In Review: Marvel’s Thor: Metal Gods – Episode 1

Synopsis: Thor and Loki embark on a cosmic odyssey to stop the return of an ancient evil.

A space adventure on an epic scale, Metal Gods propels Thor and Loki on a quest to recover a dangerous alien artifact. Together with a Korean tiger-goddess, a charismatic, gender-fluid space pirate, and Frost Giant mercenaries, the sons of Odin must each confront their pasts and face the truth behind the destruction of a planet that Thor once tried to help. Tinged with humor, celestial horror, complex relationships, space battles, barroom brawls, and blasts of sheer fun.

Review: ‘Thor: Metal Gods’ is the first title from serialbox.com’s new Marvel range of audio drama’s and we get off to a cracking start as the God of Thunder roars onto audio.

The Story

This first episode focuses on Loki and his dissatisfaction with his life as a musician on Earth and sees his band turn against him and change their name to Nihilator. But that is only the beginning of Loki’s problems.

On an asteroid, in the middle of nowhere Thor visits a friend in need of his help, but while making his way to meet her he is attacked by his friend who has taken the form of a giant tiger. He tries to reason with Horangi but struggles to do so due to the fact that she has given in to the more bestial side of her nature. When he eventually does manage to get through to her. Horangi is mad as hell, but what could have made Thor’s cat friend so angry? And where has Loki disappeared too?

The Narration

Daniel Gillies, who is best known for his role in The CW’s ‘Originals’ provides the narration for this story and does an outstanding job. His take on Thor’s voice is a pretty good approximation of how Chris Hemsworth does the voice, but not an exact copy, which is great because it gives Gillies a little wiggle room to do his own take on the character. I particularly enjoyed how animated Gillies’s voice became. Especially when he was describing the stories action beats as well as the more atmospheric things such as raindrops hitting the ground in London toward the beginning of the story when he is describing Loki’s general dissatisfaction and boredom with his life as a rock guitarist.

If this first chapter is anything to go by. I’d say that the folk at serial box have chosen a really good actor to do the narration.

Overall

The 25 minute running time feels just right for the episode length. It’s long enough for most people to be able to take time out in the busy day and indulge in a little escapism, and short enough to leave you wanting more at the end. Hopefully, they keep the episodes at roughly this length.

The sound effects and music were really well produced. The music was loud enough to make a difference without taking the listener out of the story and the sound mix worked really well. For example, the sound of the crowds when Loki’s band is playing a gig at the start of the story as well as the sound of wind and snow whooshing about when Thor is meeting Horangi on the asteroid.

I also have to mention the artwork, which more often than not can play an important role in helping people decide if they wish to try an audio adventure or in fact anything for that matter. Now I have no idea who Serial Box has doing the artwork, but whoever it is has done some wonderful work for the Thor series and am hoping we get to see more of it as the series moves forward.

Overall. I really enjoyed this opening chapter and look forward to finding out what it is that has Thor’s cat friend so upset and how it will all play out.

• You can buy the first episode of Thor: Metal Gods here at serialbox.com