As I worked my way through this collection, my initial impression was a great big, meh. Most of the stories in this book are loose reinterpretations of the original Norse myths. And one over-riding theme of them all is that NONE of the characters are likeable. Thor is not the noble hero fighting for justice on behalf of the innocent. He's a spoiled, arrogant bully who enjoys the death and destruction of battle; son of a cruel, despotic king. Loki is still the trickster, but most of the time he's just a punching bag for Odin's brutality. Sif is nowhere to be found. Further, these tales have already been re-imagined many times over in Thor comics over the years, and to better effect. What saved this collection was the final story: The Death and Life of Skurge the Executioner. This story is easily five stars.

The final story tells the tale of Skurge, who many readers will recognize as the companion of the Enchantress in comics and cartoons. Here, he is the center of a tale that crosses over several realities. What brought this story to the level of brilliance is how those realities are represented - by a drastic change in art as our heroes follow the disturbance to its source. We see Thor, Loki and Balder drawn as they have appeared throughout the years. This includes a section recreated to look like Kirby's original tales, right down to Loki's golden scaled briefs and Thor's bright blue leggings! Another section has Lady Loki and Thor with his chained mail look. It is one of the best uses of art to further a story that I have ever seen, and the cause of the problem was a bit of a surprise.

Initially, I had planned to give this collection two stars, but the final story was so good it was worth the purchase all by itself. So, I decided upon four stars. Recommended. ( )

Want my one-word review? Here it is:

"Meh."

This really doesn't deserve two stars. But it's just not quite dreadful enough to rate only one. It almost was, but there was a slightly interesting section towards the end where they did some mildly amusing playing around with different art styles.

But in a fractional system, this one would get 1.51 stars at best. Ponderous, annoying, stupid characters and plots...it really felt like a throwback to the old days, when most comic books were being written for an audience of slightly dim-witted young teens. With a bit of extra confusion thrown in for pseudo "depth". ( )

I like when Thor is Viking Jerk Thor and I like when they make the mythology stuff work. The Mike Allred story weirds me out. ( )