Thor – Page 10 – Now Read This!

March 29, 2014March 29, 2014

Thor, God of Thunder volume 3: The Accursed

By Jason Aaron, Nic Klein, Ron Garney, Emanuela Lupacchino, Das Pastoras & Tom Palmer (Marvel Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-575-8

Since his creation by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby in Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962) the spectacular adventures of the Thunder God have encompassed everything from crushing petty crime capers to saving universes from cosmic Armageddon. As the decades passed he has also survived numerous reboots and re-imaginings to keep the wonders of fabled Asgard appealing to an easily jaded readership.

The latest shake-up came after blockbuster publishing event Avengers versus X-Men. From that point on, the banner MarvelNOW! indicated a radical repositioning and recasting of all characters in an undertaking designed to keep the more than 50-year-old shared universe interesting to readers old and new alike whilst cannily crafting material suitable for inclusion in the assorted burgeoning movie franchises.

Don’t take my word for it, just Search-Engine-of-Choice how many Marvel characters have been or will be hitting screens soon and how many more are â€œin developmentâ€â€¦

However, as fortuitous fallout, many formally moribund stars are getting a serious rethink in their printed homes too, as this latest compendium of modern mythological mayhem happily proves.

Collecting Thor, God of Thunder #12-18 (cover-dated November 2013 to March 2014) and scripted throughout by Jason Aaron, this third contemporary chronicle slickly and simultaneously accesses the Lord of Lightning’s mythological roots, fantasy trappings and comicbook continuity to tell a classical quest tale with a decidedly Post Modern slant.

It all begins with a moving, untitled downtime episode illustrated by Nic Klein. After travelling the universe and meeting himself in two separate eras Thor returns to Midgard Realm and the Earth he so deeply loves, spending precious people-time with old friends. Visiting his favourite pub, a treasured acquaintance on Death Row and many other normal decent folk always serves to remind him of why he fights so hard for humankind. The elevating vignettes include being the graduation Prom date for S.H.I.E.L.D. Cadet Rosalind Solomon and a sobering conversation with his one-time true love Jane Foster who declines all his offers to find a mystic cure for her cancerâ€¦

The main event then begins with ‘The Accursed: The Great Niffleheim Escape or The Svartalfheim Massacre’ limned by Ron Garney and colourist Ive Svorcina, as the Realm of the Dead is invaded by a fanatical band of Dark Elves who endure appalling horrors to liberate one of the most inimical creatures ever to have breathed.

In the city of Asgard, floating above Broxton, Oklahoma, a Congress of delegates from the mystical Nine Worlds of Norse Existence is disrupted when the Dark Elf ambassador keels over in psychic shock, screaming â€œSvartalfheim is burning!â€

Thor, valiant Sif and the Warriors Three rush to the distant dimension and encounter an atrocity: former tyrant Malekith the Accursed is back and inflicting genocide on his own people.

Holding the heroes at bay by threatening a hostage, the Dark Elf Overlord declaims that he intends to scourge his now too-docile race before dealing with the rest of the Nine Realms. To that end he has unleashed the ferocious Wild Huntâ€¦

The carnage escalates in ‘The Accursed Part Two’ as the Dwarves of Nidavellir, currently offering sanctuary to Svartalfheim‘s Queen Alflyse, become Malekith’s next target, whilst in Asgard All-Mother Freyja, still hosting a conference designed to end animosity between the ever-warring Realms, informs her son Thor that he cannot pursue the massacre-mad Dark Lord.

At least not alone, but he can be the Aesir representative in a League of Realms acting in concert to destroy him. Despite understandable reluctance the Thunderer eventually agrees, joining Light Elf Sir Ivory Honeyshot, Screwbeard the Dwarf, Mountain Giant Oggmunder Dragglevladd Vinnsuvius XVII and Ud the Troll in sworn quest to end the menace. Inviting herself along is the villain’s former hostage. Despite – or probably because – he maimed and shamed her, sorceress Lady Wazira of the Dark Elves is determined to join in the grim chaseâ€¦

By the time they all get to Nidavellir, the Dwarf stronghold is a broken charnel house and despite a pitched battle once again Malekith and his fanatics outmanoeuvre Thor and escape.

Throughout the frantic foray the innate prejudices and overt hostilities of the League have been Malekith’s greatest assets, but as the battered pursuers follow him into the Light Elf idyll of Alfheim they score their first victory over his forces and begin to bond. Things soon turn sour again though when they reach the land of Giants, and ‘Bury My Heart in Jotunheim’ sees one of the League heroically perish.

Worst of all Malekith begins his own Dark Alliance, aligning with the malignant, pernicious Frost Giantsâ€¦

After another cataclysmic but inconclusive battle, the surviving heroes pursue their foes into the dead and abandoned Realm of Vanaheim and realise that there must be a traitor amongst them. On very little real evidence the Thunderer decides who it is and acts accordinglyâ€¦

‘I Thorâ€¦ Condemn Thee to Die’ (by Garney & Emanuela Lupacchino) then sees the League seemingly dissolved with only Thor and Wazira following their vile quarry to Midgard where an enclave of Dark Elf refugees are holding a Council of the Unhallowed in the caverns beneath Manhattan.

They have joined together to form a response in regard to the rampages of their former ruler, but the only thing these arrogant lords despise more than interference from the Leaguers is each other. However their tribal grudges vanish when Malekith and his Wild Hunt crash the partyâ€¦

The saga of The Accursed spirals to a blockbusting, shocking conclusion when, despite becoming ‘The God Who Saved the Elves’ (art by Lupacchino & Garney), Thor has true victory snatched from his grasp by the arbitrary nature of the supposed victims in the affair and has to retire knowing the threat is only stalled, not endedâ€¦

After the modern day mayhem this superb fantasy feast ends on a poignant, nostalgic note with a fable of Thor’s Dark Ages days in Scandinavia.

More than a millennium ago the young Storm God caroused and adventured amongst mortals, and ‘Days of Wine and Dragons’ – stunningly illustrated by Das Pastoras – details a salutary episode wherein the wining, wenching, wandering Thunderer became drinking buddies with a colossal, fun-loving wyvern and learned to his eternal shame and regret that even gods and monsters must ever remain true to their naturesâ€¦

This bombastic book of battles, triumphs and tragedies comes equipped with a gallery of covers-&-variants by Garney, Esad Ribic, Walter Simonson, Humberto Ramos, David Johnson, Leonel Castellani and even a photo cover taken from Thor: The Dark World as well as the ever-popular swathes of extra content available via the AR icon option (providing special augmented reality content available exclusively through the Marvel AR app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices and Marvel Digital Comics Shop).

January 5, 2014January 4, 2014

Essential Avengers volume 7

By Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter, George PÃ©rez, Don Heck, Dave Cockrum, Rich Buckler, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, George Tuska & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4453-3

The Avengers always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when Marvel’s major players like Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it simply allows the team’s lesser lights and continuity players to shine more brightly.

Although the founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy, the human-scale narrative drivers were the regulars without titles of their own and whose eventful lives played out only within these stories and no others.

This monumental seventh monochrome tome, collecting the ever-amazing Avengers‘ extraordinary exploits from issues #140-163 of their monthly comicbook (spanning November 1975-September 1975), also includes material from Avengers Annual #6 plus a crossover appearance from Super-Villain Team-Up #9.

This era saw revered and multi-award winning scripter Steve Englehart surrender the writing reins to Gerry Conway during a period of painful recurring deadline problems – before neophyte wunderkind Jim Shooter came aboard to stabilise and reshape the cosmology and history of the Marvel Universe through the adventures of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroesâ€¦

Opening this epochal tome is ‘The Phantom Empire!’ (Avengers #141, by Englehart, George PÃ©rez & Vince Colletta), which began another complex, multi-layered epic combining superheroic Sturm und Drang with searing – for 1975, at least – political commentary.

It all began when new member The Beast was ambushed by mercenaries from corporate behemoth Roxxon Oil.

He was saved by ex-Avenger Captain America who had been investigating the company on a related case and, after comparing notes, realised something very big and very bad was going onâ€¦

Linking up with Thor, Iron Man, other trainee Moondragon and the newly returned newlyweds Vision and Scarlet Witch, the pair learned of another crisis building as Hawkeye had gone missing, probably captured by time tyrant Kang the Conquerorâ€¦

Just as the Assemblage was agreeing to split into teams, former child model Patsy Walker-Baxter (star of a bunch of Marvel’s girl’s market comics such as Patsy Walker and Patsy & Hedy) burst in, threatening to expose Beast’s secret identityâ€¦

When he had first further mutated, Hank McCoy had attempted to mask his anthropoid form and Patsy had helped him in return for his promise to make her a superhero. Now she had resurfaced prepared to use blackmail to make him honour his vow. She got dragged along as one squad (Cap, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Vision) joined Beast’s as he returned to his old lab at Brand/Roxxonâ€¦ where they were ambushed by alternate Earth heroes the Squadron Supremeâ€¦

Moondragon and Thor meanwhile co-opted sometime ally Immortus and followed Hawkeye back to 1873 but were also bushwhacked, finding themselves battling Kang beside a coterie of cowboy legends including Kid Colt, Night Rider, Ringo Kid, Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun Kid in ‘Go West, Young Gods!’ even as the present-day team learned that their perilous plight involved a threat to two different dimensions’ situations because Roxxon had joined with the corporations which had taken over the Squadron Supreme’s America – thanks to the malignly mesmeric Serpent Crown of Setâ€¦

The Wild West showdown culminated in the apparent death of a deity in ‘Right Between the Eons!’ (Avengers #143, inked by Sam Grainger). Elsewhen, the 20^th century heroes were beginning their counterattack in the esoteric weaponry factory at Brand, and during all that running wild the heroes found the technologically advanced, ability-enhancing uniform of short-lived adventurer The Cat in a storeroom.

