Thor – Page 7 – Now Read This!

November 8, 2014

Thor: Wolves of the North

By Michael Carey, Alan Davis, Peter Milligan, Michael Perkins, Mico Suayan, Tom Grindberg & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5614-7

Created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, The Mighty Thor debuted in Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962), heralding a procession of spectacular adventures that came to encompass everything from crushing petty crime capers to saving universes from cosmic doom.

As the decades passed he also survived numerous reboots and re-imaginings to keep the wonders of fabled Asgard appealing to an increasingly jaded readership. An already exceedingly broad range of scenarios spawned even greater visual variety after the Thunderer’s introduction to the pantheon of cinematic Marvels and his ongoing triumphs as a bona fide burgeoning movie franchise.

This slim but surprisingly gripping chronicle compiles material from Thor: Wolves of the North (February 2011), Thor: the Truth of History (December 2008) and Thor Annual volume 3, #1(November 2009), concentrating on clashes with Asgard’s worst menaces and Earth’s other gods and monsters.

‘Wolves of the North’ by Michael Carey, Michael Perkins and colourist Dan Brown takes us to embattled Viking village Redhangir, where valiant warriors are under constant assault by hellish forces. When chief Thorvald is mortally wounded by the marauding ogres’ impossibly huge king, the mortal’s last acts are to make his daughter Einar his successor and order the warriors to never surrenderâ€¦

This doesn’t go down well with the community’s priesthood who believe the best way to end the conflict is to sacrifice the bellicose young woman to Death Goddess Helaâ€¦

A tense standoff between church and state is suddenly ended when Thor falls out of the sky in a blast of thunder. Severely depleted, he reveals that Asgard itself is under siege, with the Queen of the Dead sneaking the warrior-legions of her demon-king ally Skald into battle via the backdoor through Midgard. The creatures have but dallied at Redhangir for the sheer sport of bloodlettingâ€¦

Moreover, although the Storm Lord has been despatched to close the invaders’ devious route, his journey has depleted him. To be effective on Earth he needs a mortal anchor. Selflessly, Einar Thorvaldsdottir offers herself, knowing full that what harms one now will injure bothâ€¦

A refreshed and reinvigorated Thor starts a cataclysmic rout of the demons, but canny Hela knows all and has her mortal priests attempt to secretly sacrifice Einar, knowing her death means the Thunderer’s defeat and Asgard’s demise.

Of course the Cold Queen and her demon ally have no conception of Thor’s furious determination or a merely mortal chief’s unfailing resolve to save her peopleâ€¦

That grimly compelling fable leads directly into riotous, Kirby-inspired swashbuckling romp ‘The Truth of History’ by writer/penciller Alan Davis, inker Mark Farmer and colourist Rob Swager which opens rather quietly with two archaeologists debating the puzzling climate of ancient Egypt and odd, post-construction alterations to the monolithic Sphinx.

The answers to those great unknowns are then explained by plunging back nearly four thousand years to a time when Thor and a trusty band of Asgardians stopped sorceress Queen Nedra from using an unsanctioned portal to Midgard.

Although the Aesir were victorious, bumbling blowhard Volstagg subsequently fell through the activated gateway and was lost, compelling the Prince of Asgard and boon companions Fandral the Dashing and Hogun the Grim to followâ€¦

The mystic journey lands them in Egypt where their pale skins mark them as demonic invaders whereas the immortal Northmen can only see signs of drought whilst slaves toil building pointless stone monuments and enfeebled peasants starve under the pitiless gaze of fat priests and bestial halflings.

In times long past the world’s scattered pantheons geographically divided up humanity, each abiding over and caring for their worshippers in their own way. Now, as the Asgardians see how the gods of Heliopolis minister to their adherents’ needs, they wonder at the wisdom of the pactâ€¦

Elsewhere Volstagg is having the time of his life, fed and feted by glamorous women and guzzling gallons of heady sweet wine. Eventually his questing comrades reach the city of Giza and are welcomed by priests under the stern gaze of a colossal stone griffin.

