Comic Book Addicts

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Oliver Coipel

Let me start off this review by letting you know that I’m not a long time fan of Thor, I guess when I was growing up I just couldn’t get into all the language of Thor. However, for this relaunch I was kind of looking forward to it, just to see what they were going to be doing with it. I have to say I have been very impressed so far.

Now I’m not familiar with how the Thor fan community has reacted to the new look of Thor and, honestly, I am not familiar enough with Thor continuity to know if they have changed anything drastically on that side of things. Having said that, I’m really enjoying the series so far and it has been very easy for me to get into this series even though I don’t really know that much about Thor or the reasons he has been gone from the Marvel Universe.

The art is really a strong point so far for this book. Oliver Coipel is doing some of his best work here. Some of the spreads really communicate to the viewer as if you were literally standing in the world that you are looking at in the book. It’s just breathtaking.

Even though I have always liked Thor’s classic look, I have to say that the reenvisioning of his look is really good. It stays with the theme of the classic look and gives it a little edge with more chain armor, but it doesn’t go too far. You also have a really interesting dichotomy with Thor coming from Asgard, as opposed to the small Oklahoma town and the small town people that he interacts with in the book. I think both the art and the writing do a good job of making that work really well.

The writing has been very solid and I’ve enjoyed the story up to this point. I hope that it has a good conclusion to this first story arc and builds from the success that this relaunch has had. There has been a good bit of humor that I think has really been well-timed and character appropriate; whereas in Straczynski’s past work, in Amazing Spider-Man , the humor never seemed quite right for Spidey. Here it all comes off smoothly and left me openly laughing at several spots in the book. There’s a scene like that in issue #2 that reminded me of Daffy Duck  running out of the genie’s cave shouting, “Mine mine mine!” 

The start of #1 gives you a very succinct synopsis. It explains where Thor has been all this time and how he has returned. It transitions to Donald Blake being back on earth as Thor’s alter ego and shows him moving into a small town in Oklahoma. This town is near where Thor’s hammer landed way back in Fantastic Four #536 , which was also written by Straczynski. I don’t know if that meant he knew he would be writing Thor at that point or if he was just attempting to set himself up as the writer of a book that he knew would come back sooner or later. I like to think that Marvel has long-reaching editorial plans such as that, but I know it works the other way as well.

I think this series is a good one for newcomers as the story has reset and allows for easy access. I’m sure there will be parts that will leave a newbie scratching their head, but so far the story has really been just moving forward and not dwelling on much in the past. So no matter if you’re new to Thor or a veteran of the story, I think you should give it a try. You’ll find yourself entertained.