Exclusive Preview: ANGELA ASGARD'S ASSASSIN #2

ANGELA ASGARD'S ASSASSIN #2

(W) Kieron Gillen, Marguerite Bennett (A) Phil Jimenez, Stephanie Hans (CA) Stephanie Hans

• What on Earth has made runaway Angela return to grimy old Earth?

• Is it fighting? It's probably fighting. It's usually fighting. You know what she's like.

• (Spoilers: It's not fighting. More spoilers: it does involve fighting, but she honestly wasn't planning it, no, really, honest.)

Rated T+

Item Code: NOV140777 In Shops: 1/7/2015 SRP: $3.99

What's with Thor and him beating on woman this month? First Angela and then in a few weeks in Thor #4 his female replacement. Odinson better chill or he is going to end up on a Cops rerun!

Sooo, what exactly does her comically large belt hold up??

@the_stegman: The power of imagination.

Demon heads. She places them there while finishing a multiple target hunt so she can return them in later for the bounty price.

@the_stegman: Guess you could say it....holds your attention. badum tiss

@dernman: You serious? Cause if so...I can actually see her doing that.

Hilarious!

nah just made it up on the spot :p

@the_stegman: It suspends disbelief.

@the_stegman: I thought it was to hold her sword.

Brilliant Idea, Marvel. Have the guy who can't even fight off Frost Giants without losing an arm take on an angelic assassin who used to kill hellspawn for a living.

And to think he also has fight his replacement this month as well.

dat variant. Love this book.

Keep in mind he hadn't slept, ate or rested for a while. He had been on the moon trying to lift Mjolnir when the attacks with the Frost Giants occurred and the subsequent loss of his appendage.

@zarathos022: Also, take note that Thor bought backup and actually wants to fight this time.

@idontlikebirds: Keep in mind that, being a god, that he really has no need for either food or sleep.

This book, I adore it.

@guardiandevil83: And you should take note that Thor couldn't even beat Angela when he was worthy of his hammer. And if Thor at his best couldn't take Angela down, then I seriously doubt that, he, Sif, and the Warriors Three combined will have any luck either.

Sorry chief, but no one is going to conivince me that this or the 4th issue of Aaron's abomination are going to show Thor in a positive light. Anyone who thinks that Thor is going to be able to put up a decent fight in either one of these "comics" is deluding himself/herself.

@zarathos022: Well said. Thor still looks cooler now than he ever did in his original costumes though. Lol

I agree, I am one of Thor's biggest fans- all modesty aside- a Thorrior through & through- but I can't stand how they're portraying Thor right now. I had hopes for Angela but this preview dashed them, I HATE how they're portraying Thor right now. One of the most honorable warriors & heroes not just in the MU, but in all mythology, & they freakin' treat him like this? Back in the day, Thor wouldn't fight a woman, even if he had good reasons to. For example, Amora & Lorelei. Look at all the crap they put him through, & he never struck them, not once. Thor even once refused to fight Storm in the 2nd Contest of Champions, showing true chivalry, & took her out of the fight with a kiss.(A little known power.) Not a blow struck. Now they're having Thor fight Angela(again) & his female replacement/ID thief. Not to mention all the other humiliations. Well, I'm done with this book too. When the real, true, heroic & noble Thor returns & gets back the respect he deserves, I'll be back too. But I won't endure him being Marvel's whipping boy & this horrible characterization. Why can't we have an awesome, epic, kick-ass Thor like the one we saw earlier this week, in the A:AoU promo? It may be the MCU, but that is the best Thor image I've seen in a long time. Until the worm turns, looks like I may have to turn to the MCU for modern-day Thor- everything else, the back issues of awesome Thor runs by people like Simonson, Jurgens, Fraction & even Straczynski who knew how to write Thor as the iconic, epic, honorable Avenger he should be will be what I'm reading. Just the opinion of a long-time Thor fan tired of seeing one of his favorite characters turned into a whipping boy by editorial & writers more interested in shock value than a good story.

