All You Need to Know – Thor #4
We got a preview copy of next week’s Thor #4 and I am so sorry.
I’m almost more sorry about this than I am about World War Hulk: Gamma Corps. As much of a huge waste of space that mini-series was, at least it was a mini. At least it dealt mostly with background characters and a few old names only die hard guys are going to care about. This is Thor. Thor.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: like the cover of a Led Zepplin album. Thor should come with righteous fury, battling the heavens from which he came and downing his success with lusty warrior-women hanging off his biceps and longing for the next change to test his godly mettle. Iron Fist has gone from Guy in Slippers to fan sensation just by upping his game and giving us action and adventure at the end of a thing like unto iron. I sell that book simply by showing people one of the last few pages in the trade where two guys kick each other so hard they cause an entire floor of a high rise to explode.
Thor is a no-brainer. He should be making entire buildings explode before breakfast. This issue… not so much. And the thing is, Thor does do something incredible in this issue, he does silhouette himself with lighting crackling in the background, but…there is just something missing. Something not right that maybe doesn’t translate well in single issue, maybe can’t wash the heavy handed soapboxing from the rest of the issue, maybe doesn’t have the same visceral punch I’m looking for artistically. Whatever it is, it’s just falling short of being Thor from on high and I am so sorry that some people are out there thinking that this is what Marvel’s God of Thunder is all about.
He should be about might and magic, epic tales of valor and destruction, things that make our lives small in comparison and let us dream of better worlds and high heroes than a mere mortal could attain. Donald Blake is the lighting rod through which the Conan soundtrack comes to life and rides down the blackest hearts that could only come from myth and legend. I want SO MUCH and, sad to say, I’m getting so little.
Spoilers Ahead, but if you already know that Thor will win any conflict he gets into and that he’s going to find some dudes who will turn out to be undiscovered Asgardians, then there you go.
