Was It Worth It? – 'Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm'

Will Rosenthal ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Welcome to Was it Worth it? a series where we examine recently concluded spin-off, crossovers, and events and ask if you actually needed to collect every piece of the series. Should you have waited for the trade? Were the big reveals worth the build up? That’s where our opinion comes in.
This time, we look at Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm, a spin-off series of the Marvel’s Original Sin mega event.  From the preface of the series, the events of Original Sin have revealed a potential connection to Thor, Loki, and newcomer, Angela. The premise was initially exciting due to Angela’s origins in Image’s Spawn comics, but through recent legal shenanigans found herself in the 616, initially with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, it seems Angela is more than previously expected and her presence has huge implications for Asgardia.
The five part story begins as The Orb reveals the secrets of the Marvel universe to the Avengers, in which Thor is revealed to have a sister as well as to the existence of a tenth realm. When he confronts his mother about these revelations, the mother confesses the truth of the Ten Realm. Long ago, Asgard and the Tenth Realm, the home of Angels, fought a bloody war, which resulted in the Angel’s leader, Aldrif, murdering Freyja and Odin’s newborn daughter. In revenge, Odin razed most of the realm and sealed it away from the rest. The seal has since been broken due to the events of Age of Ultron, so Thor and Loki travel there uncover the truth about their missing sibling.
The flow of the series is extremely well done. Its length feels never feels elongated due to the wealth of tasty changes to the norm. Not to spoil anything that happens, but the surprises often layered themselves in certain issues, #3 as an example.
Surprisingly, this never damages the succeeding issues. It’s never exhausting to pick up another issue after the last. In fact, after layers of reveals, the series makes a fast shift into a character driven adventure pretty neatly showing how these three siblings could work together in the greater Marvel canon.
So, was it worth it? Absolutely, but to truly appreciate the series, there has to be a following for at least Loki and Thor or Angela of the Reader’s side.
Loki by far gets the most time on the page as he’s essentially the catalyst for not only the resolution, but also for part of the set up. So if the Loki: Agent of Asgard or Young Avengers series didn’t motivate interest in The Tenth Realm, then Loki’s prominence will likely be a hindrance.