Ugh, the way they're writing Thor as a bully is rude.

@winter_kills: Well said, sir. Well said. And speaking of the MCU; you would think that, given that another movie featuring Thor is coming out this summer, that Marvel would help promote that by showing Thor as the badass he once was instead this one-armed butt monkey who's not even worthy of his own birth name let alone his hammer that they've turned him into.

And for those of you who think I'm being hyperbolic by saying that Thor is a butt monkey, let me ask you this: What would you call a hero who was stripped of his powers and his name all because of a damn whisper, got recently overpowered by enemies he used to dispatch with ease and maimed with his own alternate weapon by said enemies, and now has to fight not only a character who has beaten him before when he was at his best, but also the poser who now has his powers, weapon, and identity?

love love the art for this series. PHIL JIMENEZ!!!!!! so the baby is the child of freyja and odin? don't recall her being pregnant but then again: GODS. Athena was born fully grown so why not?

Exactly. That's not the Thor I know. And I'm very disappointed in Kieron Gillen for writing this- he once wrote an awesome Thor(Latverian Prometheus, etc.), & his awesome JiM run- now he's joining Aaron & company in writing Thor, Sif & the Warriors Three is such an ignoble fashion. It angers me how they can portray one of the most honorable warriors & characters in the Marvel universe as a bully. What's next, they gonna have Cap punching a kitten? Oh, I forgot, the real Cap is drained of the serum & an old man(which is not how the serum works), & Tony Stark is now a self-absorbed jerk. The trifecta. Marvel's Big Three & they're all screwed up at once, but Thor is getting the absolute worst of it. This portrayal is sickening & an insult to all Thor fans. It's rude, an insult, & disrespectful, & the way Aaron & Thor editorial have been handling the whole situation with fans who have a RIGHT to be upset is just as rude. They don't respect the character, or long-time fans. Just precious "new readers" instead of those who have read Thor through thick & thin since they could read, up until they pulled this crap.

Totally agreed my friend & fellow Thorrior. This whole thing is just snowballing, one huge snowball of crap, rolling over the character of Thor & the long-time fans of Thor the HERO, the CHARACTER, not just the concept. As I said above, I'm sick of the disrespect to the character & his mythos, & the disrespect given to fans who have the RIGHT to speak out about it. Like fans like me & you are just supposed to agree & nod or head & buy this crap & eat it up wit a spoon just because the book's got Thor's name on it, & Aaron's supposed to be the "Thor masta". Please. I've got one thing to say to that:

I'll speak out about this until the crap is over, & I won't be silenced. Just like you bud, you're just showing people how freakin' crazy this is to do this to not only one of the most iconic characters in Marvel history & comics history, but also in all mythology. I agree, with Thor having what appears to be a bad ass presence in A:AoU, Thor Ragnarok being touted as one of the films that will change the landscape of the MCU, & the guy playing him happens to have been recently voted the sexiest man alive(& I know many women who agree with that assertion), you would think that Marvel would be doing everything to capitalize on this. I believe that they will, in time. They have to build up for the Secret War mega-event, which will lead to a soft reboot, & I think we'll see Thor, Cap & many other heroes returned to their iconic states, & have a MU closer to the MCU as a result. Also, even before then, people will be clamoring for Thor- the REAL Thor- after A2, & the sales on the new book start to drop after the PR shock value of it starts to fade & She-Thor's ID is revealed. At some point, Marvel will capitalize on that, & regardless Aaron & Thor editorial will have to give in to their bosses. I see it happening right now. Every time I go out in public with a Thor shirt, people talk about how cool he is. When I ask them what they think about the comic right now, they all agree it sucks. Every time I talk to comic fans outside the 'vine, & ask their opinion, they hate it. Everyone at my LCS despises it. The ones that were buying the book dropped it, inc. me. The female readers they want to attract? I know quite a few who are pissed because the sexy Thor they know & love(their words, not mine) is mangled & replaced by a poser. Just today I was in a Wal-Mart where a lil' boy was looking for a Thor helmet & hammer, & he was talking about how he wanted to be him. And over the Christmas holiday I saw many people looking for merchandise featuring the real Thor. This shows me that their lil' experiment isn't working. It won't last. Aaron & company better enjoy this lil' ride of theirs while it lasts, because the time is coming when the demand for the REAL Thor will be more than they can ignore. And it is coming faster than they like to admit.

