Thor Odinson Appreciation 2018

[pugbuddy]

Just wanted to express my fondness for the god of thunder, Thor. Interestingly enough, I became a fan of Thor during Dan Jurgens/John Romita Jr. run with the character back during the late 90s/early 2000s. During that time, Thor battled the Dark Gods, Juggernaut, Thanos, and Mangog in some truly epic JRJr rendered glory. Unfortunately, I felt that Jurgen's run got a bit too heavy and convoluted when he made Thor king of Asgard and had him take over the Earth. Still, the first 25 issues of that run were awesome.

One of the most memorable scenes for me was this:

Agreed. Spot on about Jergins. He got a bit heavy at the end but his early issues were really good. And JRJR did a heck of a job on the art.

[smoothrunes]

Thor really needs to stick to using Mjolnir from now on if he can. It seems whenever he uses another weapon, it just leads to disaster. Case in point:

When he enchanted Jarnbjorn to fight Apocalypse, it backfired immensely when the Apoc. Twins got their hands on it in modern times and used it to kill a Celestial gardener, framing Earth for the murder, which caused Exitar to come and destroy the planet.

spoilers:

Though that did get fixed thanks to Kang and his time travel, when Thor used to weapon to kill Exitar to stop it from destroying Earth, Kang (surprise!) betrayed him and the heroes and started absorbing Exitar's power from the wound.

end of spoilers

In the future, spoilers:

Old King Thor uses Gorr's All-Black the Necrosword to beat Galactus and drive him away. This, however, leads to the sword infecting Galactus and turning him into an evil(er?) version of himself.

end of spoilers

So please, God of Thunder, just stick to what you know best.

[Danvidar]

Thor really needs to stick to using Mjolnir from now on if he can. It seems whenever he uses another weapon, it just leads to disaster. Case in point:

When he created Jarnbjorn to fight Apocalypse, it backfired immensely when the Apoc. Twins got their hands on it in modern times and used it to kill a Celestial gardener, framing Earth for the murder, which caused Exitar to come and destroy the planet.

spoilers:

Though that did get fixed thanks to Kang and his time travel, when Thor used to weapon to kill Exitar to stop it from destroying Earth, Kang (surprise!) betrayed him and the heroes and started absorbing Exitar's power from the wound.

end of spoilers

In the future, spoilers:

Old King Thor uses Gorr's All-Black the Necrosword to beat Galactus and drive him away. This, however, leads to the sword infecting Galactus and turning him into an evil(er?) version of himself.

end of spoilers

So please, God of Thunder, just stick to what you know best.

Minor correction Thor didn't create Jarnborn to fight Apocolypse. It was the weapon he used before he could wield Mjolnir, he applied an Anti-Celestial enchantment to his current weapon of the era.

[smoothrunes]

OK, I'll fix that detail.

[Doc Omega]

I've always liked Thor, but I've mainly read about him in Avengers books. Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?

[Bucky]

I've always liked Thor, but I've mainly read about him in Avengers books. Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?

Just about anything by Walter Simonson. They've been collected many times over, so I'm not sure what the best format would be to pick them up. But if you search for "Simonson Thor", I'm sure you'll find something.

Also, J. Michael Straczynski reboot of Thor, when read in trade format, is pretty awesome, too. It was decompressed and many a Thorite complained when it came out issue by issue. I'm pretty sure it's collected as just Thor Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3...

I think the current run on Thor has been pretty spectacular. Not sure if they're collected yet, but if you read the others and enjoy the character, can't hurt to start picking it up.

If you go much older than you're hitting territory that's iffy. I mean, I think Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Mangog storyline is one of my favorite Thor comics, ever. But you have the love the character to get through the wordy dialogue and accept the deus ex machina solution at the end. Plus, a lot of the older stuff isn't relevant anymore. If you want to delve into that, though, I'm sure we could find something you'll enjoy.

[victorxd1999]

Just about anything by Walter Simonson. They've been collected many times over, so I'm not sure what the best format would be to pick them up. But if you search for "Simonson Thor", I'm sure you'll find something.

Also, J. Michael Straczynski reboot of Thor, when read in trade format, is pretty awesome, too. It was decompressed and many a Thorite complained when it came out issue by issue. I'm pretty sure it's collected as just Thor Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3...

I think the current run on Thor has been pretty spectacular. Not sure if they're collected yet, but if you read the others and enjoy the character, can't hurt to start picking it up.

If you go much older than you're hitting territory that's iffy. I mean, I think Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Mangog storyline is one of my favorite Thor comics, ever. But you have the love the character to get through the wordy dialogue and accept the deus ex machina solution at the end. Plus, a lot of the older stuff isn't relevant anymore. If you want to delve into that, though, I'm sure we could find something you'll enjoy.

I've always liked Thor, but I've mainly read about him in Avengers books. Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?

Everything stated above. But add the still ongoing Thor god of thunder. A OHC collecting #1-11 is upcoming and 3 PHC's and 2 trades are out. Great work, especially the Ribic issues

[pugbuddy]

I've always liked Thor, but I've mainly read about him in Avengers books. Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?

I think the old Lee and Kirby stuff is spectacular and, most importantly, establishes the character quite well. The Thomas/Buscema stories are also very good; at times excellent. The Thor runs in the 90s ranged from terrible to good so there is some iffy stuff there. JMS' run is much celebrated but not that great IMHO. However, in his defense, his run on the comic was not that long either; I felt he barely got started before he left. The latest run by Aaron started out fantastic (although "God Bomb" had a paper-thin villain), hit a major bump in the Malekith story (which I consider quite weak) but is again on track and looking very good right now. Aaron seems to like the character and writes him well so far.

