The War of the Realms is finished, but the consequences are far from forgotten for it.
War of the Realms was a solid event that also served as a culmination for Jason Aaron’s run on Thor. However, the event itself was focused much more on action than character, which changes here. This is an aftermath issue that takes full advantage of its focus on supporting characters, while also setting up future stories and series. The different segments, for the most part, act as prologues for these series, but also do a great job acting as the epilogue for War of the Realms.
Separated into four different segments, the characters that this issue focuses on are Daredevil, Jane Foster, Loki, and The Punisher. As such, there are several different creative teams featured here, each taking over the characters that they will be the write and draw in each monthly series. It’s hard to really get a feel about the quality that those individual series will have just from this issue, but each story here is really interesting.
The best segment of this issue though is Jason Aaron and Ron Garney’s Daredevil segment. Throughout War of the Realms, Daredevil took over Heimdall’s godhood and the story in this issue captures Matt’s mindset incredibly well. Matt’s a Catholic having a crisis of faith and if anytime is perfect to tell that story with Daredevil, it’s now. Because of that crisis and self-doubt Matt is facing in this segment, it creates a really interesting dynamic between him and Heimdall. Heimdall sees every ounce of good in Daredevil, even when he refuses to see it in himself, which creates a bond between the two. This really should never have happened based on how different the two characters are, yet it just feels right.
Of the rest of the issue though, the next best is easily Jane Foster’s. Without getting into spoilers as to why this segment is so emotional, any fan of Jason Aaron’s Thor will be pleased about this issue. It completes the character’s journey in an immensely satisfying way, while also setting her up for more. What this segment also does well is convey that even though the war is won, not everything is as it should be. War changes everything and Jane’s segment in this issue does a really competent job of portraying that within the Marvel Universe.
For every individual segment, a different artist takes over as well. Each of these artists are going on to draw the series that spin-out from War of the Realms so it makes sense to have them draw these segments, and each artist does so incredibly well. Each artist captures the different tone of their segments incredibly well, but everything feels consistent too. They each feel a part of the same universe, albeit simply different parts of it.