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Dana's Marvel Review - Thor

THOR #6

By J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales and Laura Martin

Thor is classic Straczynski, at least as I know him, and that’s this title’s greatest asset. As with many of his works, this book fully integrates its heroes into the world we live in today, establishes a plausible situation where humanity must coexist with otherworldly beings. And this issue truly typifies this narrative approach to comic book writing.

More often than not, superheroes typically setup shop in big cities, be them fictional or not. They reside under the guise of alter egos, fully assimilating into public life, existing in their off-time as average Joes (or Janes) without any genuine fear of detection. This title finds the heroes smack-dab in a small town, not as their assumed identities (or in this case, their human hosts), but as full-fledged gods, mixing with man. And for the first half of this month’s installment, three separate tales of gods mingling with the community are brought front and center. We’re given a glimpse of how both sides are coming to grips with living in and amongst each other through humor and characterization. Each stands on their own strengths and merits but my favorite is the yarn between Bill and Kelda. It illustrates how similar both groups are, how they mutually wonder what it must be like to live in the other’s world.

The second half of the story focuses on Thor and his concern with those he’s brought back and yet to bring back, namely Odin. A converstation between him and his human host tells of the desire of creating a new future that would be free of the old ways and rules. If Odin were to be brought back, he would try to take them down the same road again, lives not of free-will, but of fate. For me, I’d almost have preferred that this issue solely revolve around the various interactions between the gods and the men as it was so rich and telling. When held up side-by-side, this portion that is, without question, a very solid setup for what is obviously to come pales in comparison to the first. Which is unfortunate since it too is well written but would have been better served in a following issue.

For my money, this book is still well worth its salt. 8/10
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Dana Severson is one of your resident reviewers of all things
Marvel. He is often found red-eyed and filled with caffeine.

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Posted by Dana on March 3, 2008 1:12 PM
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