When Patsy put it on the hero-groupie neophyte dubbed herself Hellcat in ‘Claws!’ (Mike Esposito inks)â€¦

Soon after, the Avengers were cornered by the Squadron and as battle recommenced Roxxon president Hugh Jones played his trump card and transported all the combatants to the other Earthâ€¦

The dreaded deadline doom hit just at this crucial juncture and issues #145-146 were taken up with a 2-part fill-in by Tony Isabella, Don Heck & John Tartaglione with additional pencils by Keith Pollard for the concluding chapter.

‘The Taking of the Avengers!’ revealed how a criminal combine had taken out a colossal contract on the World’s Mightiest Superheroes but even though ‘The Assassin Never Fails!’ the killer was thwarted and Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Beast, Vision and Scarlet Witch – plus Wasp, Yellowjacket and the Falcon all safely returned to their various cases untroubled by the vagaries of continuity or chronology which makes this rather impressive yarn such a annoyance in this specific instanceâ€¦

The trans-dimensional traumas finally resumed in Avengers #147 which described the ‘Crisis on Other-Earth!’ (Englehart, PÃ©rez & Colletta). With the corporate takeover of the other America revealed to have been facilitated by use of the mind-bending mystical serpent crown, the Scarlet Witch took possession of the sinister helm and her team-mates tried desperately to keep the overwhelming Squadron Supreme from regaining it.

On our Earth Hawkeye brought Two-Gun Kid to the modern world but decided to go walkabout rather than rejoin his fellow Avengers even as Thor and Moondragon began searching for their missing colleaguesâ€¦

It was back to business in #148 as ‘20,000 Leagues Under Justice!’ (Grainger) featured the final showdown and the Avengers’ victory over a wiser and repentant Squadron Supreme, and as the heroes returned to their home dimension ‘The Gods and the Gang!’ reunited them with Moondragon and the Thunder God to clean up Brand/Roxxon. The Corporate cabal still had one trick left to play however: a colossal and biologically augmented Atlantean dubbed Orka, the Human Killer Whaleâ€¦

Avengers #150 saw an official changing of the guard as ‘Avengers Assemble’ by Englehart, PÃ©rez, Tartaglione & Duffy Vohland – supplemented part-way through by half of ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ (reprinted from #16 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) â€“ settled the membership question and made way for new scripter Gerry Conway in #151 whose ‘At Last: The Decision’ (with additional scripting by Jim Shooter & Englehart and art from PÃ©rez & Tartaglione) set the group off on new, less cosmic adventures.

No sooner had the long-delayed announcement been made (this membership drive had begun in Avengers #137 after all) though, than a mysterious crate disgorged the long-dead body of Wonder Man which shockingly shambled to its feet and accused the stunned android Vision of stealing his mindâ€¦

Long ago Simon Williams had been turned into a human powerhouse by arch-villain Baron Zemo and used as a Trojan horse to infiltrate the team, but eventually gave his life to redeem himself. After he was buried his brain patterns were used to provide an operating system for The Vision, inadvertently creating a unique human personality for the cold thing of plastic wires and metalâ€¦

In #152 ‘Nightmare in New Orleans!’ kicked the simmering saga into high gear as the team began a search for the fallen Wonder Man’s grave robber/re-animator, in a tale by Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott which soon found the team facing voodoo lord Black Talon in New Orleansâ€¦

‘Home is the Hero!’ reintroduced 1940 Marvel sensation Bob Frank (AKA super fast superhero The Whizzer). In a tragic tale of desperation the aged speedster sought the heroes’ help before he was seemingly possessed and attacked the team.

Avengers Annual #6 answered all the mysteries and wrapped up the storyline with ‘No Final Victory’ (illustrated by PÃ©rez, Esposito, Tartaglione & Vohland), as a conspiracy involving the Serpent-helmed Living Laser, Whizzer’s government-abducted son mutant son Nuklo and rogue US Army General Pollock almost succeeded in conquering California if not America – until the resurgent Avengers laid down the lawâ€¦

Also included in the annual – and here – was ‘Night Vision’ by Scott Edelman & Herb Trimpe: a stirring solo story of the Android Avenger battling super swift psychopath Whirlwind.

In Avengers #154 ‘When Strikes Attuma?’ Conway, PÃ©rez & Pablo Marcos began a blockbuster battle bonanza which was in part a crossover with Super-Villain Team-Up (this series followed the uneasy coalition of Dr. Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner). The initial chapter found the Vision captured by subsea barbarian Attuma even as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were ambushed and defeated by the warlord’s augmented Atlantean thrall Tyrak the Treacherous.

The scheme was simple enough: use the enslaved surface champions as cannon fodder in an assault against Namorâ€¦

At this time US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had recently signed a non-aggression pact with the Dictator of Latveria with Doom subsequently blackmailing the Sub-Mariner into serving as his unwilling ally. One American vigilante observed no such legal or diplomatic niceties. The Shroud thought he had freed the Atlantean from his vow by â€œkillingâ€ Doom but the villain had survived the assault: rescued and secretly imprisoned by Sub-Mariner’s cousin Namorita and girlfriend Tamara under the misguided apprehension that they could force the Metal-shod Monarch into helping Atlantis and their lost Prince.

SVT-U #9 carried on the epic encounter with the heroes now ‘Pawns of Attuma’ (scripted by Bill Mantlo, drawn by Jim Shooter & Sal Trapani) as the Avengers were unleashed upon the Atlanteans, only to discover Doom now in charge and easily able to thwart their half-hearted assault.

In Avengers #155 the beaten heroes were helpless, leaving only confused, despondent and battle-crazed Namor ‘To Stand Alone!’ (Conway Perez & Marcos), joined by lone stragglers the Beast, Whizzer and Wonder Man to hunt down the triumphant barbarian sea lord.

The epic conclusion came in ‘The Private War of Doctor Doom!’ (Avengers#156, by Shooter, with art from Sal Buscema & Marcos) wherein the liberated and furious heroes joined forces to crush Attuma whilst simultaneously preventing Doom from turning the situation to his own world-conquering advantageâ€¦

In #157 ‘A Ghost of Stone!’ (Conway, Heck & Marcos) addressed a long-unresolved mystery of the Black Knight – his body had been petrified whilst his soul was trapped in the 12^th century – as a strange force reanimated the statue and set it upon the weary heroes, after which ‘When Avengers Clash!!’ (Shooter, Sal Buscema & Marcos) saw the revived and now fully-recovered Wonder Man clash with an impossibly jealous Vision over the Scarlet Witch.

That Wanda loved the android Avenger was seemingly forgotten as his â€œborrowedâ€ brain patterns fixated on the logical assumption that eventually his flesh-and-blood wife would gravitate to a normal man with his personality rather than stay married to a mere mobile mechanismâ€¦

Domestic tantrums were quickly laid aside when the entire team – plus late arrivals Black Panther and Thor) battled research scientist Frank Hall following an accident which gave him complete control over the forces of gravityâ€¦

Apparently unstoppable, Graviton almost destroyed New York in #159 as ‘Siege by Stealth and Storm!’ (Shooter, Sal Buscema & Marcos) resulted in a savage clash and the unbeatable villain defeating himselfâ€¦

Avengers #160 featured Eric Williams, the deranged Grim Reaper. With portentous hints of a hidden backer and his dead brother seemingly returned, he conducted ‘â€¦The Trial!’ (Shooter, PÃ©rez & Marcos) to see whether Wonder Man or the Vision was the â€œtrueâ€ Simon Williamsâ€¦ but didn’t like the answer he gotâ€¦

The next issue extended the sub-plot as ‘Beware the Ant-Man’ found the team attacked by a frenzied Henry Pym, whose mind had regressed to mere days after the Avengers first formed. The crazed hero had allied with the homicidal robot he no longer remembered creating and was unwittingly helping it build ‘The Bride of Ultron!’ (#162), pitifully oblivious that for the almost completed Jocasta to live his own wife Janet had to dieâ€¦

At the close the Avengers believed they had finally destroyed the murderous mechanoid, but they were wrongâ€¦

This classic collection of costumed clashes closes with Shooter, George Tuska & Marcos’ stand-alone tale ‘The Demi-God Must Die!’ wherein mythological maniac Typhon returns to capture the team. Despite forcing Iron Man to attack Hercules (to save his hostage Avenging comrades), and even after lots of spectacular smashing, the scheme naturally fails and the World’s Mightiest are triumphant againâ€¦

This type of heroic adventure might not be to every reader’s taste but these – and the truly epic yarns that followed – set the tone for fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas for decades to come and can still boggle the mind and take the breath away, even here in the so slick and cool 21^st centuryâ€¦

No lovers of Costumed Dramas can afford to ignore this superbly bombastic book and fans who think themselves above superhero stories might also be pleasantly surprisedâ€¦
Â© 1975, 1976, 1977, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October 29, 2013November 2, 2013

Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Thor Reloaded

By Stan Lee, Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Jack Kirby, Keith Pollard, Walter Simonson, J. Michael Straczynski & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-552-9

With another Asgardian Epic about to open in cinemas around the world, here’s a tie-in trade paperback collection designed to perfectly augment the filmic exposure and cater to movie fans wanting to follow up with a comics experience.

One more sterling Marvel Platinum/Definitive Edition, this treasury of tales reprints intriguing landmarks from Journey into Mystery #112, Thor volume 1 #136, 300-301, 345-348 and 363, Thor volume 3, #12 and Thor volume 1 #600, which will serve to answer many questions the silver screen story might throw up and provide a immense amount of bombastic mythically barbarous fun.

Moreover, in addition to the mandatory Stan Lee Foreword, this compendium contains text features detailing the secrets and statistics of Odin, Kurse, Loki and Malekith, culled from the encyclopaedic Marvel Universe Handbook, plus Mike Conroy’s scholarly trawl through comicbook mythology in ‘The True History of the Norse Gods’.

