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.

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Howard Chaykin

This is a book that I wasn’t really looking forward to read, it was probably in the middle of my stack, the top of the stack containing the books I want to read the most and going down in preference from there. I had never read anything by the writer, Jason Aaron, and wasn’t really sure what to expect from him and I had never been a fan of Howard Chaykin’s artwork. As soon as I began reading the book, however, I thought the art looked good and really suited the book. It is kind of gritty with a realistic leaning. Throughout the book the art is very consistent which is something that I am always glad to see, as I hate to see good detailed art on one page then turn to another and it almost seems like someone else drew the next one.

Now onto the story, this was a book that, for the first time ever, I was truly sad to see the last page. Usually you read a book and it ends in a cliffhanger or in some way to make you look forward to the next issue and, in that way, you don’t want the story to end. This book to me was different in that, like a great novel, I was generally disappointed for it to end. It was that good. It is a one shot story that comes between the last story arc that Jeff Loeb finished and the next one that a new artist will be starting, so this is a great issue for people to jump in on this title. The only place you see Wolverine in his costume is on the cover and you don’t see him very often throughout the story, as the storyline really concentrates on an anonymous character. Considering this, you would think that it would be on the boring side, but you really get sucked in and want to know who this guy is and where this place is that he works and what all the secrecy is all about. The writer also communicates very well the feeling of suspense towards the end of the book, in that you really aren’t sure what’s going to happen or how things are going to work out for the main character and the title character.

Jason Aaron is a fairly new writer on the scene of comics but has had some critical acclaim for his ongoing book Scalped and the limited series The Other Side both published by Vertigo Comics. I really think a book like this is perfect for people that want to get into comics, but don’t know where to begin. It is contained, for the most part, in this one issue and it is done in a mainstream title for a mainstream company. For people who read comics regularly, like myself, it makes me want to go right out and buy the Scalped trade. So I recommend this book to anyone who is new to comics and to anyone who likes a good story. Go pick it up now if you haven’t already.

Today, we went to the Atlanta Comic Convention. It is a fairly small, one-day convention held at the Marriott American Century hotel in Atlanta, GA. It costs $4 to get in the door, however, their website had a one-dollar coupon that we printed out before we arrived. In the door for $6 total, not bad! There were people around the front area giving away some free books, which is always nice. We went to the back corner where someone had about twelve 50 cent longboxes of comics. We started sifting through them and found some really good stuff. I got some Batman and Batman Detectives comics as well as some runs of Thor, Avengers, and Teen Titans. The man running the booth said that he had bought those books off of 6 different collectors. Those were their collections, so there weren’t a lot of duplicates, that was nice, and there were some good runs, with them back to back in the boxes. That makes it easier as well.

My wife saw some Richie Rich and Archie comics in some 50 cent boxes too. They ended up being good deals. She picked up a Dudley Do Right comic that happened to end up being worth $75. It was in great condition. I picked up some Amazing Spider-man (that’s my favorite) for $5 each that ended up being worth quite a bit of money. Sometimes I don’t think they really pay attention to what they put in some of these bins sometimes. You can get some good deals if you have time to sift through the boxes of comics.

A lot of the vendors were buying comics too. I was told that I should bring my duplicates to sell to them. I think I might do that sometime. They’re having a larger 3-day convention February 8-10, 2008 at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel for only $25. That’s a good price for a 3-day convention. Go to www.atlantacomicsexpo.com for more information.