When the Asgardians throw the sumptuous feast they are offered to the starving peasants outside, they earn the enmity of arrogantly pompous pharaoh Neb-Maat and provoke a pitched battle with his unearthly retinue of beastmen.

Whilst that fight grows in intensity, far below their feet in the catacombs their soused and happy kinsman is being offered up as a sacrifice to an ancient horror, and when his screams reach Thor’s ears the Storm Lord rips the palace apart to reach him. He soon finds himself facing the awesome beast which inspired the griffin statue.

The resultant clash reshapes the fate of a nation and echoes down through historyâ€¦

This stellar spectacle of blistering intoxicating old-fashioned entertainment is marvellously tinged with wry knowing humour to counterbalance the bombastic bravado and furious action and serves as a perfect palate-cleanser for the darker fare which follows: a chilling and poignant tale of modern vintage.

From Thor Annual volume 3, #1 comes ‘The Hand of Grog’ by Peter Milligan, Mico Suayan, Tom Grindberg, Stefano Gaudiano, Edgar Delgado & J. Roberts, set in the aftermath of the apocalyptic Siege of Asgard.

The story opens in Celestial Heliopolis where Egyptian Death God Seth is summoned by a prognosticator to hear some glad tidings. Despised Thor has suffered an emotional collapse after being tricked into slaying his own grandfather Bor.

The once formidable Thunderer is a broken being ready to accept his ending, but although eager to make it so, Seth is a cautious deity and instead dispatches his servant Grog the God-Slayer and a pack of bestial pawns to hunt down the ailing warriorâ€¦

On Earth Thor has vanished. The spirit-sickened hero has taken refuge inside Dr. Don Blake, a pale ghost hiding from his responsibilities. That all changes as soon as the horror squad arrives and begins attacking innocent mortals in an attempt to draw out their preyâ€¦

Despite believing himself deprived of his godly might, a stout defence of the weak and helpless resoundingly reinvigorates Thor, but once the danger has passed, he soon reverts to his despondent stateâ€¦

However when Grog returns to finish off the human survivors in hospital, Blake seizes a slim chance to break his alter ego’s psychological chains. And if it doesn’t work, there won’t be anyone left alive to complain about his radical kill-or-cure remedyâ€¦

Frantic, furious and ferociously enthralling, Wolves of the North is a pure blast of mythic Fights ‘n’ Tights fun and frolics no action-loving fantasy fan could possibly resist.

September 27, 2014September 26, 2014

Thor: Ages of Thunder

By Matt Fraction, Patrick Zircher, Khari Evans, Clay Mann, Dan Brereton, Doug Braithwaite, Michael Allred, Miguel Ãngel SepÃºlveda, Victor Olazaba & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3568-5

Since his creation by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby in Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962), the spectacular adventures of Thor have encompassed everything from crushing petty crime capers to saving universes from cosmic doom. 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.

An already exceedingly broad range of milieux and scenarios spawned even greater visual variety after the Thunderer’s recent introduction to the pantheon of cinematic Marvels and his ongoing triumphs as a bona fide burgeoning movie franchise.

From the cod mythology of the company’s own bowdlerized Aesir whilst simultaneously drawing upon established ancient of Scandinavia, in 2008 Matt Fraction and a doughty band of artists crafted a saga spanning a number of specials and one-shots which riotously examined the early days of the bellicose Lord of Storms in the fantastic prehistory of the Nine Realms of existence, and this slim bombastic fantasy tome collects the opening blasts with Thor: Ages of Thunder (June 2008), Thor: Reign of Blood (August), Thor: Man of War (January 2009) and Thor: God-Sized Special (February 2009).

The legendary adventure opens with the eponymous ‘Ages of Thunder’ – rendered in painterly manner by Patrick Zircher, Khari Evans & Victor Olazaba – which sees the gods of Asgard arrogantly gloating after their gory victory against the ferocious Frost Giants of Jotunheim; monsters who had rampaged to the very gates of the city and even breached one of the great walls before Thor’s mighty hammer ended their threat with lethal finality.

The complacent victors then feasted mightily, gorging themselves on the golden apples of immortality which were the source of their power and could only be gathered from the magnificent World Ash Yggdrasil by lovely enchantress Idun.