In case this is your first storm-chase: crippled doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway only to stumble into an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, he found an old walking stick which, when struck against the ground, turned him into the presumed mythical Norse God of Thunder.

Within moments he was defending the weak and smiting the wicked. Months swiftly passed with the Lord of Storms tackling rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie dictators, costumed crazies and cheap thugs, but these soon gave way to a vast kaleidoscope of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces, courtesy of the increasingly experimental graphic genius Jack Kirbyâ€¦

This titanic tome’s blistering battle-fest begins with ‘The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!’ from Journey into Mystery #112 by Stan Lee, Kirby & Chic Stone (January 1965) and a glorious gift to all those fans who perpetually ask â€œWho’s strongestâ€¦?â€

Possibly Kirby & Stone’s finest artistic collaboration, it details a private duel between the two super-humans which occurred during a general free-for-all between The Avengers, Sub-Mariner and the morally ambivalent, always angry Green Goliath. The raw, breathtaking spectacle of that tale is followed by a portentous vignette from the ongoing back-up feature which was fleshing out the cosmology of the burgeoning Marvel Universe.

Whereas the rapidly proliferating continuity grew ever more interconnected as it matured, with assorted superheroes literally tripping over each other as they contiguously and continually saved the world from their New York City bases, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and Kirby’s transcendent imagination increasingly pulled the Thunderer away from mortal realms into stunning new landscapes.

Admittedly the son of Odin popped back every now and then, but clearly for â€œKingâ€ Kirby, Earth was just a nice place to visit whilst the stars and beyond were the right and proper domain of the Asgardians and their adversaries.

Thus from issue #97 on (October 1963), each issue also carried a powerfully impressive supplementary series. Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods gave Kirby space to indulge his fascination with legends and allowed both complete vignettes and longer epics (in every sense of the word). Initially adapting the original Scandinavian folk tales but eventually with all-new material particular to the Marvel pantheon, he built his own cosmos and mythology, which underpinned the company’s entire continuity.

Inked by Vince Colletta, ‘The Coming of Loki’ (also JiM #112) was a stylish retelling of how Odin came to adopt the baby son of Laufey, king of the Frost Giantsâ€¦

As the saga of Thunder God grew from formulaic beginnings into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination, Journey into Mystery inevitably became (The Mighty) Thor with #126, but in this collection we skip to #136 (January 1967) where the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship with mortal love interest Jane Foster were re-examined and finally ended.

A turning point in the feature’s history, ‘To Become an Immortal!’ saw All-Father Odin transform her into a goddess and invite her to dwell in Asgard, but Jane’s frail human mind could not cope with the wonders and perils of the Realm Eternal and she was mercifully restored to mortality and all but written out of the series.

Lucky for the despondent Thunder God the beauteous Warrior-Maiden Sif was on handâ€¦

Thor settled into an uninspired creative lethargy after Kirby left (for DC to invent New Gods, Darkseid, The Fourth World, Kamandi, The Demon, Omac and more). Without his unbridled imagination stories subsequently suffered a qualitative drop and, once illustrator replacement John Buscema moved on too, the series languished in the doldrums until a new visionary was found to expand the mythology once againâ€¦

There were a few flourishes of the old magic, however. When Roy Thomas took over scripting he cleverly attempted to rationalise history, legend and the Marvel Universe in an extended storyline which revealed the true nature of the gods and revealed that Germanic folk heroes Siegfried, Sigurd and others were prior incarnations of Thor.

He also revealed that the gods of Earth had a hidden connection with the star-spanning Celestials and their earthly invention the Eternalsâ€¦

Kirby returned to Marvel in the mid-70s and The Eternals debuted in 1976 in a series obviously at odds with and removed from regular company continuity. The tale revealed that giant alien gods had visited Earth in epochs past, gene-gineering proto-hominids into three distinct species: Human Beings; god-like super-beings who called themselves Eternals and monstrous, genetically unstable but highly intelligent creatures dubbed Deviants.

Moreover the Celestials had periodically returned to check up on their experimentâ€¦

Never a comfortable contemporary fit with the rest of the Marvel Universe, comic explorer Kirby played out his fascinations with Deities, the Cosmos and Supernature through the lens of very human observers. Once the series ended and Kirby left again, other creators quickly co-opted the concept into regular continuity. From the end of that lengthy Asgardian epic (beginning either in issue #272 or #283 depending on your temperament) comes the blistering conclusion in Thor #300 – October 1980 – and the gripping epilogue from #301 one month later.

Written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio with art by Keith Pollard & Gene Day, ‘Twilight of the Gods’ saw Thor finally uncover the truth about his origins and affinity for Midgard, before learning of an ancient inter-pantheon pact to oppose the Celestials in ‘Whatever Gods There Beâ€¦’

The Prince of Asgard then rushed to his dying sire’s aid and spearheaded the resistance to the Space Gods for the climactic ‘Day of Alpha’â€¦

Through devious means Earth was saved from the alien’s destructive judgement, but only at the cost of all his people. Thor #301 found the Storm Lord petitioning the planet’s other deities for a portion of their power to restore the fallen in ‘For the Life of Asgard!’ by Gruenwald, Macchio, Pollard & Stone.

Walter Simonson had, for a brief while, been one of those artists slavishly soldiering to rekindle Kirby’s easy synthesis of mythology, science fiction and meta-humanist philosophy, but with little more success than any other.

However, always deeply invested in Kirby’s daring, exploratory, radical visionary process, when he assumed complete creative autonomy of the title in November 1983 – he was at last free to let loose and brave enough to bring his own unique sensibilities to the character.

The result was an enchantingly addictive body of work (#337-382 plus the Balder the Brave miniseries) that moved beyond Kirby’s Canon and dragged the title out of a creative rut which allowed Simonson’s own successors to also introduce genuine change to a property which had stagnated for 13 years.

The first iconic story-arc introduced alternate Thunder God Beta Ray Bill and began a slow, steady march to a cataclysmic clash with the ultimate destroyer Surtur: a stupendous overarching graphic monolith which addressed the horrendously over-used dramatic device of the Doom of the Gods which had haunted this series since the mid-1960sâ€¦

The epic was made up of compartmentalised tales such as the eerie supernatural thriller reprinted here. From Thor #345-348, July to October 1984, comes the tale of Eric Willis, human guardian of a long lost Asgardian artefact who finally loses his incredibly long battle against dark Fae killers in ‘That Was No Lady’, even as the Thunderer is courted by comely maiden Lorelei.

The Godling is blithely unaware that she is the sister of the Enchantress and planning to make him her slave through a magic potionâ€¦

In the next issue – inked by Terry Austin – Willis’ son Roger inherits the burden of keeping the Casket of Ancient Winters from sinister Dark Elf overlord Malekith the Accursed, and teams up with a rather distracted Thor whose Asgardian race has been at war with Malekith’s people since time immemorial. But whilst ‘The Wild Hunt!’ harries his enemies, the demonic destroyer captures Lorelei and drags her ‘Into the Realm of Faerie!’

When Roger and Thor go after them the Thunderer is attacked by super elf Algrim the Strong who would have killed Thor had not impatient Dark Elf thrown both combatants into a fiery pitâ€¦

All alone Roger is helpless to protect the Casket from Malekith who at last unleashes ‘The Dark and the Light’ (Bob Wiacek inks) allowing Surtur to escape from his eternal prisonâ€¦

‘This KursÃ©d Earthâ€¦!’ from #363 (January 1985) was part of the Secret Wars II publishing event set after the Surtur conflict ended, and saw omnipotent being The Beyonder come to Earth in search of philosophical answers to imponderable questions. Adopting a trial by ordeal methodology, the alien resurrected and augmented Algrim and allowed him to hunt Thor, even as guest stars Power Pack and Beta Ray Bill attempted to reason with the oddly sympathetic obsessed berserkerâ€¦

The series continued, folding in the late 1990s, to restart in an impressive second volume as part of the Heroes Return publishing event, but the same toothy problems of direction still lingered.

And so, at last the cosmic dramas all concluded with the Really, Truly, We Mean It, End of the Gods and True Day of Ragnarok, wherein Thor himself instigated the final fall to end an ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless overbeings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time beganâ€¦

Even so the franchise restarted in 2007 with volume 3 and the Storm Lord back from the dead. Conjoined once more with Don Blake he was looking for the displaced citizens of a somehow restored but empty Asgard, which now floated a few dozen feet above the barren flats of Brockton, Oklahoma.

Thor volume 3, #12, (January 2009) offers ‘Diversions and Misdirections’ by J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales revealing how, with Odin gone and Asgard now Earthbound, implacable Loki has joined with Death Goddess Hela to dishonour and destroy his hated half-brother.

The first step requires the God of Mischief to travel back in time to that long gone moment when his father Laufey battled Odinâ€¦

Thor resumed its original numbering in April 2009 and volume 1 #600, by Straczynski, Coipel, Marko Djurdjevic & Morales, saw the insidious villain’s ultimate ‘Victory’ after resurrecting the long deceased proto-Asgardian Bor and tricking the progenitor of all Norse Gods into attacking Earth and battling his own grandson Thorâ€¦ to the deathâ€¦

With covers by Kirby, Stone & Colletta, Pollard, Simonson, Djurdjevic, Olivier & Morales and Gabrielle Dell’Otto, this fulsome primer is less an introduction for readers unfamiliar with the stentorian Thunder God and more a cleverly constructed appendage for the film sequel.

However, I can’t deny that what’s on offer here is of great quality and well able to stand as great examples of the comicbook hero at his most memorable and entertaining. Most importantly this is a well-tailored device to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation too.

Filled with non-stop tension and blockbuster action, this an ideal tool to make curious film-goers into funnybook fans and another solid sampling to entice and charm even the most jaded lapsed reader to return.

October 10, 2013

Thor God of Thunder: Godbomb

By Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Butch Guice & Tom Palmer (Marvel Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-551-2

In the wake of the epochal Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company’s entire continuity was reconfigured. From that point on the banner MarvelNOW! indicated a radical repositioning and recasting of all the characters in an undertaking designed to keep the more than 50-year-old universe interesting to readers old and new alike.

