I had high hopes for Ewing's run on Thor. His Immortal Hulk was outstanding. I mean, you could really tell he'd done his "continuity" homework. Superb. But, yeah...this rendition of Thor...
*sigh*
I had high hopes for Ewing's run on Thor. His Immortal Hulk was outstanding. I mean, you could really tell he'd done his "continuity" homework. Superb. But, yeah...this rendition of Thor...
*sigh*
"Sir, does this mean that Ann Margret's not coming?"
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"One of the maddening but beautiful things about comics is that you have to give characters a sense of change without changing them so much that they violate the essence of who they are." ~ Ann Nocenti, Chris Claremont's X-Men.
I was really expecting horrible characterization but nope it had things I was already familiar with Thor's canon.
"Dedra Meero is not just a woman in a men’s world, but a fascist in a world of fascists.” - Denise Gough
I overreacted to the preview, yes i, wait, i didn't even read the preview, why then i thought in the overreact word?
Lets be fair to Al, was there something that wrong in this issue? Not really right? Apparently he didn't even erase Bill's recent journey, for now (hopefully) it just doesn't fit this corps concept that i heavily dislike.
On the other hand, yeah no way to ignore how generic this story is and feels, (the story Thor portrayal and supporting cast is OK) although if the outcome is what i think it is. Cool i guess, not sure if there was that need.
I just hope that Dario buying Thor's stories isn't some meta attack on how to define Thor.
'Gods defined by stories' is getting pretty damn old, IMO
Was very excited for the Immortal Thor series at first. Loved the first 2 issues. 3 was ok. This issue does nothing for me. The whole Ororo pump was ham fisted and annoying. We get it, she's powerful. But she's not a goddess any more than Moondragon is. Even allowing for her being upset at Thor (rightfully so) her ridiculous over the top attitude and aggression was a turnoff. The childish shots and taunting. Maybe some people think this is 'badass' but a little secret: Ororo has gone into the "I'm equal" tantrum mode before. During the Champion miniseries she actually thought she could throw hands with Thor. You heard that right. Maybe her electrical power has fried a few brain cells. And how "Oh I don't need a hammer for lightning" her intel is really bad too. Just arrogant and annoying asf. For all her noise she sure looked like a kid in a candy store when she got the power. Thor's dialogue with the lightning sounded silly and lighweight. Jane is unnecessary as ever and isn't Asgardian. Just call in all the old markers.
Bill was a bright spot and believable. His first outfit was pretty snazzy with the brush helmet. Sif looked scrawny. The art was somewhat loose and Thor looked strange at angles. Toranos is starting to seem one dimensional and its disappointing he isn't acknowledging his familial connection to Thor.
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I dunno if i will say i overreacted to the preview. Half the issue was still Storm "bullying" Thor for no real reason other than to throw shade at debate forums i guess. Not to mention it feels way out of character to me, i can understand when Marvel heroes act like this towards Hulk... but why is Storms first reaction to start attacking Thor? He is one of the most noble and famous super heroes in Marvel, they worked together and even more, for her to just start attacking him out of nowhere feels really weird, like what is it suppose to accomplish especially since he isn't even fighting back? It just makes Storm look like an asshole. Yea he teleported you to him out of nowhere but being a super hero in Marvel yourself your first train of thought should have been "Which bad guy are we fighting now?".
I think the problem some people are having and i am starting to feel that way as well is the whole thing does feel generic and formulaic so far, which is not how Ewing is when he is at his best at all. But that's the problem when he wrote Immortal Hulk he had a clear vision it's a story he had in mind for years and he had to FIGHT with other writers to get to write him and according to him it was a tough competition in the writing room where he barely edged out. Here Thor was dropped in his lap by sheer coincidence, we all know Cates had a 7 year plan for the character and he only got to write him for 2-3 years out of those 7 before his accident happened that screwed him over completely.
I do hope Ewing eventually finds his voice and the story reaches the intrigue and epicness of his IH run. He is definitely one of the best writers we have working now, but i feel like the Thor story needed to marinate a bit more in his mind before he got to write him, unfortunately you can't really predict things like that.
Edit: Forgot to say, Dario being brought back is a good decision, apart from being a Thor villain originally Ewing had more time to develop him in his IH run and had a clear vision for him that i am sure will work better in Thor than Toranos has so far who is a someone else mentioned feeling fairly one-dimensional right now.
Thor getting his spine almost broken as stated by omniscient narration by Jupiter's atmosphere is pitiful. I get that Ewing is taking potshots on battle boarders but Jupiter's atmospheric pressure is only 2.5 times bigger than the Earth. Even normal humans can take more pressure than that.
The issue was neither good nor bad for me; Thor's personality was pretty good, as was his intelligence, and sadly these days that's actually a pretty serious win - but on the other hand half the issue was Storm strutting, with Ewing coming across as more interested in selling us on Storm being Thor's equal, and if his goal was to make Thor's fans love Ororo I think it was a weird way to go about it. As SuperFan90 says, Thor's back being almost broken by the atmospheric pressure of Jupiter was just stupid, and as Intothevoid said, Storm's attitude was odd considering you'd expect her to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Not a great issue, but not a deal-breaker either. I get the feeling that Ewing isn't really that interested in Thor and would rather be writing a Storm & Loki comic, but he's a good writer and he's not actively trying to piss Thor's fanbase off, so I'm still on board.
I honestly still struggle to understand all that hype around Al Ewing writing Thor, he was not necessarily a newbie doing that, the cold hard truth is that, its basically a sequel.
-Loki Agent of Asgard 2 (what happens when Thor is King).
- Al Ewing is a good and sometimes great cosmic writer and Thor can go there, but is a lot more than just that, remember the first issue when the narration was talking about Gaea? And how the tone immediately felt godly and mystical, well it got lost going forward, only shades of it now, at least in some part there was the need of that ancient book talking about Toranos.
Good read and I love the Thor Corps, but when did Beta Ray Bill lose Stormbreaker? Also, I can’t stand the way the artist depicts Loki. He looks like a girl. I know Loki has taken female form before, but this is… not.
For me, it’s the “Immortal” title that immediately puts it in competition with Immortal Hulk. I appreciate Al doing that as a way to push himself, but I think it could be detrimental as everyone is going to compare it.
Plus, just my opinion, but I always thought Al on FF would be the “New Testament” story rather than Thor, seeing how he tried to align Gamma and Cosmic rays.
It definitely wasn't as bad as people thought from the preview but I think Storm still overreacted (especially when she ended up realizing Thor was right to bring her there) and Ewing wasted a bit too much time trying to show off how awesome Storm is and how her power compares to Thor while she decries Kings or anyone who doesn't view her as a Goddess instead of human and Mutant.
Thor broke Stormbreaker in Cates' run.
Loki seemed to be in female form for the whole issue until the Thor transformation but it's hard to tell sometimes.
I do hope Ewing starts getting more creative with the stories after this arc.
At the moment its just dealing with Toranos and how overwhelming he is.
So, I've not read comics in years (since the Marvel Now relaunches). I picked up the first two issues of Ewing's run, and I really dig both the characterization and the artwork. The story/plot is decent, but if you have fairly strong character-driven stories they don't have to be incredibly intricate or complicated to work, in my view. I haven't picked up issue #3 yet. I get the sense that Ewing takes what he does seriously and treats his characters as such. Yeah, that preview with Storm acting irrational was goofy. Maybe to appease a younger crowd or Battle board posters, idk. I like how he's showing Thor as mature and thoughtful, befitting his age/status. Decompressed storytelling has been the norm for about 20 years, so I'm not surprised things are taking a while to materialize.