Thanos #13 Review
Written by Donny Cates
Art by Geoff Shaw
Colours by Antonio Fabela
Letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles
Reviewed by Lorna Maltman (maltmanlorna@gmail.com)
Following up a something great, straight away with the same level of greatness is often difficult, but Cates has achieved it. Cates had a stellar debut at Marvel with Doctor Strange and Thanos proves that Cates truly knows how to write a great Marvel comic.
Thanos is back in all his murdering, world-conquering glory. We see him in a chitauri gladiatorial contest, where of course he wins in spectacular fashion. He is just relaxing on his throne when he is interrupted by a certain skeleton bike rider, who takes Thanos on a trip he will not forget. There is not much more to this issue, but that is all that is needed because there is plenty of great character beats and interactions that make this worth picking up.
Cates made it so that this is easy to pick up for new readers, but it is also building an epic storyline – this is reminiscent of his work in God Country, with a galactic story involving some brilliantly interesting characters. He captures Thanos’ unwavering voice, but Cates gives him people to balance and bounce off to make the story not one-note, but one you want to follow.
This, paired with his often collaborator Geoff Shaw’s art, makes this an issue to remember. Shaw knows how to give weight and how to ground larger-than-life stories, whilst allowing for the ridiculous, all on the same page. The fact that Shaw can give great expressions and character to just a flaming skull is a wonder to behold.
Verdict: Buy. If you hadn’t already guessed, I loved this issue as well as Cates and Shaws work; there’s not much else I can say that this may be one of the only Marvel series that I regularly pick up now – and I am typically a DC person at heart.