This involved a varying degree of drastic rethink for beloved icons, concepts and brands, always, of course, with one wary eye on how the material would look on a movie screenâ€¦

Collecting Thor, God of Thunder #6-11 (cover-dated May-October 2013) and scripted throughout by Jason Aaron, this blistering cosmic chronicle again encompasses a multitude of eras as the Lord of Lightning ends an epic war to save all deities throughout Creation from the sadistic depredations of Gorr, the God-Butcherâ€¦

It all began when the present-day Thor heard a prayer from another planet and voyaged to the arid planet Indigarr where a devout girl called out to alien gods because her own had been murdered.

The Thunderer’s intervention and investigations took him to the pan-cosmic metropolis Omnipotence City, where divinities from every world and time had gathered since the universe began. He found there that pantheons across the universe had been mysteriously disappearing or dying for millenniaâ€¦

Moreover, as he was constantly intercepted and ambushed by monstrous black beasts he remembered a ghastly time when he was young and boisterous in Iceland and Russia and an alien foe had slaughtered his followers before capturing and torturing him. Although he had eventually overcome the insane god-hating Gorr, the present crisis had much in common with that awful, humiliating occasionâ€¦

Meanwhile, at the end of time in a universe with no gods left, an aged, one-eyed, one-armed Thor was the Last King of Asgard, unceasingly defending his Great Hall from an unending horde of savage black beasts that hungered for his doomâ€¦

Thanks to perseverance, the ramblings of broken alien minor deity Shadrak and the benisons of the enigmatic Time Gods, the contemporary Storm Lord at last learned the impossibly cruel, history-shredding scheme of the God Butcher: to invade the time-stream, unmake history and achieve a utopian â€œGodless Ageâ€â€¦

The Celestial Slaughterman was over the moon when his 21st century nemesis arrived in Asgard at the end of eternity. Now the temporal terror had two Thors to torment as he completed his awful agendaâ€¦

The saga resumes in this volume with a slight digression as ‘What the Gods Have Wrought’ (illustrated by Butch Guice & Tom Palmer) reveals the brutal ancient origins of the primitive Gorr on a hellish world where all his children died long slow deaths. Discarding the gods who had abandoned him, the enraged apostate then stumbles into a duel between two cosmic beings and kills them both after the battle leaves them spent and helpless.

One of the celestial beings had employed a black energy force, and that eerie weapon then transferred its power and allegiance to Gorr. Revelling in revenge achieved, the barbarian reshaped the dark force into armour before flying into space seeking more gods to killâ€¦

By time’s end he had eradicated almost all of them – apart from a captive population he kept to torture and fuel his ultimate weaponâ€¦

The 5-part ‘Godbomb’ – illustrated by Esad Ribic – then opens with ‘Where Gods Go to Die’. In the final future the mature and ancient Thors gird themselves for battle as, in 893AD, young Thor is attacked by Gorr’s minions and becomes the latest captive of the God Butcher’s slaughter campâ€¦

In the now at the Library of Omnipotence City, Shadrak reveals his hidden nature and what Gorr made him build. The Librarian is appalled at what the â€œGod of Bombs and Explosionsâ€ has wroughtâ€¦

Brought to be broken at the end of eternity, the juvenile Storm Lord meets the last deities in creation – including his own eventual granddaughters Atli, Ellisiv and Frigg – before learning the meaning of sacrifice and humility as a ‘God in Chains’. His unending torment is only leavened by his meeting the son of Gorr – a kind and decent boy who worships his own red-handed sire as a godâ€¦

The ultimate bomb is fed by the deaths of gods and when ready it will explode, sending killing energies through time to destroy all gods everywhere. The captive deities are intent on sabotaging it, but before they can find a volunteer Atli realises her boy-grandfather has already goneâ€¦

The attempt fails completely leaving the Godbomb utterly unscathed. There is no sign of young Thor. Unknown to all, the boy has been blasted into space to be fortuitously rescued by a flying dragon boat carrying two older versions of himself. Set on war, ready to die and uniquely sharing ‘Thunder in the Blood’, the Boy, Man and Dotard turn towards what will be a fateful Final Battleâ€¦

From here on the story becomes a magnificent spectacle of heroic sacrifice and glorious action as the trinity of Thors defeats the ultimate enemy and sets Reality to rights in a tale of blistering action and exultant adventure, cleverly capitalising on the Thunder God’s key conceptual strengths, producing a saga to shake the heavens and delight fans of both the comics and the movies.

Also included herein are swathes of extra content for tech-savvy consumers via the AR icon option (described as code for a free digital copy on the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices and Marvel Digital Comics Shop: a special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app â€“ including cover recaps, behind the scenes features and more) as well as a cover-and-variants gallery by Ribic, Gabriele Dell’Otto and Julian Totino Tedesco.
â„¢ & Â© 2013 Marvel. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

August 29, 2013August 28, 2013

Thor: Siege Aftermath

By Kieron Gillen, Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4638-4

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in monsters-and-mysteries anthology Journey into Mystery #83. The taleÂ Â introduced crippled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror he was trapped in a cave wherein lay an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, the puny human smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming the Mighty Thor where, after years of bombastic adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined and finally clarified to explain how the immortal godling could also be locked within frail Don Blake.

The epic saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth and finally revealed that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian construct designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassionâ€¦

Time passed; Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image Comics instigators Jim Lee and Rob Liefield during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched in brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later.

After many phenomenal adventures the second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end a ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time beganâ€¦

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character unresurrected, so he was reborn again as a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life â€“ and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) â€“ in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts and set up Asgard on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground of Broxton, Oklahomaâ€¦

As this small, simple community with some intriguing neighbours increasingly became the focus of cosmic events, expatriate big city doctor Don Blake was corporeally merged with Thor and became the mortal host for the God of Thunderâ€¦

What you need to know: trickster god Loki is dead but his legacy of malign machinations continues to affect the earthbound Asgardians as they begin to rebuild their devastated city following an appalling assault by the massed forces of out-of-control American Security Czar Norman Osborn in Siegeâ€¦

Balder the Brave is the latest leader of the displaced deities but the populace is far from united behind him, with factions forming advocating the accession of Thor or his brother Tyr, God of War. Neither blood-son of lost Odin wants the job or feels worthy of the throneâ€¦

When Asgard materialised on Earth, the afterlife realms of Hel and Valhalla were displaced and Hela, caretaker of the dead, allowed Loki to broker a deal which sublet a portion of Mephisto‘s Hell as a home for the wandering Norse dead. Hela feared her phantom charges would become prey to an ancient pre-Asgardian horror which consumed the spirits of fallen heroes, but she was unaware that the dire Disir were also pawns of the turbulent, troubled God of Evil who was her fatherâ€¦

Nor was she privy to the fact that, to seal the deal, Loki had given Mephisto mastery of the voracious, vile and utterly debased Dead-eatersâ€¦

Collecting issues #611-614 of Thor (from August to November 2010), this grim fury tale of Hells without a Heaven also includes a classic 3-part saga of Asgardians in the Underworld first seen in Thor #179-181 at the end of the 1960s.

‘The Fine Print’ consists of four chapters scripted by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite and begins with Thor, Balder and Tyr officiating at a mass pyre for the hundreds who fell in defence of Asgard and Broxton. Meanwhile in Mephisto’s blazing inferno, lesser demons ousted from their hellish lands prepare to oust Hela and her transplanted Hall of Heroes, but are completely eradicated by the Disir â€“ despised proto-Valkyries who served primordial god Bor until they acquired a taste for the flesh and souls of fallen warriors and were condemned for all eternity.

Simply to speak their communal name summons them from eternity to kill and consume. As none has done so in an age, most Asgardians believe them to be mythâ€¦

Now, with upheaval in the Realms of the Gods, the horrors are free to sate their insatiable hungers, first upon the demon armies and after on the hallowed Asgardian dead. First, however, they must gain the sanction of their new master Mephisto.

The arch deceiver won’t say yes – but he doesn’t say no eitherâ€¦

When the â€œEver-Hungry Onesâ€ raid Valhalla, the only place Hela can turn is to the living world where hopefully flesh and blood still honours the sanctity of the fallenâ€¦

In Asgard, Balder is uneasy with his stewardship and seeks comfort in the wisdom of weather goddess Kelda Stormrider, who sacrificed so much – including her mortal beloved Bill and briefly her own life – to defend the kingdom. He is completely unaware what Loki’s magics have made of her nowâ€¦

When Hela materialises amongst the ashes of the recent dead and begs for aid, she is naturally rebuffed until one foolhardy warrior utters the forbidden name of the damned and is instantly rent to shreds by the terrifying harpiesâ€¦

Rather than kill them all, BrÃ¼n of the Disir leaves with a warning: her kind prefers meals seasoned by life’s ending and would prefer to dine on souls that have expired. After all, they are patient and have all the time in the worldâ€¦

With the weakened Hela only able to carry two warriors, Thor and Tyr ignore their suspicious misgivings and return with her to rescue their departed friends and family. The War God goes with Hela to defend the embattled shades of Valhalla whilst the Thunderer prepares to fight his way across all Hell in search of the sword Eir-Gram, forged by Loki through despicable rite and ritual and the only weapon capable of harming Disirâ€¦

The puissant blade is lodged in Mephisto’s Great Hall but Thor wisely chooses to force his way to it rather than accept a sly offer of assistance from the Tempter to simply collect itâ€¦

Ferocious, grandly scaled, truly epic and astoundingly clever, this is a superb tale of operatic tone and proportions, full of twists and turns and surprises that adds volumes to the modern mythology of the Thunder God and will delight fans of comics and the cosmic.

This dark and brutal tome continues with a masterful changing of the guard and sign of the times which originally appeared in Thor #179-181, August to October 1970.

