Daryl Tay.net

Thor vol.1

I haven’t been a Thor fan in awhile. Although I will say I like him as a character (c’mon, what’s not to like about a Thunder God with a hugeass hammer yelling “HAVE AT THEE” and smashing everything in comic books!), I’ve just never been able to relate to him. He’s the big gun that saves the day when everything goes to hell, and no matter how insurmountable the odds, Thor wins.

Here comes the new Thor by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel. I’m not a fan of JMS’s work as it’s largely been hit or miss for me, but Olivier Coipel has been a favourite artist of mine since Legion Lost, and Thor has been getting nothing but rave reviews within the comic book blogosphere, so I decided to check it out (thanks Esther for getting it for me as a birthday present!).

Some background, when the last Thor series ended, Ragnarok had come and all the Gods (including Thor) have fallen. Thor comes back to life and takes up his old human identity as Doctor Donald Blake, and begins his quest to bring the other Gods back to life.

So vol.1, which collects the first six issues of the series, follows Thor’s attempts to “find” the Asgard Gods who are in unknown human forms, and “awaken” them to retake their place as Gods. I loved Thor interacting with the humans in the issue, but didn’t have a great time with him finding his fellow Gods. A lot of it was just too convenient (including the finding of the Warriors Three) and the plotting and pacing just didn’t feel quite up to par.

Coipel’s art, however, is quite literally breathtaking. The last time I enjoyed seeing Thor visually is probably Alan Davis on the Avengers or the old Dan Jurgens run of Thor with John Romita Jr. on art. Coipel really knows how to bring it.

Going forward, I’m sure the “new”, female Loki has a few tricks up her sleeve and a lot of the positive reviews come in the build up to the relaunch of Thor as issue #600 and I suppose I will pick up the second trade just to see where this all goes.