty

Although it is very attractive to utilize in storytelling, ancient mythology can be tricky to adapt. It's been done so many times before that it's difficult to reach new ground. This is doubly true when it comes to Norse mythology and comic books as Marvel's Thor has dominated the scene. Magni manages to accomplish this by focusing on more obscure and lesser known characters. I consider myself a fan and student of Norse mythology and yet I have never heard of Thor's sons. So this story, its characters, and their adventure certainly sparks my interest.

Not only does the story gain an upper hand by focusing on real yet lesser known gods, it also gains another upper hand because of where the story starts. Ragnarok is a very enticing story to tell, so it's interesting to see a tale that's set right after Ragnarok is over. The gods are dead and Asgard is in ruins. This is the landscape we meet Magni in as his brother heads out to carve his own path. Meanwhile, Magni adopts his father's famous hammer and begins a Thor-like adventure to stop bad guys and save the day.

The issue I read was essentially broken up into two chapters. The first was a lot of setup as we were introduced to Magni and the situation he finds himself in. It was fairly slow paced, but the second half, which was primarily action, made up for that. When viewed together, this feels like an adventure on par with Marvel's Thor but with a different character and a totally different personality/setting. It was something new yet familiar. If anything, my main complaint was that we didn't get enough of the mythology. Ragnarok is such a big event that it can be disappointing not to hear anything about the particulars. The same goes for staple characters like Thor and Odin. But it's hard to cram everything into a first issue. Also, avoiding those familiar events/characters is kind of the point of doing something different. The art served the story nicely, and although though the letters had a bit more style than I was used to, it was seamless and professional. Since this appears as a long journey, it's hard to judge the story as a whole based on what I read, but it's definitely a great start, especially for fantasy and mythology lovers.