Yeah, Jimenez has some great art, gotta give credit where credit is due. He isn't responsible for Thor's portrayal. Anyway, about the baby, it was a subplot mentioned towards the end of Fraction's run, that Freyja(still want to call her Frigga) was pregnant with Odin's child. For a long while the plot was dropped & not really mentioned(that's why it seems kinda out of left field, it has been quite awhile ago since the pregnancy revelation), guess they decided to pick it back up again. I find it weird that Odin & Freyja are able to have a child at their current age, since they are like over 5000 years old or such. But, like you said, gods. Hope that helped to clear up a bit about the baby though.

@winter_kills: thanks it did clear things up and i must have sped read that issue cause i so dont remember that at all. they so must have forgot about it cause they never mentioned it again or showed her pregnant and based on past issues of other god characters they do tend to at least have the appearance of a pregnant human if not the same gestation time.

@perfect_10:

Yeah, I forgot about it for awhile, honestly, until I was going back & re-reading some pre-Aaron Thor about a month ago, & I was like "hmm, completely dropped that thread." Now they've picked it back up again, lil surprised by it as just about everybody forgot about it, inc. people who bought Thor religiously(up until now, that is.) I think it was probably Gillen's idea, like I said he has been an excellent writer in the past, & the man never leaves dangling plot threads. Maybe he can use it in a interesting & creative way. (I loved his run on Thor & JiM.) Really the only thing I take issue with here is going with this AWFUL portrayal of Thor as some glowering, axe-wielding bully- I had hoped Gillen would work around that & at least have his personality like the heroic, noble Thor he wrote, but maybe his hands are tied by the editorial that are pushing this direction for some idiotic reason. (Sorry, went into rant mode a bit there lol) But glad I could clear the baby issue up a bit; this is one of those rare cases of a forgotten thread being revived & something actually coming out of it.

@winter_kills: isnt it understandable for thor to be the way he is? i mean put yourself in his shoes. he lost his hammer the main source of his powers (although dont say that to the people in axis cause SOMEHOW he summoned lightning without the hammer in the final issue), lost his hand, lost his name, found a long lost sister who pretty much hates him, he really has no love life to speak of, plus all the drama with axis and the avengers, there is a LOT going on. and to us many months has past so we can say "he should be over it" but in the marvel u not as much time has passed and some people take YEARS to get over devastating events

@perfect_10:

True, in-universe he has been through a lot of crap. I'd probably be pretty pissed too, & I'm a normal, even-tempered guy, so I can imagine how pissed an Asgardian warrior would be. In-universe being pissed like he is makes sense, but some of the things that have led to this point don't make sense even in-universe. The whole whisper boosha making him unworthy, losing his arm to Malekith, a foe he has had no trouble defeating in the past, it just seems so forced to me. Like it shouldn't have happened, at all. I dunno,, Thor's always been, & always gonna be, one of my favorite characters, I just feel he's getting massive disrespect, IMO. And the disrespect comes from Aaron & Thor editorial, even aimed at people like me that are peeved by what's being done to one of their favorite characters, & have a right to be. Who are basically written off by them for constructive criticism. (Yeah, there are extreme cases I know, where people go into major rants, that's not how you do it. Make the criticisms intelligent & not sounding like a ranting madman. But those who take that approach are scoffed at or written off.) I feel Thor's pain I guess you could say; I don't mean to turn into a rant or anything, but I just feel Thor has been turned into Marvel's whipping boy, as I've said above & many times, when they should be capitalizing on the success of the character; his presence in films, a BIG one upcoming, a future solo film that will be a MCU game-changer, a great comic run(with a few lows here & there, which is natural in comics, at least up until the end of the run) with T:GOT that even made non-Thor fans Thor fans; becoming more of a household name than ever before. Plus the love of Norse mythology/inspiration going on with movies, shows & video games like Vikings, WoW, Skyrim, Game of Thrones, & everything Tolkien, you'd think Marvel would capitalize on all of this, with him being THEIR epic hero with all the great Norse mythology wrapped in a badass super-powered warrior & thunder god, instead of tearing him down in ways that, once again, in an old Thor fan's opinion, is disrespectful of the character & his fans. I know the worm will turn at some point, but this downslide on Thor & his portrayal is ridiculous. It is the first time I have dropped the book, ever. And that's going back to the late 80's. But, just gotta ride the storm out I guess.

