Could've honestly done without the Thor Annual at the end. Gillen is magnificent. ( )

I love everything about this entire series. Just read the whole thing, it's worth it. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed the first three trade volumes of Journey into Mystery (JiM). However, this last volume left me somewhat dissatisfied, not to mention confused. The book is split into two parts: the Manchester gods and a solo Thor story. The first opens with the mystical folk of Britannia (King Arthur, fairies, Captain Britain, et al) under siege by new "Manchester gods." So far, so good. They send to Asgard for help and the All-Mothers say no, which ticks off Thor. Thor, who died in Volume 2 of JiM; who didn't appear in Volume 3; and who is suddenly alive and annoyed in this volume. I asked around and learned that he was brought back in the "Tanarus arc" of The Mighty Thor. But, that is not particularly helpful to newbies just starting out in Marvel comics (like me). A notation, or even a brief recap, mentioning this would have been very helpful! Moreover, there is no interaction between Thor and kid Loki - which were some of my favorite scenes in V1.

The All-Mothers do want to help Britannia, but on the sly. Enter kid Loki, who is sent to "help." The main part of this story was as entertaining as the last three volumes. Loki and Leah engineer an end to the war (though not in a way anyway else approved) and continue their playful bickering. However, when he returns to Asgard, the All-Mothers are not pleased with his solution but the story ends abruptly without explaining why.

The second part is a seemingly random Thor story where he gets involved with Galactus, Silver Surfer and three near omnipotent "villains" I had never heard of. The story was okay on its own, but it didn't really fit into this volume of JiM which had focused on kid Loki for the past three volumes. I felt like it was thrown in to fill out the book. I can understand filling the book to give customers value, but why this story? Overall, I was disappointed. I still enjoy kid Loki, and look forward to buying the Young Avengers with the character, but this volume felt unfinished and oddly put together. Recommended, but with reservations. ( )