Tag Archives: The Mighty Thor

Marvel Masterworks The Mighty Thor Volume 5 Review

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It has been a while since I read one of the Thor volumes from this series. These were some of Thor’s best adventures as Stan Lee and the other really knew how to write the character. This was back when Thor was easily one of the heavy weights of the Marvel Universe and you could make a strong case for him being the strongest Marvel character to have his own series. The collection also brings some mini comics from when Thor was younger, which are fun to read and add to the overall experience. This is certainly one of the better Masterwork volumes out there.

This volume has a few story arcs within it and a lot of one shot stories as well. The first few involve a mysterious group of aliens from another galaxy. One of them appears on Earth and claims it as her own. The cops humor the alien for a while since they don’t know that the Earth has been trapped with an energy ring and is being taken out of Orbit. Thor proves to be stronger than the aliens had anticipated and they agree to spare the Earth if Thor can defeat Ego The Living Planet. While Thor does not need to agree to the deal, he accepts the challenge and looks forward to the fight.

This was a fun way to start off the collection as the aliens may not have been very powerful physically, but they had some lethal abilities. Thor was the first being to ever overpower their mental attacks and their ability to harness limitless durability and strength availed them not against The Thunderer. Ego was also a powerful antagonist, but Thor bested him in combat and Ego ended up retreating. After his adventures against those foes, Thor helped the High Evolutionary defeat the Man-Beast. The Man-Beast was reasonably powerful, but no matter how far human genetics go, the result will still be mortal.

One of the one shot comics had Odin give Jane Foster some tests to see if she was worthy to be an immortal. Once Odin gave her a glimpse of her abilities and sent the lady to face a monster, Jane Foster was not able to succeed. Jane looked really bad in this issue and while the situation was a little overwhelming, I would have expected her to have dealt with the situation a little more effectively. If she was as strong a character as she is now, I don’t doubt that she would have conquered the beast.

Later on, another comic had Loki take over the Destroyer armor and attack Asgard. It was a king sized special and the fights that ensued were a lot of fun. Seeing Thor go fist to fist against the Destroyer armor was enjoyable and the Destroyer was certainly a powerful opponent. Surprisingly, I think that this was the only comic where Loki got to appear. Considering how much of a big Thor villain he is, I assume that this is quite rare. Finally, we had a one shot comic where Kang accidentally unleashed one of his super robots on the Earth. Thor briefly engages in combat with the man, but then Kang runs off. Thor essentially sent him to Limbo, but we never got to see a proper fight between them.

Aside from the opening arc, the main saga in this collection deals with Ulik The Troll. The Trolls decide to invade Asgard so Ulik kidnaps Sif to lure Thor to Midgard. While Thor is away, the rest of the trolls plan on taking over Asgard. Odin is still there so the kingdom won’t fall so easily and Thor’s wrath has been stirred so Ulik may end up regretting his decision by the time the fight is over. This saga certainly had a lot of action and made for a good read.

The Thor Masterworks are certainly a step up from the rest of the Marvel comics from these days. The main title that keeps up would be Spider Man and it makes for a close battle. One of the main reasons why I have always liked the old Thor comics is due to the dialogue. It’s all very grand and majestic, fitting for Asgardians. The way that the characters all talk is very refined and many feats are included here as well. Thor gets hit with planet leveling punches and karate chops that strike as hard as cosmic tornadoes. It’s great to see these feats just be tossed about and Thor was always able to keep up with his foes.

Thor certainly looks very good and he never backs down from a fight. He’s a very likable main character and you can always count on him being honorable while in combat. You’ll find yourself rooting for him from early on and he never falters. Having an immortal as the main lead is also a nice contrast from the many humans and meta humans. Thor has lived for thousands of years at this point so he has reason to be so confident. If no being has managed to best him yet, why should that change now?

This collection showed Lady Sif’s first appearance in the Marvel Universe. Jane Foster had just been written out of the comic and the writers did a good job of making Lady Sif more likable than Jane in every way. Lady Sif was always ready for a fight and she was very competitive. I do have to question the fact that Thor completely forgot about her since that seems to be impossible, but I suppose that the writers had no idea on how to suddenly add a new Asgardian into the mix. I suppose that the reason for why she had never appeared before could have been worse. While she is certainly not as strong as Thor, Sif takes down many trolls and proves herself as an Asgardian warrior. She instantly became one of the better supporting characters.

