Kairos Presentation

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Script

Kairos, the lesser known of the rhetorical devices, relates to the perfect timing of something. Throughout the plot of Thor: The Mighty Avenger, the comic authors illustrate kairos symbolically and to enhance the dramatization of certain scenes.

When the characters talk about the idea of Thor’s home, a rainbow appears in the spread. For example, there’s a rainbow that Jane sees when Thor arrives on Earth, symbolizing his departure from his home in Asgard. Its last appearances occur on the last two pages of Issue 2. Here, Jane suggests Thor makes Earth his new home while he finds a way back to Asgard. As shown by these three appearances, the symbolic rainbow is timely placed throughout the comic book when there are new developments and meaning to this notion of ‘home’.

The comic author also uses kairos in order to create suspension. For example, in the scene where Jane stops to help Thor who is getting beaten up by Hyde, the comic author chooses to give Jane the line: “Hmmm…gone QUIET in there. I hope there’s nothing…”. The words and ellipses of this line help create the suspension that something big is about to happen. By the following block, the author breaks it by using a full-page spread to illustrate a dramatic blow to Thor by Hyde. Through this scene, the author effectively built suspension and chose the perfect time to break it in order to dramatize the scene further.

Since Thor is a superhero, the show of strength is crucial. However, Thor does not start off with extreme power. Instead, he gets incredibly beaten up by Hyde and required the help of humans from Midgard, like Jane and Jim. Thor was at his lowest point in terms of strength. As a result, the comic authors chose to perfectly time his ascent to power with the hammer, Mjolnir. By giving him his strength and hammer at his weakest, his power is dramatized and appear even more incredible to the audience.