In #179 ‘No More the Thunder God!’ saw Thor, Sif and Balder dispatched to Earth to arrest Loki. This story was Kirby’s (and inker Vince Colletta’s) last: the entire vast unfolding new mythology was left on an artistic cliffhanger as the Thunder God was ambushed by his wicked step-brother who used infernal magic to trade places with his shining-souled half-brotherâ€¦

By switching bodies, the Lord of Evil gained safety and the power of the Storm whilst Thor was doomed to endure whatever punishment Odin decreedâ€¦

‘When Gods Go Mad!’ introduced the totally different style of Neal Adams to the mix, inked by the comfortably familiar Joe Sinnott, as the true Thunder God was sent to Hell and the tender mercies of Mephisto, whilst on Earth Loki used his brother’s body to terrorise the UN Assembly and declare himself Master of the Worldâ€¦

In #181 ‘One God Must Fall’ Sif led Warriors Three Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg on a rescue mission to the Infernal Realm, whilst Balder struggled to combat the combined power of Thor and malice of Loki, until Mephisto was finally thwarted and a cataclysmic battle of brothers on embattled Earth set the world at last to rights.

Dark, brooding and ferocious, this is a breathtaking Costumed Drama that will enthral and delight fans of both comic and filmic Asgardian iterations which also includes covers and variants by Mico Suayan, Laura Martin, Adams, Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Marie Severin, John Buscema & Chris Stevens plus a beautiful selection of pencilled original art by Braithwaite.
Â© 1970, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

June 3, 2013June 22, 2013

Thor God of Thunder: The God Butcher

By Jason Aaron & Esad Ribic (Marvel Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-533-8

In the wake of the game-changing Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company’s entire continuity was reconfigured. From that point on the banner MarvelNOW! indicated a radical repositioning and recasting of all the characters in an undertaking designed to keep the more than 50-year old universe interesting to readers old and new alike.

This involved a varying degree of drastic rethink for beloved icons, concepts and brands, always, I’m sure, with one wary eye on how the material would look on a movie screen…

Collecting Thor, God of Thunder #1-5 (cover-dated January-April 2013) by Jason Aaron & Esad Ribic, this big, bold blockbuster saga simultaneously unfolds over three separate eras and offers a spectacular clash as the bellicose Lord of Lightning faces his ultimate adversaryâ€¦

It begins in Iceland in 893AD where a young god revels amongst his Viking worshippers, slaying monsters and bedding mortal maids in the days before he proved himself worthy enough to wield the mystic mallet Mjolnir.

During his revels a dismembered corpse washes up, terrifying the valiant Norsemen. They have never seen the like but Thor recognises it as a god from another pantheon, slaughtered and dismembered like meatâ€¦

In the now, Thor is summoned into deep space and the parched planet Indigarr. The Thunderer has mystically heard the desperate prayer of a little girl and on his arrival brings rain and salvation to her dying world.

Celebrated as a saviour, the Storm Lord wonders aloud why the people did not pray to their own gods – across the entire universe, all civilisations and peoples have deities – and learns they are dead. Investigating further he locates Indigarr’s god-palace and discovers the entire pantheon was tortured to death ages agoâ€¦

As a monstrous black beast ambushes him he remembers a horrific experience more than a millennium past and knows fearâ€¦

In the furthest future, an aged Thor sits in a shattered Great Hall of Asgard. He has only one arm and one eye and is the last god – perhaps the last being – in existence â€¦except for the uncountable hordes of savage black beasts that surround himâ€¦

The cosmic conundrum continues in ‘A World without Gods’ as, in Iceland, Thor leads a bold band of worshipful reivers on a quest into what will one day be Russia and encounters a being who has killed all the gods of the Slavs.

Appropriating one of the perished pantheon’s flying horses Thor soars aloft to challenge the mysterious God Butcher and, amidst a welter of ‘Blood in the Clouds’, eventually defeats the maniacal alien Gorrâ€¦

In the present, an enraged Thunder God, having honourably disposed of the celestial corpses, sets off to discover the truth of the situationâ€¦

Arriving at the pan-cosmic metropolis of Omnipotence City, where gods of every world and time have met since the universe began, the Thunderer discovers that over the eons many divinities have gradually stopped visiting.

After consulting the infinitude of scrolls in ‘The Hall of the Lost’, Thor journeys to many of the worlds and finds the same thing over and again: slaughtered, desecrated corpses and planets bereft of godly life. Each of them does harbour a brutal black beast thoughâ€¦

In ancient Russia the Thunder godling recovers after seven days in a coma, tended by his faithful Vikings. Seeking to confirm his victory, Thor subsequently searches the icy wastes and finds the last of the Slavic Celestials, left as a swiftly expiring signpost to a rematch with the diabolical divinity-slayerâ€¦

In our time Thor and Avenger ally Iron Man visit the same region, scouting the cave where Thor ended the menace of Gorr, the God Butcher in the 9^th century.

After all he has seen in space, however, the Thunderer is questioning his memory and conclusions. Wiser and warier than his youthful incarnation, the Prince of Asgard dispatches the Golden Avenger to warn Earth’s other pantheons of their imminent peril before entering the cave he’d last visited more than a thousand years agoâ€¦

At the very end of days the dotard Thunder God continues to slay black beasts, hungry for the honourable death they will not allow himâ€¦

And in the 21^st century the Lord of Storms finds not his foe, but a pathetically broken alien god the Butcher has left with a personal message â€“ â€œIt’s all your fault, Thorâ€¦â€

At the end of time ‘The Last God in Asgard’ is left to fight again but never die, as in the now, Thor and broken alien deity Shadrak return to Omnipotence City following a slipped reference to something called â€œChronuxâ€ and stumble into a raid by beast creatures determined to erase all reference to it from the infinite library of the eternal omnopolis.

In 893AD the awful truth of what occurred in Gorr’s cavern is revealed, as the present-day Thor follows a faint hope to the planet of the Time Gods and learns the impossibly grandiose, history-shredding scheme of the Butcher.

Gorr meanwhile has uncovered the true origin-story of universal life and invades the corridors of time to achieve his ‘Dream of a Godless Age’â€¦

The Celestial Slaughterman is even more elated when his 21^st century nemesis is catapulted to Asgard at the end of eternity. Now the chronal marauder has two Thors to play with – for as long as he wishesâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Dark, complex, expansive and disturbing, this cruelly compelling yarn perfectly capitalises on the Thunder’s God’s key conceptual strengths to offer a decidedly different take on the venerable hero – one that should delight fans who think they’ve seen it all.

Also included herein are swathes of extra content for tech-savvy consumers via the AR icon option (described as â€œcode for a free digital copy on the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices and Marvel Digital Comics Shop: a special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app – including cover recaps, behind the scenes features and moreâ€) as well as the usual available-to-all expansive cover-and-variants gallery by Ribic, Skott Young, Daniel AcuÃ±a, Joe Quesada, Olivier Coipel & Rajko Milosevic Guera.

April 16, 2013April 19, 2013

Essential Thor volume 5

By Gerry Conway, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Don Perlin, Vince Colletta, Jim Mooney & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5093-0

Whilst the ever-expanding Marvel Universe had grown ever-more interconnected as it matured, with characters literally tripping over each other in New York City, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby had most often drawn the Thunder God away from mortal realms into stunning, unique landscapes and scenarios.

By the time of this fifth Essential monochrome compendium, an unthinkable Changing of the Guard had seen the King of Comics jump ship from the House of (His) Ideas to arch-rival DC where he crafted the unfinished Magnum Opus of the Fourth World series as well as a number of other game-changing concepts.

The Thunder God suffered a sharp, sudden loss of imaginative impetus, however, which left the series floundering, despite the best efforts of (arguably) the company’s greatest remaining illustrators, Neal Adams and John Buscema. More than any other Marvel feature, The Mighty Thor was the strip where Kirby’s creative brilliance had always found its greatest release in cosmic wandering and questing exploration of an infinite and dangerous universe.

His dreaming, extrapolating and honing of a dazzling new kind of storytelling and graphic symbology, wedded to soul-searching, mind-boggling concepts of Man’s place in the universe – and all within the limited confines of a 20-page action adventure – was an impossible act to follow.

Although his successors mimicked the trappings of that incredible conceptual juggling act, the heart, soul and soaring, unfettered wonder just were not there any longer – nor would they be until 1983 when Walt Simonson assumed creative control with #337 (see Mighty Thor: the Ballad of Beta Ray Bill).

By the time these monthly episodes (from issues #196-220, February 1972 to February 1974) saw print, the Thunder God and his Asgardian companions were slowly devolving into a muddled, self-doubting band of fantasy spacemen roving the outer limits of the Marvel Universe under the earnest but uninspired governance of young science fiction novelist Gerry Conway and a dedicated, talented but still somehow inappropriate string of artists.

The previous volume had seen Asgard again imperilled by mystic monstrosity Mangog with Thor and friends dispatched on another extended odyssey to the ends of the Universe in search of succour and water from The Twilight Well. In his righteous rage Odin had previously banished God of Evil Loki to a fantastic world, momentarily forgetting that once there the Prince of Evil could awaken the most vicious, unbeatable monster in the universeâ€¦

Now the Thunderer, with Warriors Three Fandral the Dashing, Voluminous Volstagg and Hogun the Grim, found himself lost ‘Within the Realm of Kartag!’ (illustrated by John Buscema & Vince Colletta): facing slug-men and bewitching temptress Satrina even as the All-Father and the hosts of the Shining City struggled to hold Mangog at bay. Meanwhile on the planet Blackworld Lady Sif and her muscular shield-maiden Hildegarde were undertaking another Odinian quest and found themselves caught up in a time-bending nightmareâ€¦

Thor #197 saw the heroes overcome all odds to find ‘The Well at the Edge of the World!’ meeting the conniving, all-powerful Norns and recruiting the colossal Kartag for their desperate return to shattered Asgard.

