Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Thor, the God of Thunder

#3 cover. Someone's not happy about being cloned?

Iron Man: "Oh uh so you heard about that clone thing huh?"

Thor: "Not cool dude, I doth state, not cool at all."

When does the first issue of this come out? Seems like it should be available by now.

It was just solicited in my May orders, so it probably hits stores sometime in July.

I'm not sure if I like the way Coipel interprets his facisl features.

The only time I read Thor was Simonson's run and the Surtur arc remains one of my favorites of all time despite the fact that I don't really care much about Thor himself (I don't think I did that much even during the arc - it was the story that had me coming back).

I read that Thor will be dealing with the registration act in a way that hasn't been done yet. I'm going to guess "diplomatic immunity"

Didn't Black Panther & Storm pull that one?

I will probably buy this initially, because I have a soft spot for the ol' thunder god. The only time I read it regularly was Simonson, and damn, that was good. I had read the Norse myths extensively as a kid, and Simonson really managed to blend those into the Marvel Universe. But, the reason for the soft spot is the occasional Thor issue/reprint I would pick up as a little kid. Thor was just so out there, so cosmic and bombastic! "Prepare yourselves for...the unimaginable!" kind of stuff. I think in "Origins of Marvel," they reprinted a story where Thor dropped into a soda shop for a drink and gave the kids a hallucinogenic tour of Asgard. It was amazing! That sense of wonder, somehow anchored in human emotions, was what Thor at its best delivered. My fear is JMS will turn all of that on its head in an effort to be innovative and ironic. We'll see. The comedy of manners comment itself doesn't terrify me too much since that culture clash was always part of Thor. I'm more concerned there won't be enough All-Out Cosmic Action!

That would make sense. I was actually wondering about that when I made my guess, but I don't know for sure whether they did or not.

I'm just not happy Donald Blake is returning. I'm not JMS' biggest fan either. But I'm a big Thor fan as well as Olivier so I will check it out.

Bah! Thou shalt all regret the waste of thy currency!

Verily, lovely Amora, thee art most likely correct! And yet, waste it I shall, perchance to see the adroit Olivier render thy toothsome form once again 'pon the comics page! Forsooth!

<OK, we really need a Stan Lee/Shakespearian English thread, and now!>

Amora the Enchantress and the Executioner always reminded me of the Emerald Empress and the Persecuter.

(And Loki/Mordu and Computo/Ultron but thats another thread)

For me, Thor pretty much begins and ends with Walt Simonson's run. He captured so perfectly what I felt the character should be like and no one has really managed to match it since. His story was so epic that anything else seems petty by comparison. These are gods we're talking about here. They should be larger than life. Somehow, grounding them anywhere on earth diminishes them to the point of irrelevance.
I won't be reading this run.

So, has anyone else picked this up?

I read # 1 and was pleasantly surprised. It contains a positive message about Thor wanting to come back from "the void" and an innovative way of reintroducing Blake.

We are introduced to precisely one Oklahoman in this issue, and her personality and dialogue seem fairly authentic for a middle-aged, middle class Midwesterner. I don't know how important she is going to be in the story, but JMS spent a lot of time introducing her.

I don't follow comics news, so I had no idea who was relaunching the title. I didn't even pay attention to the credits until the end of the story, so I was surprised to see Coipel's name. He's come along way since his Legion work. His Thor work looks majestic, as it should.

My only complaint is that Thor appears too young, almost like he's 18. Granted that the guy's immortal, but I prefer him as a contemporary of Iron Man and Cap.

Yes, I picked it up. I'm not much of a Thor fan, so got it mainly to check in on Coipel. I miss him on the Legion and enjoyed his Avengers work. The story itself seemed kind of light, but the Oklahoma angle is unique. I actually liked Coipel's Blake more than I did his Thor. My favorite image was Blake walking along the Oklahoma highway with the rolling fields toward the end.

I agree. Blake is more interesting here than he's ever been, in my opinion.

<--------------------BIG Thor fan

Haven't picked it up yet, but will. HWW, your review makes me happy, I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised and like what I find here too.

Big Thor fan as well. I have picked it up. Not a Donald Blake fan. I just hate when writers bring back silver age alter-egos, supporting characters, etc. Don Blake can burn in comic book limbo along Pepper Potts as far as I'm concerned.

Not the biggest fan of JMS. I admit the first issue was pretty good despite JMS and Blake.

I'm just not that excited about Thor anymore. Was hoping for something more creative than Donald Blake.

I always thought that Thor lost something important when he lost Donald Blake. There's a Christ motif involved when a god takes takes on human form, but Thor had an extra understanding of human frailty, since Blake was crippled.

House could kick Blake's @$$.

Yes, but all Blake has to do is tap that cane on the ground, and House becomes a fried weenie.

Walt Simonson did pretty good without Blake. I think it's a challenge for the writer to write a god.

I know I'm in the minority, but Simonson's run was where I started to lose interest in Thor. My memories of it now are vague, but I do recall thinking his artwork was blocky and incoherent, and the story lines just didn't interest me.

Back to the god in human form idea, I like Thor best when he interacts with us mere mortals and learns from us as much as we learn from him. Thor having the limitation that, when he drops his hammer for one hour, he reverts to Blake, and Blake's inability to save everyone as a doctor (which is mentioned in the new issue) give him a much more believable reason for "loving midgard" and wanting to protect it than he has otherwise.

Also, while I like Asgard, Balder, Sif, Fandral, etc., I don't wish to see Norse mythology become Thor's primary setting. I just like the character best when he's a godlike fish out of water.

So, I'm intrigued by JMS's "comedy of manners" approach. As long as he doesn't demean either Thor or Oklahomans, it should prove interesting.

I think Thor works great with and without Blake. There's so many periods in Thor's history where Blake wouldn't show up for like 20+ issues, that its pretty much been a sense that he's "sometimes in the comic, sometimes not". I don't mind either way.

Thor does excel with a strong supporting cast of both Asgardians and human beings, and even oddball alien types (Recorder and Tana Nile, I'm looking at you). I would like to see a good amount of time in Asgard though--but with a strong balance b/t time there and on Earth.

Being the writer on Thor is one of my Marvel dream jobs, possibly only second to Spidey.

I agree about the supporting cast Cobie.

I just think it's more of a challenge for Thor to learn about humans if he's 6'6" and godly. And I actually like the fantastic supporting cast of non-normal humans. Give me aliens, super-heroes, mutants, and robots.

HWW, I've never met a person who didn't like the Simonson run.