Thor and the Warriors Four starts on a down note: one of the Power kids' grandmothers is dying. Katie doesn't really understand the problem, Jack's angry, Alex is struggling to look after them and be realistic, and Julie's in, I guess bargaining.
Which is where the book of Norse Myths a helpful nurse just happened to give Julie comes in. She gets the idea they just need to travel to Asgard and ask for one of Idunn's Golden Apples, and their grandmother will be fine. An abrupt (and oddly convenient) team-up with the Pet Avengers against the saddled Asgardian wolves offers a way to reach Asgard. Then a helpful old man, who needs one of the apples for his ailing wife, helps them out with clothes that disguise the fact they're mortals, even from Heimdall.
It's unclear how long the kids are in Asgard, as this all seems to take place in the span of one night on Earth, but they develop a reputation as the "Warriors Four" for being very helpful around Asgard. When they even help Thor and Beta Ray Bill fight a frost giant, Thor agrees to ask Odin for one of the apples.
At which point all the Asgardians turn into babies, offering the Gurihiru art team ample opportunities to draw cute stuff, which they are very good at. Beta Ray Bill de-ages too, I guess because of the enchantment on Stormbreaker? The helpful old man shows up to guide them to the path to the apples, Julie, Jack and Katie retrieve the apples, defeating Ratatoskr (called "Ratatosk" here) in the process, over five years before Ryan North used the Norse Squirrel of Mischief in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
Loki's really fallen on hard times if he's gloating about outsmarting a group of grieving children. As usual, Loki didn't think things through, and the gods beginning to age to what their years are brings about unexpected consequences. Like Ragnarok. Loki gets his at the end, but I think Zalben missed out not letting at least one of the Power kids give Loki a good sock in the kisser.
Zalben uses the kids' desperation to save their grandmother to drive the conflicts. There's a bit about Alex and Julie disagreeing about magic and science, whether a gold apple can actually give immortality, but it's written so it feels like a defensive reaction and Alex trying to be the older sibling. He doesn't want to get their hopes up (or his own), and to keep them out of danger, so he tries to talk them out of it, to dismiss the possibility anything can be done. Julie's willing to take the risk, take almost any risk, to try and save her grandmother. If that means believing in magic, fine. If that means stealing the apples, fine.
Zalben keeps up the adversarial relationship between Katie and Jack for comedic effect here, with Jack hogging credit for Katie's victory over Ratatosk, and Katie describing her brother to a doctor as 'having dark and is mean.' That, plus Katie's fascination with Beta Ray Bill, or "Thorse", and the various baby hijinks keep things from getting too depressing.
Each issue also has a back-up story written and drawn by Colleen Coover, about Hercules taking over babysitting Power Pack for Johnny Storm, and keeping them entertained by telling about the 12 Labors he undertook to prove himself to Hela. There's also a brief fight with HYDRA (the terrorist group, not the multi-headed mythological beast) when they try to steal some of Dr. Power's science stuff.
2 comments:
That last bit does make me wonder if Hercules has fought HYDRA more often. It seems fitting that he should.
I wonder what Herc would make of their devotion to their horrible cause. Probably some Ancient Greek equivalent. I feel like the power disparity is a little much. HYDRA can't handle Captain America or Wolverine; Hercules seems out of their league unless they can get him drunk first.
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