[comicscube]

Thor's been, weirdly (I think), pretty consistently good to great in his existence. The Stan/Jack run was the OTHER great Stan/Jack work (and I prefer it to FF on a personal level). Walt was an all-time run. There were good spots, even moments of brilliance in between (I'm a fan of Alan Zelenetz's short run, it's not spectacular, but not worse than the standard at the time). Even DeFalco and Frenz just ran with the Stan/Jack tributes and did them well while Thor was still in it. The Eric Masterson stuff was weird, but I know it's still fondly remembered. Ellis' short run gets criticized for being too 90s, but for my money it was one of the times 90s elements truly worked (and one of the times Ellis hit all cylinders for me). Even in Heroes Reborn, Thor eventually got written by Simonson again. The Jurgens/JRJR run was good stuff. I'm personally not a fan of the decade or so in between JRJR's departure and Aaron and Ribic's run (from what little I've read -- I'm not going to stick by a book that's not doing it for me), but it's still well-regarded. And I think Aaron and Ribic have just been gold.

So, uh, to answer "Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?", I'd say with Thor just about anything would really work. If you get into a certain section of Stan and Jack, I do have to say it's the comic that REALLY made me love Stan and Jack. You should read Thor lecturing hippies.

[Bucky]

Thor's been, weirdly (I think), pretty consistently good to great in his existence. The Stan/Jack run was the OTHER great Stan/Jack work (and I prefer it to FF on a personal level). Walt was an all-time run. There were good spots, even moments of brilliance in between (I'm a fan of Alan Zelenetz's short run, it's not spectacular, but not worse than the standard at the time). Even DeFalco and Frenz just ran with the Stan/Jack tributes and did them well while Thor was still in it. The Eric Masterson stuff was weird, but I know it's still fondly remembered. Ellis' short run gets criticized for being too 90s, but for my money it was one of the times 90s elements truly worked (and one of the times Ellis hit all cylinders for me). Even in Heroes Reborn, Thor eventually got written by Simonson again. The Jurgens/JRJR run was good stuff. I'm personally not a fan of the decade or so in between JRJR's departure and Aaron and Ribic's run (from what little I've read -- I'm not going to stick by a book that's not doing it for me), but it's still well-regarded. And I think Aaron and Ribic have just been gold.

So, uh, to answer "Could anyone recommend some trades from his solo book that would be a good read please?", I'd say with Thor just about anything would really work. If you get into a certain section of Stan and Jack, I do have to say it's the comic that REALLY made me love Stan and Jack. You should read Thor lecturing hippies.

You liked Warren Ellis' World Engine storyline? It was brief, but it was pretty awful, but Mike Deadato Jr is my favorite Thor artist ever.

You're right, though. Thor has a lot more hits than misses. You didn't miss much between JRJR and the current run. There were some real out of the park home runs like when Oeming wrapped up Jurgens run...primarily because it took a bit of a nosedive. JMS' run is highly acclaimed now. At the time, people were iffy on it. Fraction's stint was, in my opinion, some of the worst Thor we've ever had. I just don't think he really got the character. He's doing amazing work with Hawkeye from what I understand.

I like how you said Thor is Stan/Jack's other great work. It's funny... when you talk to people about Jack Kirby, they don't immediately say, "Thor!" He had a really, really heavy hand in making Thor and people don't realize that the two were on the title forever. I always read the New Gods stuff with a hint of Asgard in my mind.

[comicscube]

You liked Warren Ellis' World Engine storyline? It was brief, but it was pretty awful, but Mike Deadato Jr is my favorite Thor artist ever.

You're right, though. Thor has a lot more hits than misses. You didn't miss much between JRJR and the current run. There were some real out of the park home runs like when Oeming wrapped up Jurgens run...primarily because it took a bit of a nosedive. JMS' run is highly acclaimed now. At the time, people were iffy on it. Fraction's stint was, in my opinion, some of the worst Thor we've ever had. I just don't think he really got the character. He's doing amazing work with Hawkeye from what I understand.

I like how you said Thor is Stan/Jack's other great work. It's funny... when you talk to people about Jack Kirby, they don't immediately say, "Thor!" He had a really, really heavy hand in making Thor and people don't realize that the two were on the title forever. I always read the New Gods stuff with a hint of Asgard in my mind.

To each his own, but I loved Worldengine. The techniques used in it were aesthetically pleasing and I don't really see what's so reviled about the story. It was a "Thor gets stripped of his godhood and has to discover what it's like to be just a (superpowered) man" story, and it delivered for me. But again, to each his own; I find what I've read of JMS's stuff unreadable, and Fraction's stint was just bland. I was underwhelmed by Oeming's story too, but I never read much past JRJR's departure (I think I stopped at the Larsen issues).

I tried connecting the Thor/New Gods/Captain Victory stuff a while back here; Kirby just seemed to always have them on his mind.

[RLAAMJR.]

I'm waiting for the third Thor movie.

[Punisher007]

And hopefully it will be better than TDW was.

[victorxd1999]

And hopefully it will be better than TDW was.

I don't really get the negativity around TDW, I thought it was miles better than the first Thor movie and it's was very entertaining even tough I'm not a Malekith fan. That said I also like Iron man 3 so I think I'll be bombarded with comments soon

[RLAAMJR.]

And hopefully it will be better than TDW was.

hopefully. TDW was great.