â€¦All but dour Thor, who shunned the festivities and as usual saved his share of the magic fruit against imagined times of future perilâ€¦

Some time later a human stonemason came to the gates of Asgard and bargained to repair the broken wall. Sensing sport, Allfather Odin and duplicitous Loki dickered with the mortal and imposed what they considered impossible conditions and a ludicrous deadline for the task, secure in the knowledge that what the man promised was impossible and they would never have to pay his preposterous priceâ€¦

Of course the smug war gods were completely wrong and in a terrifyingly short time the mason was almost done: looking forward to carrying off his rewardâ€¦ beautiful, irreplaceable Idunâ€¦

Faced with humiliation and the loss of the source of all his people’s strength, Odin ordered the master of mischief to fix the problem, which the conniving cheat accomplished with barely a day to spare. Unfortunately this only provoked the furious mason to reveal his true identity – one of the recently defeated Frost Giants – and his bloody revenge was only ended by the arrival of the red-handed, increasingly aloof Thunder God.

For his part in the near-calamity Loki was banished to the icy wastes where, amidst horrendous cold and privation, he was approached by a giant eagle – another shapeshifting giant – who offered to save and feed him in return for Idunâ€¦

This bargain the trickster kept, delivering the golden goddess to the giant’s icy harem. Soon the Aesir were ailing as their mighty powers faded with the last of the apples they once devoured so profligatelyâ€¦

As heroic gods searched the Nine Realms for the missing enchantress, Odin and the court resolved to beg Thor for apples from his miserly hoard, but the Thunderer refused their entreaties. All-wise Odin reasoned Loki was the cause of their trouble and with dire threats forced him to retrieve Idun, but knowing his adopted son’s nature then beseeched Thor to follow and make sure the task was done properlyâ€¦

This the murderous, sour- spirited Thor accomplished but an awful rift was driven between Allfather and sonsâ€¦

The tale resumes in ‘Thor: Reign of Blood’ (illustrated by Evans, Zircher & Olazaba) as the Frost Giant’s tragic yet formidable daughter enacts a plan of icy vengeance which begins as a savagely relentless winter grips Asgard. Sheltered in his cavernous, echoing Great Hall, Odin reveals that in his youth he had a dalliance with the icy maiden which almost cost his life and has despised her ever since.

Nevertheless Spring must come so they will negotiateâ€¦

With Loki as envoy she is invited to Asgard and demands the greatest treasure in existence before she will rescind her endless freeze. Charged with cleaning up the mess, the trickster commissions three wondrous artefacts from the artisan dwarves of Nidavellir: a gold-propagating armband, a magical necklace and a giant-killing broadswordâ€¦

Unable to help himself, Loki then enters into a deadly side bet with the craftsmen over which treasure Odin will deem bestâ€¦

When the gifts are displayed, the Allfather suddenly succumbs to his long-suppressed hatred and uses the sword to dispatch the Frost Giant’s Daughter before she can choose her tribute, effectively, if dishonourably, ending the eternal winter.

Once Loki weasels his way out of his bet with the dwarves the matter seems settled, but Idun is increasingly beguiled by the metal-smiths’ magical necklaceâ€¦

Travelling to Nidavellir she sells herself for the gleaming trinket, and when Odin learns what she has done his rage knows no bounds. In response The Enchantress curses the entire world, causing legions of the dead to arise and attack the helpless living.

Once more mighty Thor is called upon to risk everything and end an overwhelming threat created by his family’s arrogance and cupidityâ€¦

‘Thor: Man of War’ (Clay Mann, Zircher & Olazaba) finds the Thunderer driven into berserker rage by the antics of his people, rampaging like a maniac through all the Nine Worlds. Enraged at the disruption of the natural order, Odin orders his beloved Valkyries to stop his errant heir by any means necessary.

