[***Light spoiler warning***] If I have a singular problem with this issue, it’s that Thor’s entire presence is consistently understated, which is typically not how I like my Thor written. It’s like ordering a cup of espresso and getting a cup of very well made Maxwell House. He’s elegant. He knocks down a wall. But he feels like a supporting cast member to Doom’s big show, which is probably why the final scene in Thor #605 wasn’t nearly as impressive storywise as it was visually.
The flipside of this whole situation is that Kieron Gillen writes as masterful a Dr. Doom as anyone I can remember in recent years. He’s nearly Shakespearean in his articulation, he’s malevolent, and he always keeps his cool.
The plot is a by-the-numbers Marvel story with recognizable ingredients and characters and no real surprises, but Billy Tan’s art keeps every page thumping. He’s come a long way since he was one of Marvel’s Young Guns. I do wish there’d been some effort to mix up the visuals after the Destroyer armor reveal, though. I counted three separate occurrences of Thor’s head being held under its foot, including the next-issue tease on the last page (which wasn’t much of a tease since we’d already seen the pose twice). The series is in a nominal state of affairs, though. Gillen and Tan are a team I’d pick up again.