(Late) NB of the Week

"THERE'S A... A SPOILS ON MY FLOOR! IN THE CORNER, THERE IS A SPOILS!"

Angela: Asgard's Assassin #1

Written by Kieron Gillen (w/ Marguerite Bennett)

Drawn by Phil Jimenez (w/ Stephanie Hans)

When Marvel announced that they had plans to bring Spawn's Angela along with her creator Neil Gaiman to the Marvel U, I was pretty excited to see what both would add. Unfortunately it happened during the abysmal Age of Ultron and not much happened at the beginning. Angela then went over to Guardians of the Galaxy and just talked a lot (written by Bendis) and Gaiman did... nothing. So when Marvel made the next announcement that Angela was being turned into the half-sister of Thor and from the hidden Tenth Realm, I was once again excited. As part of the decently written Original Sin, we followed Thor as he found out of a secret sister and we learned of Angela's new origin: she was an angel from the Heven. After war with Odin seemingly killed his daughter, Odin banished Heven from existence along with his actually alive daughter. She was raised as the Wingless Warrior and Heven's greatest fighter. Until Original Sin revealed it all. For her service, Heven let her live but for her lineage to Odin (their worst enemy), she was once again banished. Which is where this new, ongoing series takes place.

We see Angela as she makes her way through "nowhere" until she comes to a place called Un-Town, where she meets with a friend named Sera. Telling her of her journey and handing over the package she has been carrying, she believes she has lost the party that is following/hunting her only to find them quickly behind her. As she fights this group of men, Sera tells a witness the story of how Angela saved her. About how her code as an "angel" to take only that which they give and to always pay debts, killed a ruler she once saved after the ruler wouldn't save Sera as Angela requested. Angels create balance and his unwillingness to repay his debt was unbalanced. As Sera's story ends, we see Angela victorious but before long, the last of the party arrives looking for her. Led by Thor and followed by Sif and the Warriors Three, Thor demands Angela. As the witness questions why, Sera explains: the "package" she was carrying is a child. The new heir to Asgard, to be exact.

I wasn't too keen on Angela getting her own series. She had very little character depth (not to mention history) in the Marvel Universe and this seemed like another attempt to force a weaker female into a lead comic to appease the female readers. Boy was I wrong. This issue read like some of the best (even if a bit cliched) fantasy.

"The angel who wasn't an angel walked across the desert that wasn't a desert. She walked across a land between lands. She walked across nothing. 'Nothing for nothing,' the angel thought to herself as the air tore at her skin and the bundle strove to sear the flesh from her fingers. Nothing for nothing. Everything has its price."

Angela comes off like all the old beings of myth. She's angry and fierce and a just warrior who will fight anyone for the cause she stands for. This one issue did more for the new her than anything Marvel has done since acquiring her rights. It's difficult to say if this excitement will last month in for me but as first issues go, Marvel has won me over.