Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Thanos Rising #1Thanos Rising #1 of 5
Marvel Comics
Aaron & Bianchi

Thanos Rising should be an awesome comic book. Big name creators taking on an epic character and telling a definitive background story of that character. However, the book is barely average as Aaron tells a by-the-numbers story about a boy that is good, but misunderstood and some evil force turns him bad. Sadly, the issue doesn't even sell that tired idea well enough to be remotely believable. This is going to have a difficult time succeeding if the storytelling is this lackluster.

This comic covers Thanos being born with a loving father and a psychotic mother who seems bent on trying to kill the defenseless infant. It appears she is appalled by his looks or perhaps she has the ability to look into the future. I'm not sure why her reaction is to kill him though and it is not explained. This doesn't phase Thanos as a baby or as a youngster though.

Thanos moves into adolescence and gets teased by the other kids but that doesn't really effect him. Then he meets a girl that appears to be evil and she manages to manipulate him into becoming a killer by way of some lizards eating his friends and Thanos wanting revenge. It simply didn't add up.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsI wasn't sold on the story. Thanos seems like a confused and scared kid for the entire issue and then snaps and goes full-on killer by the issue's end. It wasn't lined up very well. The story also felt like something I had read a hundred times before. I suppose I was expecting more when it comes to Thanos and Jason Aaron.

The art is pretty good. The book has a dark tone throughout which is befitting of the material. The story didn't lend itself much towards epic images or a lot of visual drama but I suspect this will change in the coming issues. All in all this was a good artistic book for a slow story.

Thanos Rising feels like the beginning to a forgettable and throwaway mini-series rather than the epic origin it seems to have been positioned as. The story is not very deep and isn't terribly imaginative. If you like scared and innocent kids turning into angry killers then you should check this out. I'm not sure this is definitive Thanos story I was looking for.

2 out of 5 Geek Goggles