WHOSOEVER HOLDS THIS HAMMER...
...if they be worthy, shall possess the power of...THOR. And what if...the Miles Morales of another universe was THOR, THE GOD OF THUNDER?!
RATED T
Zagaria offers some great visuals throughout the issue. I like the visual mix of Asgard and Brooklyn and some of the small things like the Bifrost being the Brooklyn Bridge. Read Full Review
This is one for fans of Miles Morales and Thor to read but also expect that is going to be a different version of the character for both of them. Read Full Review
Yehudi Mercado gets the distinction of writing the best issue of What IfMiles Morales, giving us a version of Thor unlike anything ever seen in the pages of Marvel Comics. Read Full Review
It's an interesting version of the Thor tale from a teenage perspective. This is filled with odd use of language and perspective but it does still hold the reader's interest. The art is a typical house style but absolutely does not look like Miles Morales at any moment in the story. Why the creators agreed to be a part of a Miles Morales series when they clearly don't know his voice or look is perplexing. Their skills may be better off with other heroes and other books. This issue casts a pall over the entire series. If the use of Miles is less about his character and understanding who he is in new contexts then the series falls apart entirely and becomes a vapid stunt. Read Full Review
There isn't much constructive that can be said about this fourth issue of the overall weak multiversal What If series that has been given to Miles Morales. Egregious racial stereotypes, complete washing out of every character of color's personality as they cosplay as white Asgardians, and painful dialogue alongside art that is okay when it's not playing into racial tropes. Read Full Review
Ah, finally!
If you've seen my previous "What if Miles Morales..." reviews, you might remember I thought the first 3 installments were rather underwhelming. And Miles as Thor sounded like an attempt to make things even worse.
Now while this issue probably isn't everybody's cup of Warriors Beverage (prune juice?) it was so for me. While still being a completely ridiculous concept, it didn't shy away from that, but totally embraced it in a really fun way.
In short: not for everyone, truly ridiculous, great fun, recommended! (And an unexpected plot twist to boot!)
What a force of unity! All readers -- young and old, white and black, queer and straight, progressive and conservative -- can come together in agreement here and say in one voice: This dialogue *sucks*.
But aside from the disaster of the prose, I was quite impressed. It's a daring gamble, executed with joy and skill. The bet loses hard on the dialogue, but I think it succeeds (to varying levels) on every other front.
The art's smooth, polished, and great at storytelling. The plot and character developments are all at least decent, with some of them spiking higher. And the effort invested in mapping Miles's cast onto Asgard really paid off for me. I'd love to see more of this AU -- without the eye-rolling rhymes.
This issue, divorced from intention on the part of the creators, is a bit racist. I don't know much about the creators, where they grew up, that sort of thing. But I can easily see this as an example of someone trying their best to tell a story that a marginalized community would appreciate, but not having the skill, talent or forethought to recognize when they just fall into offensive stereotypes and parody. I'm not surprised this issue made it through editorial, and I'm not surprised at the reaction to it. It's just not good.
Typical WHAT IF...MILES MORALES garbage. It's boring, not interesting, stupid and maybe even insulting. I mean, this series was literally meant for african-american people, but I don't believe at least some of them could enjoy so many graffiti on everything. It feels really racist. And sneakers... The setting is dumb here, african-american people are everywhere, even frost giants. And Loki is suddenly Odin's adopted brother just to put here uncle Aaron again... My god, the Wolverine issue is still worse, but this issue is bad for its own reasons. I can't wait for the legendary team-up in the issue five...