Ragnarok Volume 2: The Lord of the Dead Hardcover – 25 July 2017

A solid and fun book. The art could be more detailed and the panels could flow better. The writing is solid if unremarkable. This is a reimagined story of thor. Yet for all of that this series has a certain magic, a comic book charm perhaps that keeps you reading. I will purchase the third volume.

Ragnarök is "The End" according to Nordic mythology. This is the story that tells us what happens after the end!Great story and art by Walter Simonson!

There is something about this rendition of the saga that rings true - an inspired continuation of the ancient myths. I can’t wait for the next book

I still remember Walt Simonson’s work from the 1970s, when he was breaking in to comics – Manhunter, Englehart’s Batman (he started it, before Marshal Rodgers took over), and in the ‘80s, the series that everyone probably remembers him for – The Mighty Thor.I had seen the first volume of this series on the shelf at one of my local libraries, but passed it by for along time, before I finally picked it up, and spotting Ratatoskr in it, took it home where I was shocked to find just how good it was.This is a very mature Simonson, still with the superb design sense but with more “depth” to the artwork, probably a side-effect of modern printing and materials though, letting the quality of his style through in a way that the old-fashioned printing technology used by comics publishers back then, couldn’t.This is not “his” Thor, but still a recognisable one, despite this being more of a mythological story, which takes place after Ragnarok has come and gone, along with the Norse gods and their civilisation.Now there is just a twilight world, with no sun, moon or stars, and small human settlements here and there, where they can find protection from, err, the walking dead… but not those walking dead, but the dead who got out of Hel when the gods fell (“Draugr”) – though no sign of the dead gods and heroes who were also dead, I notice; maybe because they were dead they couldn’t send anyone, including themselves, to Valhalla. Trolls, elves, dwarves and other people and creatures from the Nine Realms are still around, but the humans have lost their protectors and appear to now be in a minority.While this is obviously not “that” Thor, this is still close enough, and is also a superb epic, firmly based in Norse mythology, but going a step or two beyond it – the Dwarves have built “stargates” for ease of travel around the world(s), for example.I do not want to give away any details of the contents, for there are spoilers aplenty waiting, like squirrels, to pounce, but go and read the first volume, as this is the second half of the opening story, and there is a conclusion here, but also more stories to come.This really is a superb chapter in a new Graphic Novel, and I am in for the duration.