On Blackworld Sif and Hildegarde encountered monsters and men making uncontrollable evolutionary leaps towards an unguessable future, but found an unlikely ally and guide in aged sailor Silas Grant.

The male heroes returned to find Asgard in flaming ruins and the cataclysmic confrontation with the Mangog nearing an apocalyptic end, whilst on Blackworld Sif, Hildegarde and Silas met alien Rigellian Colonizer Tana Nile and the horrendous creature behind the evolutionary jumps. Simultaneously the battle in Asgard reached a horrific climax when Mangog was at last defeated ‘â€¦And Odin Dies!’

Issue #199 saw the ravaged home of the gods adrift in a dimensional void, allowing Thor – clutching to a desperate last hope – to cocoon his deceased father in a timeless forcefield, preventing Dark Goddess Hela from claiming his soul. However she wasn’t the only deity hungry for the All Father’s spirit and ‘If This Be Death…!’ revealed Grecian netherlord Pluto invading the broken realm to take Odin into his own dire domain.

â€¦And, on Blackworld, Tana Nile hinted at the origin of the monstrous Ego-Prime and how it can force such terrifying uncontrollable time-warpsâ€¦

Back in free-floating Asgard, things went from bad to worse as brave Balder‘s beloved Karnilla deserted him just as invincible Pluto defeated Hela and aimed a killing blow at Thorâ€¦

The denouement was aggravatingly delayed as anniversary issue #200 hit the pause button to flashback to an earlier age. ‘Beware! If This Beâ€¦ Ragnarok!’ was crafted by Stan Lee, John Buscema & John Verpoorten and spectacularly depicted the fall of the gods through the mystic visions of Volla the Prophetess, with only a bridging Prologue and Epilogue by Conway & Buscema revealing the Norns saving Thor’s life just in time for the concluding battle against Pluto in #201 (with Jim Mooney providing lush finished art over Buscema’s layouts).

When Hela relinquished her claim to the father of the gods and Odin enjoyed a miraculous ‘Resurrection!’, on Earth absentee Asgardians Heimdall and Kamorr began seeking out mortals for a another Odinian master-plan even before the battle with Pluto was fully concluded. As they scoured Midgard, on Blackworld Ego-Prime advanced the civilisation into atomic Armageddon and Sif barely transported her companions to Earth in time to escape the thermonuclear conflagration.

Luckily Thor, Balder, and the Warriors Three were in New York City to meet the refugees, since the deadly, now self-evolving, Ego-Prime had followed themâ€¦

Thor #202 boasted ‘â€¦And None Dare Stand ‘Gainst Ego-Prime!’ (Buscema & Colletta) although Silas, Tana Nile and the assembled Asgardians tried their best as the now-sentient shard of Ego, the Living Planet rampaged across the city making monsters and shattering entire streets, whilst Odin calmly observed the carnage and destruction and Heimdall and Kamorr gathered their human targets for the concluding ‘They Walk Like Gods!’, wherein all Odin’s machinations were finally revealed as Ego-Prime inadvertently created a new race of 20^th century deities. Sadly the All-Father’s long and single-minded scheme appalled his son and weary, war-torn subjects, whose understandable rebukes led to them all being ‘Exiled on Earth!’ in #204 (Buscema & Mooney) and soon targeted by terrifying satanic tempter Mephistoâ€¦

Soon only the Thunderer was left to oppose the devil invading his private hell and liberating hundreds of demon-possessed humans from ‘A World Gone Mad!’ (Colletta inks), after which the Earth-bound godling clashed brutally but inconclusively with the uncharacteristically amok Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man just as Thor’s greatest enemy resurfaced in #206’s ‘Rebirth!’

Tracking the escaped Creel to Rutland, Vermont during their annual Halloween festival, Thor, Sif and Hildegarde clashed with the malevolent Loki and his all-powerful ‘Firesword!’ in an action-heavy duel elevated by a plethora of comic creator cameos with the divine Marie Severin adding her caricaturing brilliance to Buscema & Colletta’s workmanlike illustration. Another extended sub-ploy opened here as Sif vanished, spirited away by the love-lorn Karnilla to the ends of the universeâ€¦

Sci fi themes took the lead again in Thor #208 as ‘The Fourth-Dimensional Man!’ manifested, stealing the Thunderer’s ambient Asgardian energies to save his own world from disaster. Sadly they were insufficient and the malevolent Mercurio needed to tap his source directly resulting in battle without mercy as Thor’s noble spirit gradually gave way to the despair of exile and constant lossâ€¦

Incessantly searching for Sif, Thor stopped in London (not one any Briton would ever recognise though) in #209 long enough to accidentally awaken a sleeping alien dormant since the building of Stonehenge. The resultant clash between Thunder God and â€œDemon Druidâ€ devastated much of England in ‘Warriors in the Night!’ before being ambushed in Red China by Mao’s soldiers in #210 ‘The Hammer and the Hellfire!‘ (Buscema, Don Perlin & Colletta). They were merely the action appetiser, however, since ultimate Troll Ulik had decided to conquer both his own people and Earth and moved pre-emptively to remove his greatest foe from the equationâ€¦

With New York invaded by Troll warriors, #211 revealed ‘The End of the Battle!’ (Buscema, Perlin & Colletta) as the fighting mad Asgardians routed the underworld insurgents just as an insane Balder returned to warn that Asgard had been conquered. With the Realm Eternal emptied of gods and occupied by sleazy lizard-men, Thor and his companions were soon hot on the trail of their missing race. Guided by saurian rogue Sssthgar and his serpentine horde, they undertook a ‘Journey to the Golden Star!’ in #212 and discovered their liege and kin meek chattels on a slaver’s auction blockâ€¦

Scripted by Len Wein over Conway’s plot, ‘The Demon Brigade!’ saw Thor betrayed by the Lizard Lord and embroiled in a war between slaver races before discovering Sssthgar’s secret and freeing his father. He also obtained a lead to the whereabouts of Sif and Karnilla, consequently plunging his small dedicated party of heroes recklessly ‘Into the Dark Nebula!’ (by Conway, Sal Buscema & Mooney) to rescue the missing maidens from the asteroid miners who had purchased them.

They found their quarry besieged by the 4D Man and his army, who were intent on acquiring a malign, sentient source of infinite power, but events took an uncanny turn when ‘The God in the Jewel’ (John Buscema & Mooney) absorbed the women into its crystalline mass and took off, intent on dominating all life in the universeâ€¦

Forced to become allies of convenience, the Asgardians and Mercurio strove together ‘Where Chaos Rules!’ to free the women and stop the rapacious gem-god, but even after eventual victory found them tenuous comrades, Thor’s trials were not done.

Returning in triumph to a mysteriously rebuilt Asgard in #217, the wanderers found ‘All Swords Against Them!’ (Sal Buscema inking brother John), as impossible doppelgangers of Odin, Thor and the rest greeted them with murderous hostility. Whilst the Thunder God furiously battled to unravel this latest mystery, in another sector of the universe the all-conquering Colonizers of Rigel were put to flight and abandoned their worlds to an all-consuming force of sheer destructionâ€¦

Thor #218 proved there was no rest for the weary as the victorious Asgardians again took ship for deep space to prevent the Rigellians’ doom from reaching Earth. ‘Where Pass the Black Stars There Also Passesâ€¦ Death!’ (J. Buscema & Mooney) found the hard-travelling heroes discovering a nomadic race of colossal, decadent star-farers who fuelled their unending flight by recycling thriving civilisations into food and power.

In distant Asgard, Hildegarde’s young sister Krista was slowly falling under the sway of sinister seductive evil even as her hereditary protectors were a cosmos away, infiltrating one of the Black Stars’ cosmic scoops and encountering a race of mechanical slaves in

#219’s ‘A Galaxy Consumed!’ (inked by Mike Esposito) before this volume’s story-portion ends with #220, wherein the slaves and their charismatic messiah Avalon are at last freed and untold galaxies subsequently saved from callous consumption in ‘Behold! The Land of Doom!’

This collection also includes fact-filled Marvel Universe Handbook pages on Pluto, Tana Nile, and Mercurio, the 4-D Man.

The Kirby Thor will always be a high-point in graphic fantasy, all the more impressive for the sheer imagination and timeless readability of the tales. With his departure the series foundered for the longest time before finding a new identity, but his successors did their honest best to follow in his Brobdingnagian footsteps.

The tales gathered here may lack the sheer punch and verve of The King but fans of cosmic Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy will find this tome still stuffed with intrigue and action, magnificently rendered by artists who, whilst not possessing Kirby’s vaulting visionary passion, were every inch his equal in craft and dedication, making this a definite mustÂ for all fans of the character and the genre.

January 27, 2013January 25, 2013

The Incredible Hercules: the New Prince of Power

By Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Ariel Olivetti, Paul Tobin, Reilly Brown, Jason Paz, Terry Pallot, Zach Howard, Adam Archer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4370-3

Comicbook Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas are serious business – but they don’t have to be.

There are too few light-hearted adventure comics around for my liking. Have readers become so sullen, depressed and angst-ridden that it takes nothing but oceans of blood and devastating cosmic trauma to rouse them?

Let’s hope not since we all adore a modicum of mirth with our mayhem, and let’s be honest, there are lashings of sheer comedic potential to play with when men-in-tights Â – or in the Lion of Olympus’ case, a very short skirt and leather bondage-leggings – start hitting each other with clubs and cars and buildings.

The contemporary Marvel iteration of Hercules first appeared in 1965’s Journey into Mystery Annual #1, wherein Thor, God of Thunder fell into the realm of the Greek Gods and ended up swapping bombastic blows with the happy-go-lucky but easily-riled Hellenic Prince of Power in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby landmark ‘When Titans Clash! Thor Vs. Hercules!’

