Under Cover In The Land Of Giants With War Of The Realms: Giant-Man #1
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Lady Freyja approaches Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, with a mission of revenge. Laufey took away something Freyja loves, so she wants Ant-Man and a team of allies to do the same to Laufey. She wants them to kill Ymir. To accomplish this, Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, and Atlas must disguise themselves as Frost Giants and go to the depths of the Giant-Lands in Florida. There, they will find Ymir, and they must kill the architect of the Frost Giants.
War of the Realms: Giant-Man #1 does something in its premise that already begins the process of winning me over; it unites a handful of characters who haven’t been around much lately. Ant-Man, the new Giant-Man (Raz Malhotra), Goliath (Tom Foster), and Atlas of the Thunderbolts haven’t been in many, if any, comics as of late. So, why not bring them together to pretend to be Frost Giants and kill one of the most powerful of the kind?
Hell, I didn’t expect Tom Foster to show up again after the “Revengers” story during the latter era of Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers.
Understandably, the team has trouble getting along, with Tom Foster feeling like he doesn’t fit in with this crew (which makes sense considering he once blamed the Avengers for Bill Foster’s death).
It’s not exactly a simple mission either, and none of these men are very familiar with the behavior and culture of the Frost Giants.
The dialogue is quite good, with only a couple of lines spread throughout that don’t quite work. Each of the characters’ personalities and perspectives are well-represented in the story, so no one feels like just a giant body on the page.
Marco Castiello’s artwork is great too. He brings a gritty and well-detailed style that is reminiscent of Leinil Francis Yu at times. That said, Castiello still has a distinct aesthetic that does wonders for this comic. Rachelle Rosenberg backs it all up with a well-balanced and, appropriately, cold color palette.
War of the Realms: Giant-Man #1 is a treat for those who’ve been missing some of the larger heroes of Marvel, but it also tells a compelling character-focused story that bring these big personalities into collision while still trying to stay alive. This one gets a recommendation. Check it out.
War of the Realms: Giant-Man #1 comes to us from writer Leah Williams, artist Marco Castiello, color artist Rachelle Rosenberg, letterer VC’s Joe Sabino, cover artist Woo Dae Shim, and variant cover artists Dale Keown with Jason Keith; and Bob Powell.