@winter_kills: like you im a big thor fan, he was my most anticipated marvel film when the films were announced which is part of the reason i cant get behind them. love loki but thats it. they made gods into aliens, magic into tech, just cant get behind that mess. im a magic guy and in my world magic RULES. so i get where you are coming from and i dont know what their ultimate goal is with the new thor and what they are doing with stripping thor down as they are, only time will tell but i honestly have no problems with it...for now. i dont like things dragged out and in two years time if he is still this way i will be jumping on your bandwagon. but i like the new costume, arm and loved the axe since it popped up in uncanny avengers. im interested to see how all this plays out including "what the heck did nick say". that and the identity of the new thor is being dragged out waaaaay too long for me and i doubt the payoff will warrant the long wait

@perfect_10:

Totally agreed with you there. I understand what you mean about magic- I'm the same way. Two things I love, is cosmic & magic, & Thor the comic provided both. I truly wish we could see more of that magic in the MCU, because that's what it is, magic. Asgard is magic, not some blending of super-science & magic. Asgardians themselves are pure mystical power(as described by Doom himself) They are supernatural beings with power beyond explanation that were deified, not aliens. Born from the lineage of Buri, who was created by Gaea. The alien thing always bugged me too. I hope that the Dr. Strange movie opens the door for magic in the MCU, the same way GOTG opened the door for cosmic in the MCU. I would LOVE to see that applied to Thor, having Loki & even Odin cut loose with the magic power & sorcery that is at their disposal, I mean, that is their very essence, the very essence of Asgard, my big complaints with the movies( besides not letting Thor fully cut loose as we know he can). I hope Dr. Strange rectifies that, & magic is firmly established in the MCU, which not only the Thor films could benefit from, but a whole host of mystical characters could be brought in. (Daimon Hellstrom, Satana, Sister Grimm, Brother Voodoo, the list goes on & on lol) Man, I'd be a happy guy then, getting both the cosmic & mystical aspects explored on-screen. (And they talk about Enchantress being in the movies - honestly, how can you use Amora in the movies if you don't use magic? Like Loki, she's all about magic!) I also feel the "ancient alien"/other-dimensional approach limits them in using other characters & concepts like the Valkyrie, Valhalla, Hela, Hel & Niffleheim, which are so important to the lore.

And I know what you mean about this whole storyline in the comics dragging out- I feel like that's what's going to happen, at least until the end of the big mega-event Secret Wars. And as you said I doubt the payoff will warrant the long wait, but the soft reboot I feel like is coming after SW will deal with that. I agree with you on Thor's look though(besides the arm, I definitely want his arm back), I hope when the REAL Thor does return, he keeps the beard & braids(always liked bearded Thor, going back to Simonson & during Jurgens' run, & it would be closer to Nordic mythology), & that he wields BOTH Mjolnir & Jarnbjorn, using them both as the badass warrior & thunder god we know him to be.

@winter_kills: couldnt have said it better myself lol. you're cool in my book :)

@perfect_10:

You rock in my book, too!

Cool to find another lover of magic in comicdom!