Despite my natural inclination to want to rush to the end of the story, I'll admit that Aaron and Ewing are doing a great job of letting this story unfurl at its own pace. Angela and Thor are still clueless about their relationship, but we do get a better sense of how we got where we are.
Loki and the Queen of Heven have a cup of tea (literally), and the Queen reveals that Odin's betrayal came for failing to pay the angels for their service, namely protecting young Earth from his own subjects seeking the fun of plundering it. However, Odin had a pretty good reason for betraying them, since he discovered that the angels took money from Jotunheim to develop a strategy to defeat Asgard (and concluded that it should unify all the other realms against Asgard). Aaron and Ewing have done an impressive job of developing the ethos of Heven in a short time, and I'll admit that this revelation feels pretty consistent with the portrayal of Heven and its mercenary Queen so far. The problem is that it doesn't exactly make the angels into sympathetic characters. Their commitment to such extreme capitalistic ideals seems excessive, and it's hard to argue with Odin's decision to lock away the angels somewhere where they'd be less able to sow discord.
The surprise ending of this issue - Loki becoming the "Mistress" of Strategies - is clever, though it's pretty clear that Loki is playing both sides. It's still unclear how they're going to get the Queen of the Angels to reveal Angela's heritage, and, even when she does, how Angela is going to react. It seems unlikely that she's going to collapse into Freya's arms crying about finally finding her family. But, Aaron and Ewing are letting us know that they're getting there, and I'll try to be patient.
*** (three of five stars)
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