With Asgard gone dark and Olympus fallen, Thor finds himself bound to a mortal life once again while dealing with dark forces on the move.
What They Say:
One year ago the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe, the Avengers and Fantastic Four, fought the mutant menace known as Onslaught and were sucked into an alternate universe. The Odinson has returned from the pocket universe of the Heroes Reborn only to discover that fabled Asgard lies in ruins, the Rainbow Bridged destroyed, and his fellow Aesir missing. Before he can begin his search for the missing gods of Asgard, the Mighty Thor is confronted by the one adversary he has never truly defeated, the unstoppable creation of Odin himself, the Destroyer. And not even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can help the Thunder God survive this epic battle!
The Review:
Thor’s one of those Marvel characters that definitely has its own particular audience that’s different from a lot of other characters because of the godly aspect and all that comes with it. I’ve had a varied history with Thor over the years with runs that left me feeling disinterested at best and not terribly keen on some of his time on the Avengers. The pinnacle of the character for me was with Walt Simonson as I loved his frog arc and Beta Ray Bill. I spent quite a few years away from Marvel but returned a few years ago with the 2007 series which I really enjoyed a lot, but didn’t follow through on it since J. Michael Straczynski left it and I wasn’t interested in the event tie-in that was coming on. With the 1998 series going digital, I was rather keen on checking it out since I’m a fan of Dan Jurgens from way back to his early Superman days and I have a real affection for John Romita Jr.’s artwork, especially when Klaus Janson is involved on the inking.
This incarnation of Thor comes from the time when Marvel, under the direction of Bob Harras, which set about to bring the characters back to the stature they deserve. With Thor, his situation was definitely changed in this incarnation as the things that are constants in his life are no longer so, at least when it comes to his heritage. Thor’s life on Earth is one that has him fairly well involved with the Avengers and righting wrongs as he sees them, but when it comes to Asgard he’s finding things there aren’t what they’re supposed to be. There’s a segment early on where Thor helps a man who thinks he’s an Asgardian himself, though he’s really just confused and seeking attention in his own way, where Thor takes him to the bridge to see Asgard. It’s in ruins but still majestic in its own way. As time goes on in Asgard, a real darkness is overtaking it there as we see the forces of some dark gods taking root there with Odin gone. It’s actually quite intriguing as we get a look at some of these forces that are revealed with their own mysterious goals that seem to go back quite some time as hints of this war were seeded back in Thor’s youth.
That storyline runs through all eight issues here, generally in the background, but it does have some fascinating moments as we see the various forces at play and what has happened to Odin. Of course, the main focus with all of this is on Thor as he’s worked himself into quite the problem at the start of this series. The first two issues bring him back into his series in good form as the Avengers guest star as they all work together to take down the Destroyer who has returned to the world under the control of Colonel Pace who is quite sure that he doesn’t have to follow the chain of command anymore. The Destroyer’s one of those villains that’s not exactly that engaging in general, even less so with this particular character inhabiting the suit at this point. What it does lead to is a whole lot of destruction of the docks in New York which ends up killing a very brave and dedicated EMT named Jake Olsen who managed to save a woman before Thor’s wrath brought down the Destroyer.
This gives Thor one of his humbling moments as he later learns in Hela’s presence about Olsen’s sacrifice while he fought. Similar to the original idea of Thor being tied to the form of Donald Blake in order to learn about mankind and humility, Thor takes on a deal offered by a stranger that arrives in Hela’s realm that reveals all of this to him and shows him how he can make amends and get out of her grasp. Thor’s sense of what’s right has him taking the deal, not quite understanding that he’s been slated to take over Olsen’s life and appearance in human form. That introduces a whole lot of complications for him as he’s now apparently engaged to a woman named Hannah, who actually works with the now Doctor Jane Foster. Even worse, Olsen’s EMT partner is running something illegal as he was hoping to use Olsen’s death as a scapegoat for what he’s doing. With Thor having been out of dealing with people on a regular basis and really understanding how they live, he falls flat with a lot of what goes on here.
This part of the story is the hardest to really get behind because Thor just isn’t able to pull it off well. With all the time spent on Earth and with those he considers good friends on the Avengers, it’s hard to imagine that he’s still this disconnected from everything and can’t grasp some of the most basic things. Granted, he’s thrown into a really difficult situation from the start by the deal he’s made and that he’s not allowed to talk to anyone about it since it would cause both him and Olsen to be cast down to Hela’s realm again. Watching him live out Jake’s life is awkward as well as at times he seems to know what to do but other times he doesn’t. The fun comes as he starts using his medical knowledge as Donald Blake to save lives on a more personal level, something he definitely needed to do again after being gone for so long. This puts Foster back on his track which has him trying to be more cautious but running into issues with that simply because he has the ability to help others.
If there’s a real low point to this run of issues, and it’s a mixed bag at that, it’s when Hercules enters the picture. His character certainly hasn’t changed over the years but it’s Thor’s approach to getting information out of him that really rubs me wrong as he goes right into the bar where Hercules is and wants to talk to him while he’s drinking and attempting to score. That it turns into a brawl isn’t a surprise, but the lack of concern about innocents is annoying as Thor throws his weapon easily, even as it’s been acting up on him lately and not returning. While this part is a real problem, when the two go to Olympus it does open up more revelations about what’s going on there which is strikingly similar to that of Asgard. This expands on the larger storyline with the dark gods pretty well, giving us more hints without being straight out about everything.
The creative team behind this run of the series pretty much nail most things right for the most part. Jurgen’s writing is one that’s fairly clean and straightforward with no real surprises and he handles the thee’s and thou’s pretty well, though it’s always been something of a limiter for me as I reach a threshold where I don’t want to read that anymore. What sells this run of issues the most for me though is Romita’s artwork. Thor himself is alright, but Romita really gets the designs down part for a lot of the other Asgardians. Odin in particular stands out the strongest, both in setting and character design, but others look really good as well. The flashback to the young Loki and Thor is a particular favorite with their look. Romita’s got a really good look to his character designs that have always appealed to me and they work well in this setting. His backgrounds aren’t all that impressive though since they’re mostly fairly basic when taking place on Earth, making me wish the story spent more time on either Asgard or Olympus which have a more distinctive look that lets him really cut loose a bit.
Digital Notes:
This issues of Thor were picked up during a Marvel Monday sale when they were 99 cents an issue as opposed to the regular 1.99 price, which in many case is twice as much as what the issues go for in comic stores.
In Summary:
If there’s something to be said about these first eight issues of the series, it’s that we don’t get storytelling like this much anymore. The main storyline here is one that’s taking its time to be told with several elements coming into play while dealing with some smaller stories along the way. It goes predictable with the Avengers participation in the first two issues and a Spider-man appearance later on but it also brings in some fun stuff with the Asgardian characters and a special appearance from Namor that made me smile. There’s a lot going on across these issues and it does work well and it does make me want to read more of it, but not at the prices Marvel wants to sell them for in digital form. There’s a lot to like about this interpretation of Thor as it gets the feeling right and charts its own course and I really liked that it didn’t try to cram it all into six issues or even less for some of it. There’s a build-up here that allows it to take on a much larger feeling which is very appropriate for this character and the place he calls home.
Grade: B