Soon their leader Brunnhilda has engaged the demented Thor in all-out combat, but their cataclysmic clash awakens a colossal Storm Giant and soon both Asgardians are battling for their live against the ravaging pernicious primal entity. Before it finally falls, the furious fighters need the timely assistance of godly comrades Balder, Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg â€¦

However, rowdily celebrating their victory in Svartalfheim, the victorious heroes and war women soon fall into fighting each other and watchful Odin is compelled to personally teach his wayward son the meaning and responsibilities of godhoodâ€¦

Closing the chronicle, from Thor: God-Sized Special #1 comes ‘The Death and Life of Skurge the Executioner’ by Dan Brereton, Doug Braithwaite, Michael Allred & Miguel Ãngel SepÃºlveda, which traces the life of a former villain who redeemed his many grievous sins at the gates of the underworld to save the hosts of Asgard and Earth.

After a rousing visual recap, the saga moves on to a bizarre mystery as the assembled warriors of the golden realm realise that their memories of Skurge have been tampered with.

Travelling to the underworld, Thor, Loki and Balder find that even Death Goddess Hela has succumbed to the mystic meddling.

Given leave to continue by the terrifying queen of the damned, the voyagers press on and find that the cause of all their woes is the seductive Enchantressâ€¦ but her motives for the worlds-shaking spell are nothing they could have suspectedâ€¦

With extra features including covers by Marko Djurdjevic, a section on his preliminary production process and impressive pencil sketches and roughs by Zircher, this is a bloodily beautiful fairytale fable which would not be out of place amongst the true Elder Eddas.

Frantic, furious and ferociously enthralling, Ages of Thunder is a superb slice of mythic Marvel madness no action-loving fantasy fan could possibly resist.
Â© 2008, 2009, Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 9, 2014September 8, 2014

Loki Agent of Asgard: Trust Me

By Al Ewing, Lee Garbett & Nolan Woodard (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-600-7

One of Marvel’s richest seams of pure imagination, the Nine Realms impacted by the mighty races of Asgard and its satellites have always offered stirring, expansive tales of a non-traditional nature to comicbook readers.

As iconic a character as his adoptive sibling Thor, God of Evil Loki has worked his vile, self-serving machinations for millennia and was rightly deemed one of the most diabolical villains in creation.

Things are different now.

What you need to know: after millennia of doctrinaire double-dealing and abusive micro-management All-Father Odin is gone, and the governance of his puissant kingdom, having been briefly misruled by his sons Thor and Balder, has been left to his wife Freyja and sister goddesses Idunn and Gaea who act in concert as a co-operative â€œAll-Motherâ€.

The city they rule from now resides on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground of Broxton, Oklahoma and has been renamed Asgardiaâ€¦

Moreover the eternally capricious and malign Loki has undergone some shocking changes too. Resurrected from death and hell by his eternally optimistic half-brother Thor, the trickster has recently endured life as a woman and been reborn again as an (ostensibly) innocent boy-child whilst his long-suffering and constantly betrayed family attempt one final gambit to reform the villain and raise a true and decent scion of Asgard.

Collecting Loki Agent of Asgard issues #1-5, published between April and August 2014 and captivatingly concocted by scripter Al Ewing, illustrator Lee Garbett and colour artist Nolan Woodard, this initial compilation traces the latest career path of the apparently reformed great trickster.

Now, after mooching around being generally benevolent and non-threatening as one of the Young Avengers, the former menace is approaching physical maturity and discovers that the All-Mother of Asgardia have a use for a smart young man who is still at heart the wily, devious God of Mischief – nor will they take nay for an answerâ€¦

Asgardians all understand the overwhelming, inescapable force and power generated by Stories, and the triumvirate have an intriguing proposition for Loki. In ‘Trust Me’, as payment for his performing certain tasks as a one-man Asgardian Secret Service, they will delete select portions of his appalling life history from every record in the Nine Realms, one insidious exploit per mission.

It’s a most tempting deal. For as long as that fearsome history remains it will always pull at him, dragging him back to what he once was, so the reincarnated godling is keen to diminish the temptations of his past, escape the heavy chains of reputation and prophecy and be his own man at lastâ€¦

With the promise of becoming less potentially evil through each successive task, Loki sets out on his first case. Over the years there has been a slow, steady bleed of gods and artefacts from Asgard to the lesser realms and now the All-Mother wants those things back where they belong.