Since then the bombastic immortal warrior has bounced around the Marvel Universe seeking out other heroes and heated fisticuffs as an Avenger, Defender, Champion, Renegade, Hero for Hire and any other super-squad prepared to take the big lug and his constant, perpetual boozing, wenching, bragging and blathering about the â€œGood Old Daysâ€â€¦

In recent years Herc got a good deal more serious, becoming a far more conventionally po-faced world-saver and even found himself a protÃ©gÃ© – don’t call him â€œsidekickâ€ – in keen teen Amadeus Cho, notionally the Seventh Smartest Person on Earth.

This deliciously wicked and engaging collection, gathering often inappropriate and simultaneously stirring and uproarious contents of Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1-2 and the follow-up 4-issue miniseries Heroic Age: Prince of Power from 2010, is actually the prequel to a larger epic event but self-contained enough and so entertaining that readers won’t mind or feel short-changed.

The drama unfolds in the aftermath of the mighty man-god’s apparent death with the aforementioned ‘Hercules: Fall of an Avenger’, by writers Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente with art by Ariel Olivetti, as many of the Gods and mortals touched by the life of the departed legend gather at the Parthenon for a wondrous wake to memorialise his passing.

Athena now rules the gods ofOlympus and turns up stylishly late as the gathering share personal tales of the departed legend.

Whilst the he-man heroes such as Thor, Bruce Banner, Skaar, Son of Hulk, the Warriors Three, Wolverine, Angel, and Sub-Mariner dwell on their comrade’s fighting spirit, the women such as Namora, Black Widow, Inuit goddess Snowbird and Alflyse, Queen of the Dark Elves prefer to share fond reminiscences of his other prowess – despite the blushes of the congregation.

However just as Cho prepares to speak his own thoughts, Athena and the remaining Hellenic Pantheon materialise and announce the boy is to be the new commander of the globe-spanning corporation known as the Olympus Group, becoming the next Prince of Power to act as the god’s representative on Earthâ€¦

Before Amadeus can react, Athena’s decree leads to a minor rebellion in her own ranks as Apollo challenges her and the assemblage degenerates into another epic brawl. Cho doesn’t care and uses the distraction to act on a suspicion that Hercules is not actually dead. His search of Hades, however, proves fruitlessâ€¦

One of the smartest humans alive, Amadeus acquiesces and takes control of the Olympus Group to further his own agenda, but makes no secret of his dislike and mistrust of Athenaâ€¦

Further repercussions of Hercules’ demise are seen when Namora and fellow Agent of Atlas Venus (a seductive Greek Siren, only recently promoted to actual love goddess) are dispatched by Athena to set the Man-God’s earthly affairs in order. Over the millennia the big-hearted, happy warrior accrued vast wealth and used it to set up businesses, trusts, foundations and charities, but now the Queen of Olympus wants to absorb the profitable ones and shut down the lame ducks.

As they track down his holdings and inform administrators of the situation, the grieving wonder women uncover an unsuspected ‘Greek Tragedy’ (by Paul Tobin, Reilly Brown & Jason Paz) on a lost Greek island – a cash-sucking black hole of an orphanage caring for children who just happen to be the innocent spawn of the many monsters Hercules slew in his voyages.

How then can Namora and Venus obey the dictates of the hard-hearted Athena and still honour the spirit of their soft-hearted former loverâ€¦?

‘Heroic Age: Prince of Power’ (Pak, Van Lente, Brown, Zach Howard, Adam Archer & Pallot) then occupies the major portion of this chronicle following the progress of Cho as he settles into the uncomfortable role of divine Prince of Power and mortal Chairman of the Board. His first order of business is to divert vast funds into searching the multiverse for Herculesâ€¦

Athena’s driving motivation for recruiting Amadeus is that an Age has passed on Earth: where once brute strength was the defining characteristic of the era, the Modern Age is subject to the force of intellect. The new Prince of Power must reflect the reliance on Reason and Intelligence, especially since a long-prophesied â€œGreat Chaosâ€ is comingâ€¦

A cosmic congress of pantheons convenes to select a mortal to lead the fight against the on-coming threat and, after much debate, Athena gets her way: clever kid Amadeus Cho is expected to save the entirety of creationâ€¦

On Earth the unsuspecting and intolerably obnoxious seventeen-year-old is dealing with lesser problems whilst working towards his own ultimate goal – rescuing Hercules from wherever he’s goneâ€¦

The most pressing of these daily duties is defeating mutated maniac the Griffin and saving an amusement park from becoming lunch, just the latest in a procession of monsters acting as vanguards for the approaching Chaos Kingâ€¦

Another problem is that he’s had to lock up his girlfriend Delphyne – Queen of the Gorgons – for trying to assassinate Athena, so when Vali Halfling (son of Asgardian god of Evil Loki) comes calling offering the secret of ultimate divine power, the distracted Cho is understandably intrigued, although not enough to fall for the trickster’s devious schemeâ€¦

The vile demigod wants to gather mystical elements from assorted pantheons (Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Hindu) to create a potion that will deliver ultimate divine power and enable the upstart kids to eliminate all other deities, but Cho isn’t fooled and rather than fall for a dishonest alliance he sets out to beat Vali to the ingredients – Hellenic Ambrosia, the Apples of Idunn, the Book of Thoth and Moon-cup of Dhanvantari. The race commences in ‘Blasphemy Can be Fun’ and, after pausing for ‘The Origin of Hercules’ by Van Lente, Ryan Stegman, Michael Babinski, continues with Cho’s one-man invasion of Asgard in ‘Valhalla Blues’.

The neophyte Prince of Power has no idea that he’s been played, and whilst clashing with former idol Thor for the Apples his rival already possesses, Halfling and his super-powered human Pantheon invades and seizes control of the Olympus Group headquarters to grab the Nectar of the Godsâ€¦

After a spectacularly pointless battle Thor and Cho unite to stop Vali, heading to the EgyptianLandof the Dead to grab the Book. Again they are too late and their outrageous clash with cat-goddess Sekhmet in ‘Our Lady of Slaughter’ only allows Halfling to come closer to his ultimate goal.

With the old gods on the back foot and Athena close to death, the fate of Cho’s people falls to the furious and lethally ticked off Delphyneâ€¦

It all comes to a shattering close in ‘Omnipotence for Dummies’ as Cho ultimately and brilliantly outwits everybody, wins ultimate power, retrieves Hercules from his uncanny fate and promptly surrenders all his divine might to the returned Man-god. He has to: the Chaos King has arrived to annihilate All Of Reality and the situation demands a real heroâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With covers and variants by Olivetti, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, Khoi Pham, Carlo Pagulayan, Paz, Peter Steigerwald, Salva Espin & Beth Sotelo plus pages of character designs by Brown, this bombastic, action-packed thriller also offers scenes of genuine tear-jerking poignancy and hilarious moments of mirth (the tale is especially stuffed with saucy moments of the sort that make grandmothers smirk knowingly, and teenaged boys go as red as Captain America’s boots). An absolute joy for older fans, this epic is also a great example of self-contained Marvel Magic, funny, outrageous, charming and full of good-natured punch-ups.

This is a rare but welcome instance of the company using the continuity without unnecessarily exposing newcomers to the excess baggage which may deter some casual readers from approaching long-running comics material, and if you’re looking for something fresh but traditional, you couldn’t do better than this superb slice of modern mythology.
Â© 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

December 29, 2012December 27, 2012

Thor: Latverian Prometheus

By Kieron Gillen, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Stan Lee, Billy Tan, Ryan Stegman, David Aja & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4372-7

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in anthology monsters-and-mysteries title Journey into Mystery #83. The taleÂ Â introduced crippled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror he was trapped in a cave wherein lay an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, the puny human smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

Time passed; Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefield during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched with brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later. After many phenomenal adventures the second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end an ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time beganâ€¦

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character unresurrected, so he was reborn again as a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life – and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) – in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts and set up Asgard on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground ofBroxton,Oklahomaâ€¦

As this small, simple community with some intriguing neighbours increasingly became the focus of cosmic events, newly arrived big city doctor Don Blake was corporeally merged with Thor and became the mortal host for the God of Thunderâ€¦

What you need to know: when wicked trickster god Loki orchestrated his half-brother Thor’s exile from Asgard, Balder the Brave became the latest leader of the displaced deities. However the real power was always the skulking schemer who slowly convinced the new king to relocate the population of the floating kingdom to Latveria: absolute fiefdom of malign technological tyrant Doctor Doom.

No one knew then that the trickster had long been Doom’s ally in a cabal of ultimate evilâ€¦

The Iron Dictator, adept in science and sorcery, had always been gripped by a voracious lust for power and quickly began to kidnap and vivisect his Asgardian guests, determined to divine the secrets of their immortality and powers. The clandestine campaign of terror was only exposed by Bill Junior, the mortal beloved of goddess Kelda Stormrider, who sacrificed his life to tell Balder the truth about their unctuous host.

Meanwhile in Broxton, ravening Doombots attacked and almost killed Don Blake in an attempt to destroy his Thunderous alter egoâ€¦

Collecting issues #604-606 of Thor from 2009, this grim fairytale also includes a solo story of the Prince of Asgard’s sometime paramour from the Sif one-shot and portions of the anniversary Thor #600.

The tale (by Kieron Gillen, Billy Tan & Batt) resumes here with the vengeance-crazed Kelda invading Doom’s fortress only to become his latest victim and test subject. In the Asgardian camp Balder marshals his forces to rescue his stolen subjects, unaware that Loki has prevented Thor from heeding the clarion summons. In Broxton, however, the maimed Blake has already pieced together evidence and deduced where his attackers originated with a little help from his friends in the metahuman communityâ€¦

The God of Mischief has been arrested by Balder but still schemes to save his neck and cause further hurt where he can. Dragged along as the enraged Asgardians assault Castle Doom, he witnesses the horrors the Master of Latveria has wrought when hideous technologically augmented corpses attack the besiegers at the Doctor’s imperious command. The shocking abominations swiftly gain the upper hand until a furious Thor appears and directly engages with Doom, but the battle is halted when the villain produces Kelda’s ravaged corpse and Loki gleans a way to restore her to life.