Thus the callow trickster invades Avengers Tower and battles Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, messing with their extensive database on him whilst extracting a horrific Asgardian monster secretly possessing noble Thor.

However, as always with the Trickster, things are not quite what they seemâ€¦

In ‘Loki and Lorelei, Sitting in a Tree’ he is despatched to retrieve the seductively wanton sorceress who has been preying on humans, gods and monsters for years and, during an unlikely night of Speed Dating, makes the charming acquaintance of Verity Willis, a mortal with the unfortunate gift of being able to see through any lie, subterfuge of illusionâ€¦

Lorelei’s trail leads to Monte Carlo and a monumental heist – which the Asgardian agent takes for his own – but he subsequently lets the witch go. The mischief-maker has a plan brewing and is putting together select crew. He might be working for the authorities now and trying to modify his behaviour, but he is still Lokiâ€¦

Nobody is playing a straight game. In ‘Your Life is a Story I’ve Already Written’ the shocking identity of the vile spirit that possessed Thor is revealed. Despite being a prisoner of the All-Mother, the most wicked creature in the Nine Realms reveals thus how in ages past he deviously implicated the boy Odin in senseless murder and orchestrated the conditions whereby proto-god Sigurd the Ever-Glorious came to possess the unrelenting, unstoppable, truth-rending sword Gram.

As a result of many Machiavellian machinations, young Odin became Lord of all the Realms years before his time, Gram was safely locked away until Loki could claim it and Asgard grew to be mighty and all-conqueringâ€¦ but now the devil in his dungeon waits for the final pieces in his astoundingly long game to fall into placeâ€¦

The saga returns to the present where ‘Lets You & Him Fight’ finds the long absent Sigurd attempting to reclaim the irresistible Gram from young Loki but subsequently press-ganged into the trickster’s secret service.

These diversions are also starting to gain the unwelcome attention of the All-Mother who have also tasked their Earthly Agent with bringing back in the millennially truant Sigurd.

To expedite matters they have cited the ferocious Exdesir as back-up, but a bunch of short-tempered Valkyries is the last thing Loki needs watching him at this fragile juncture.

â€¦And that’s before arch tempter Mephisto involves himself in the scheme, seeking to gull a few unwary gods into signing infernal contracts of damnation by flaunting hidden truths like jewelsâ€¦

All the crafty conniving results in a cosmic confrontation in Asgardia with ‘This Mission Will Self-Destruct in Five Seconds’ as Loki’s crew breach the mythical city-state in search of answers to the All-Mother’s increasingly off-kilter behaviour and the truth about the creature not so safely locked in the citadel’s deepest dungeonâ€¦

Sly, cool and witty, exceedingly engaging, fast and funny – like all the very best caper stories – this canny, time-bending chronicle succeeds in deftly delineating the reborn Loki as a sharp operator doing good deeds whilst never actually proving whether he’s really reformed or is still a subtle and beguiling Master of Evilâ€¦

This delicious Costumed Drama also offers digitally-diverting extra content for tech-savvy consumers courtesy of AR icon sections all accessible through a free digital code and the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices at Marvel’s Digital Comics Shop as well as a glorious covers-and-variants gallery by Jenny Frison, Frank Cho, Mike Del Mundo & Olivier Coipel.
â„¢ and Â© 2014 Marvel & Subs. 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 23, 2014August 22, 2014

Essential Avengers volume 8

By Jim Shooter, George PÃ©rez, David Michelinie, Tom DeFalco, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6322-0

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

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

This electric eighth black and white compilation collects Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ extraordinary exploits from issues #164-184 of the monthly comicbook (spanning October 1977-June 1979), the contents of Avengers Annuals #7 and 8 plus the concluding half of an acclaimed crossover epic from Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2.

During this period Jim Shooter, having galvanised and steadied the company’s notional flagship, moved on, leaving David Michelinie to impress his own ideas and personality upon the team, even as Cosmic Doomsmith Jim Starlin recruited the team to inscribe an epic ending to his seminal interpretation of tragic antihero Adam Warlockâ€¦

Opening this titanic tome is a stunning 3-part saga by Shooter, John Byrne & Pablo Marcos which reinvented one of the team’s oldest adversaries.

It began in #164 wherein, after months of speculation and experimentation, the resurrected Wonder Man was finally discovered to have evolved into a creature of pure ionic energy. Elsewhere, aging Maggia Don Count Nefaria had recruited Whirlwind, Power Man (the original mercenary who had undergone the same transformative experiment as Wonder Man) and Living Laser to amass plunder for him, but the tactic was mere subterfuge.

After the thieves trashed a squad of Avengers, Nefaria used his flunkies’ bodies as template and power source to turn himself into a literal Superman and attack the already battered heroes in ‘To Fall by Treachery!’

The tension built in #165 as ‘Hammer of Vengeance’ saw the lethally out-powered team fall, only to be saved by elderly speedster The Whizzer who pointed out that, for all his incredible strength, Nefaria too was an old man with death inevitably dogging his heels.

Panicked and galvanised, the Overman went berserk, carving a swathe of destruction through the city whilst seeking a confrontation with Thunder God Thor and the secret of his immortality.

Before too long he had reason to regret his demandsâ€¦

The surprise arrival of the Thunderer in ‘Day of the Godslayer!’ ended the madman’s dreams but also highlighted growing tensions within the victorious teamâ€¦

This superb thriller is followed by‘The Final Threat’ (Jim Starlin & Joe Rubinstein) from Avengers Annual #7, which saw Captain Marvel and Moondragon return to Earth with vague anticipations of an impending cosmic catastrophe.

Their premonitions were confirmed when galactic wanderer Adam Warlock arrived with news that death-obsessed Thanos had amassed an alien armada and built a soul-gem powered weapon to snuff out the stars like candlesâ€¦

Broaching interstellar space to stop the scheme, the united heroes forestalled the stellar invasion and prevented the Dark Titan from destroying the Sun – but only at the cost of Warlock’s lifeâ€¦

Then ‘Death Watch!’ (Starlin & Rubinstein from Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2) saw Peter Parker plagued by prophetic nightmares, which disclosed how Thanos had snatched victory from defeat and now held the Avengers captive whilst he again prepared to extinguish Sol.

With nowhere else to turn, the anguished, disbelieving Spider-Man headed for the Baxter Building, hoping to borrow a spacecraft, unaware that The Thing also had a history with the terrifying Titan.

Although utterly overmatched, the mismatched champions of Life subsequently upset Thanos’ plans enough so that the Avengers and the Universe’s true agent of retribution were able to end the Titan’s threat foreverâ€¦ or at least until next timeâ€¦

Back in the monthly an epic of equal import was about to unfold. Shooter’s connection to the series, although episodic, was long-lived and produced some of that period’s greatest tales, none more so than the stellar – if deadline-plagued – saga which unravelled over the succeeding months: a sprawling tale of time-travel and universal conquest which began in Avengers #167-168 and, after a brief pause, resumed for #170 through 177.

In previous issues a difference of opinion between Captain America and Iron Man over leadership styles had begun to polarise the team and tensions started to show in #167 with ‘Tomorrow Dies Today!’ by Shooter, George PÃ©rez & Marcos.

In the Gods-&-Monsters filled Marvel Universe there are entrenched and jealous Hierarchies of Power, so when a new player mysteriously materialises in the 20^th Century the very Fabric of Reality is threatenedâ€¦

It all kicked off when star-spanning 31^st century superheroes Guardians of the Galaxy materialised in Earth orbit, hotly pursuing a cyborg despot named Korvac.