All Thor has to do is defeat Doom, invade his citadel and recover her still beating heart from the monster’s laboratoryâ€¦

Unfortunately standing in the way is the ultimate expression of the Devil Doctor’s Asgardian researches: a new and deadly iteration of science and sorcery patterned on Odin’s ultimate weaponâ€¦ the Destroyer.

As Thor battles furiously for his immortal life, Balder takes advantage of the distraction to enter Doom’s lair and grant tragic final rest to the abused remains of the subjects he so grievously failed before rescuing and restoring Keldaâ€¦

Even after the heroes have won their most inconclusive victory the diabolical duo of Loki and Doom are still at large, still unpunished and still plottingâ€¦ against each other as much as their heroic Asgardian enemiesâ€¦

This dark and brutal tome continues with ‘I am the Lady Sif’, a solo tale starring the warrior goddess Sif crafted by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Ryan Stegman, Tom Palmer & Victor Olazaba.

The war-maiden is in Broxton, recuperating and taking stock of her interminable life after an age of shame wherein Loki possessed her body and locked her soul in the withered frame of a dying mortal. The shame he brought to her reputation still burns and chokes even after she finally escaped his curseâ€¦

Although the Oklahomans are doing their best to raise her spirits, she remains downcast until old comrade Beta Ray Bill storms through the pub doors looking for Asgardian assistanceâ€¦

Bill first gained his own measure of Asgardian might when magic hammer Mjolnir deemed the Korbinite worthy and transformed the alien refugee into a warped duplicate of Thor, enabling him to save his space-faring race from a horde of demons who erased their civilisation and were implacably hunting them to extinctionâ€¦

Even after Bill, Thor, Sif and sentient starship Skuttlebutt defeated the threat and the homeless aliens voyaged on through the depths of space to some eventual Promised Land, a new insidious menace manifested and their once-trusty vessel has been possessed. Bill and his comely companion Ti Asha Ra desperately need a mighty non-Korbinite to scour the ship of its inimical infernal infestation and return hope to the remains of his race.

Just the job to perk up an ailing, down-in the-dumps sword-maidenâ€¦

Also included in this eclectic mix is a slight but pretty elegiac appreciation of the Thor canon by Stan Lee & David Aja celebrating the character’s stellar history in the manner of a lovely info-mercial, and the tome is topped off with a comedic cartoon â€œMini-Marvelsâ€ spoof ‘Welcome Back Thor’ by Chris Giarusso.

December 20, 2012January 5, 2013

The Mighty Thor: Everything Burns

By Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Alan Davis, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Stephanie Hans, Barry Kitson, Mark Farmer & Jay Leisten (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-521-5

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in anthology monsters-and-fantasy title Journey into Mystery #83. The tale introduced crippled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror he was trapped in a cave wherein lay an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, the puny human smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

Time passed, Kirby left, and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefield during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched with brand new first issues. The Thunder God reappeared a few weeks later. After many phenomenal adventures that second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-honestly-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It! End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end a ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the exalted inhabitants of Asgard since time beganâ€¦

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character un-resurrected, so he was reborn again when a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life – and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) – in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary and reigning Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts before establishing Asgard on Earth, a few paltry feet above the ground of Broxton, Oklahomaâ€¦

This small and simple community had experienced a few intriguing neighbours before and eventually adapted to the newcomers despite the chaos, hell and Federal grief the Asgardians seemed to perpetually attract.

This spectacular game-changing epic was designed to celebrate the feature’s anniversary as part of the â€œ50 Years of Thunderâ€ event and collects The Mighty Thor #18-22 as it crossed over with issues #642-645 of sister-series Journey into Mystery through the latter half of 2012 and effectively clears the slate for a whole new approach in futureâ€¦

What you need to know: after millennia of doctrinaire double-dealing and abusive micro-management All-Father Odin is gone, banished to another dimension, with his puissant kingdom Asgard ruled by his wife Freyja and a council of sister goddesses who act as a co-operative â€œAll-Motherâ€.

Moreover the eternally capricious and malignant Loki has undergone a few shocking changes too. Resurrected from death and hell by his eternally optimistic half-brother Thor, the trickster has endured life as a woman and currently exists as a (presumably) innocent boy-child: his long-suffering and constantly betrayed family attempting one final gambit to reform the villain and raise a true and decent scion of Asgard.

It seems to be going quite wellâ€¦

With Matt Fraction, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer taking the Thor segments and Kieron Gillen & Carmine Di Giandomenico on the JiM chapters the saga opens in the newly re-named Asgardia where Freyja dreams of the dark days in prehistory when Odin and his race of Aesir battled her father Freyr, ruler of rival bellicose pantheon the Vanir.

The resulting war was so brutal than when Odin finally claimed victory and forcibly merged the tribes through arranged marriage to Freyja, the new â€œAsgardiansâ€ excised all mention of the conflict from the annals of the kingdom.

However, although a peacefully united god-tribe for uncounted eons, no participant on either side truly forgot the hideous pact which the hard-pressed Vanir had made with demonic fire-lord Surtur in their direst hour of need nor the appalling toll taken during that climactic final climactic clash with their Aesir opponentsâ€¦

On Earth today strange phenomena occur with disturbing frequency: dead birds fall from the skies in flames, spontaneous blazes and conflagrations erupt which not even weather god Thor can extinguish with storm or blizzardâ€¦

And in Hel, at the base of the Nine Realms, the roots of the world-ash Yggdrasil are engulfed in flameâ€¦

In Mephisto’s infernal domain the tempter believes he has discerned Loki’s grand scheme whilst in Vanaheim Freyja’s brooding unforgiving sister Gullveig receives an embassage and awesome gifts from an anonymous source. In Asgardia-above-Broxton a concerned council dispatches a party of warriors to investigate its Vanaheim province where the deeply symbolic Temple of Union is ablaze with flames that cannot be extinguished. However when Thor and his comrades Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral lead the mission to the distant conflagration they are attacked and routed by Gullveig and her Vanir troops using terrifying new weapons from another pantheon. The ancient feud is not only fully rekindled but spreading like wildfireâ€¦

Thor consults with his redeemed but still canny half-brother in Asgardia but, even as the juvenile sorcerer gropes to understand the machinations of trusted friends turned foe, Loki reveals his greatest mistake since resurrection, whilst in the metaphysical Otherworld which houses Britain’s communal subconscious, that nation’s newest deities â€œthe Manchester Godsâ€ reveal their unwitting and ill-conceived alliance with Reality’s greatest Enemy.

To empower their apotheosis, Wilson and his lords of steam and industry and commerce had employed the craftily offered gifts of the fire demon. The divine Engines of Albion’s Gods of the Cities were the products of Surtur’s hellish forge and now the Lord of Conflagration is exacting a deadly tithe; one increasingly turned against the embattled Aesirâ€¦

Following a stormy confrontation wherein Thor putsWilsonand his pantheon on warning, the Asgardian prepare for war against the Vanir. Their resolve is tested when evidence is found incriminating Freyja and the members of the All-Mother as traitorsâ€¦

With Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral leading, a lynch mob moves to arrest both the Queen and the always-guilty-of-something Loki and Thor is forced to defend the last members of his family from his oldest friendsâ€¦

Only the forceful presence of guardian god – and purebred Vanir-man – Heimdall contains the explosive situation and reunites the fractured Asgardians, subsequently dispatching them throughout the Nine Realms where Surtur’s demonic forces are laying waste to everything.

For the sake of unity the assembled All-Mother go into voluntary house arrest but panicked Loki flees, convinced he can only trust himself to solve the crisisâ€¦

He travels to the land of the dead but abjectly fails to convince dark goddess Hela and her consort Tyr to assist in the war against the Fire Demon, whilst in Muspelheim Surtur and his mysterious ally debate their ultimate plans for the harried, overconfident and increasingly powerless Loki and are waiting when the rejuvenated Prince of Asgard inevitably sneaks into the Demon’s Realm in a vain effort to be the conquering heroâ€¦

Soon, in Asgardia valiant Volstagg begins to regret accepting the role of war-king as the conflict against Surtur and the Vanir goes from bad to worse.

In Muspelheim Loki has seemingly turned the situation to his advantage after debating with Surtur and his hidden ally, but it’s hard to find a position of advantage when the Fire Lord’s unswerving, unshakable goal is to burn all life in the universe to cold dead ashesâ€¦

However, even as a child Thor’s half-brother is still undoubtedly the wiliest, most cunning creature in creation and Loki has a plan â€¦but is he truly reformed and do his schemes benefit all the Asgardians or only, ultimately, himselfâ€¦?

The story then explodes into a fearsome melee on all fronts of existence that will enthral fans of cosmic carnage and spectacular action with shining heroism and base betrayal revealing all that is great and self-destructive in Thor and his warrior clan, but even with the last-minute return of a long-lost supernal saviour, the defeat of Surtur’s excoriating scheme and a semblance of normality restored, there is still drama and revelation aplenty in this epic and enchantingly bombastic tale.

The suspenseful aftermath concludes with telling re-examinations of both Loki and Thor (this last illustrated by Barry Kitson) and the disclosure of shocking surprises that will utterly change everything in the world of the godsâ€¦

With covers and variants by Davis & Farmer, Stephanie Hans, Pasqual Ferry, Steve McNiven, and an eye-popping montage by most of the artists who’ve worked on the strip over the last five decades, this truly galvanic chronicle combines staggering conflict on a universal scale with fiercely probing characterisation and astounding revelations which add a subtle depth and intensity never before seen in these iconic comic heroes. Magnificently beguiling, this adventure extravaganza packs the proper punch to stun and subjugate comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike and will delight Fights ‘n’ Tights followers for years to come

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