Inadvertently setting off planetary incursion alarms, their minor-moon sized ship was swiftly penetrated by an Avengers squad, where, after the customary introductory squabble, the future men – Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, Vance Astro and enigmatic space God Starhawk – explained the purpose of their missionâ€¦

Captain America had fought beside them to liberate their home era from Badoon rule and Thor had faced the fugitive Korvac before so peace soon broke out, but even with the resources of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the time travellers were unable to find their quarryâ€¦

Meanwhile on Earth a new and mysterious being named Michael is lurking in the background. At a fashion show staged by the Wasp he achieves a psychic communion with model Carina Walters and they both vanishâ€¦

Avengers #168 reveals ‘First Blood’ and stirs up more trouble as Federal liaison and hidebound martinet Henry Peter Gyrich begins making like bureaucratically hot for the maverick team. In Colorado meanwhile Hawkeye gets a shock as his travelling partner Two-Gun Kid vanishes before his eyes whilst in suburban Forest Hills Starhawk – in his female iteration of Aleta – approaches a quiet residenceâ€¦

Michael/Korvac’s plan consists of subtly altering events as he gathers strength in secret preparation for a sneak attack on those aforementioned Cosmic Hierarchies. His entire plan revolves around not being noticed. When Starhawk confronts him the villain kills the intruder and instantly resurrects him without the ability to perceive Michael or any of his worksâ€¦

The drama screeches to a halt in #169, which declared ‘If We Should Failâ€¦ The World Dies Tonight!’ The out of context potboiler – by Marv Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Dave Hunt – saw Cap, Iron Man and Black Panther travel the planet in search of doomsday bombs wired to the failing heart of a dying man before the major mayhem resumed in #170 with ‘â€¦Though Hell Should Bar the Way!’ by Shooter, PÃ©rez & Marcos.

As Sentinel of Liberty and Golden Avenger finally settle their differences, in Inhuman city Attilan ex-Avenger Quicksilver suddenly disappears even as dormant mechanoid Jocasta (designed by maniac AI Ultron to be his bride) goes on a rampage and escapes into New York City.

In stealthy pursuit and hoping her trail will lead to Ultron himself, the team stride into a trap ‘â€¦Where Angels Fear to Tread’ but nevertheless triumph thanks to the hex powers of the Scarlet Witch, the assistance of pushy, no-nonsense new hero Ms. Marvel and Jocasta’s own rebellion against the metal monster who made her.

However at their moment of triumph the Avengers are stunned to see Cap and Jocasta wink out of existenceâ€¦

The problems pile up in #172 as Watchdog-come-Gadfly Gyrich is roughly manhandled and captured by out-of-the-loop returnee Hawkeye and responds by rescinding the team’s Federal clearances.

Thus handicapped the heroes are unable to warn other inactive members of the increasing disappearances as a squad of heavy hitters rushes off to tackle marauding Atlantean maverick Tyrak the Treacherous who is bloodily enacting a ‘Holocaust in New York Harbor!’ (Shooter, Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson)â€¦

Answers to the growing mystery are finally forthcoming in ‘Threshold of Oblivion!’, plotted by Shooter, with David Michelinie scripting for Sal Buscema & D(iverse) Hands to illustrate.

As the vanishings escalate the remaining Avengers (Thor, Wasp, Hawkeye and Iron Man), with the assistance of Vance Astro, finally track down their hidden foe and beam into a cloaked starship to liberate the ‘Captives of the Collector!’ (Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Dave Wenzel & Marcos)â€¦

After a staggering struggle the heroes triumph and their old foe reveals the shocking truth: he is in fact an Elder of the Universe who foresaw cosmic doom millennia ago and sought to preserve special artefacts and creatures – such as the Avengers – from the slowly approaching apocalypse.

As he reveals that predicted end-time is here and that he has sent his own daughter Carina to infiltrate the Enemy’s stronghold, the cosmic Noah is obliterated in a devastating blast of energy. The damage however is done and the entrenched hierarchies of creation may well be alertedâ€¦

Issue #175 began the final countdown as ‘The Endâ€¦ and Beginning!’ (Shooter, Michelinie, Wenzel & Marcos) saw the amassed and liberated ranks of Avengers and Guardians follow the clues to Michael as the new god shared the incredible secret of his apotheosis with Carina, before ‘The Destiny Hunt!’ and ‘The Hopeâ€¦ and the Slaughter!’ (Shooter, Wenzel, Marcos & Ricardo Villamonte) saw the entire army of champions destroyed and resurrected as Michael easily overpowered all opposition but faltered for lack of one fundamental failingâ€¦

Spread through a series of lesser adventures the overarching epic ponderously and ominously unfolds before finally exploding into a devastating and tragic Battle Royale that is the epitome of superhero comics. This is pure escapist fantasy at its finest.

Despite being somewhat let down by the artwork when the magnificent George Perez gave way to less enthusiastic hands such as Sal Buscema, David Wenzel and Tom Morgan, and cursed by the inability to keep a regular inker (Pablo Marcos, Klaus Janson Ricardo Villamonte and Tom Morgan all pitched in), the sheer scope of the epic plot nevertheless carries this story through to its cataclysmic and fulfilling conclusion.

Even Shooter’s reluctant replacement by scripters Dave Michelinie and Bill Mantlo (as his editorial career advanced) couldn’t derail this juggernaut of adventure.

If you want to see what makes Superhero fiction work, and can keep track of nearly two dozen flamboyant characters, this is a fine example of how to make such an unwieldy proposition easily accessible to the new and returning reader.

After the death and triumphant resurrection of the heroes Avengers Annual #8 gets back to business with a spectacular Fights ‘n’ Tights clash in ‘Spectrums of Deceit!’ by Roger Slifer, PÃ©rez, Marcos & Villamonte, wherein the sentient power-prism of arch villain Doctor Spectrum begins possessing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, leading the team into another blockbusting battle against the Squadron Sinister and ethically ambivalent Femazon Thundraâ€¦

A complete change of pace came in Avengers #178. ‘The Martyr Perplex!’ by Steve Gerber, Carmine Infantino &Rudy Nebres saw Beast targeted by master brainwasher The Manipulator in a tense psycho-thriller teeming with shady crooks and government spooks, after which Tom DeFalco, Jim Mooney, Al Gordon & Mike Esposito concocted a 2-part yarn introducing tragic mutant Bloodhawk and an ambitious hitman in ‘Slowly Slays the Stinger!’

Whilst the Stinger cautiously executed his plan another squad of heroes return with Bloodhawk to his desolate island home of Maura for a ‘Berserkers’ Holiday’, just in time to battle an animated and agitated stone idol.

When they returned victorious Stinger was waiting and the assemblage lost its newest ally foreverâ€¦

Avengers #181 introduced new regular team Michelinie & Byrne – augmented by inker Gene Day – as ‘On the Matter of Heroes!’ had Agent Gyrich lay down the law and winnow the army of heroes down to a federally acceptable seven.

As the Guardians of the Galaxy headed back to the future, Iron Man, Vision, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Beast and Wasp had to placate Hawkeye after he was rejected in favour of new member The Falcon – parachuted in to conform to government quotas on affirmative actionâ€¦

Almost immediately Gyrich’s plans were in ruins as a strange gipsy sorcerer attacked, claiming Wanda and Pietro were his long lost children. He stole their souls, trapping them in little wooden dolls, and the resultant clash in #182’s ‘Honor Thy Father’ (inked by Klaus Janson) only created more questions, as overwhelming evidence seemed to confirm Django Maximoff‘s story; compelling the Witch and Quicksilver to leave with him on a quest for answersâ€¦

This breathtaking collection concludes with a 2-part confrontation by Michelinie, Byrne, Janson & D. Hands from Avengers #183-184.

‘The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!’ began as Ms. Marvel was cleared by Gyrich to replace Wanda whilst elsewhere in the Big Apple the formidable Absorbing Man decided to quit being thrashed by heroes and leave the country. Unfortunately his departure plans included kidnapping a young woman â€œfor companyâ€ and led to a cataclysmic showdown with the heroes and Hawkeye (who was determined to win back his place on the team) leading to carnage, chaos and a ‘Death on the Hudson!’â€¦

These truly epic yarns set the tone for the compulsive, calamitous Costumed Dramas for decades to come and can still boggle the mind and take the breath away, even here in the so slick and cool 21st centuryâ€¦

No lovers of superhero sagas can afford to ignore this superbly bombastic book, and fans who think themselves above Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy will also be pleasantly surprisedâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

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