Ulik The Troll also debuts here and it’s amazing to see how much stronger he was back in these days. Nowadays, the writers like to treat him like a joke, but he was originally a foe to be feared. His raw power was nearly equal to that of Thor’s own and he nearly bested the warrior the first time that they fought. Ulik is not really my kind of villain, but he was a serious threat and made for a good opponent of Thor’s. You could say that he was similar to Doomsday or Abomination back then when compared to the hero of the story.

Odin is actually reasonable in this comic. Typically, he can come across as rather rude or simply unaware of what is going on, but he is likable here. Odin ends up joining the fight against the trolls and finally says that he approves of Jane and Thor’s relationship. He ends up being a decent guy when it counts, which was nice. I don’t think that he lived up to the hype as he nearly lost to the trolls, but he never actually lost so I can’t say that he was disappointing either.

The Warrior’s Three were decent characters. My favorite member is certainly Volstagg though. Each and every one of his lines are genuinely funny and he really makes the adventures more enjoyable. His two partners are good as they keep up the banter, but the dialogue wouldn’t be possible without Volstagg. He’s easily one of the best Thor characters of all time and he’s a blast and a half to read about. The mini comics often involved them teaming up with Thor. The collection ends with the group about to fight Mogul to avenge Hogun’s clan. The mini comics are typically very short, but we still get many nice action scenes with them. It’s an example of a backup story that does help to make the main one even better.

As always, the art does not disappoint. The classic Marvel style has always been a lot of fun and it is so easy to read. You don’t have to worry about any of the panels being unclear because the staff worked hard on each and every panel. You can feel the level of detail present here as soon as you start reading and it pays off for the fight scenes as well as normal talking moments. This is a style that is lost to us and it’s not all bad as I really like the modern day art as well, but seeing some of this nowadays would still be pretty great.

Overall, This is a great volume of Thor comics. It’s a little over 200 pages so it’s a fairly long read. I believe that it brings 10 Thor issues and one of the annuals. There is a lot of action to be found here and the characters are all well written. I haven’t met a Marvel comic with bad writing from this period and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. There’s a cliffhanger that revolved around Galactus getting ready to fight Ego, but I guess it must have been resolved in a different comic. It’s too bad since that sounded like a good fight. If you are looking for a comic to see the true Thor as he was meant to be seen, I can think of no better way to start than to jump into this series. This is certainly one of the best Thor runs and you will be hooked on the story from start to finish.

Overall 8/10

The Mighty Thor Ragnarok Review

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Time to check out one of the classic Thor story arcs. We’ve seen Ragnarok mentioned many times in the Thor mythos and the event is one that is still being done today. The destruction of the gods is something that is naturally hard to stick, but this may have been the first time that it happened in the comics. It’s a pretty good story arc although the twist may be dicey for some fans.

Before the actual plot starts, we get a story where Thor helps a kid who is being bullied. Thor tells the kid that there is always someone stronger and remembers a time where he and Loki were trolled by a powerful titan. He seemed so much stronger than the two of them that is was hard to believe that such a being could actually be real. It was an entertaining story and I appreciated the twist that time since the whole situation would have been pretty humiliating otherwise.

Now, the real story occurs in Asgard, away from the problems of the mortals. Thor heads there and discovers that a camera crew has been brought in by Loki to witness the end of Asgard. Thor isn’t sure how Loki escaped his imprisonment, but it matters little as Asgard comes under attack by legions of adversaries. Making matters worse is the fact that one of the cameramen is able to best Thor in a fight and steal Mjolnir. Without his trusty hammer, will Thor be able to defend the kingdom and stop the Midgard Serpent? It’s definitely going to be a difficult fight.

The event that everyone feared got to finally occur and it was handled pretty well. That being said, the twist is major and it will affect how you look at the issues during your next read. A spoiler for this arc is coming up so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know about it. I’ll just give you an extra sentence here so that you can skip away…………………..the whole event is a ruse by Odin. He pretended that Ragnarok was upon Asgard so that the villains would make their move and Odin could weaken them. He made an illusion of Loki appear and he choreographed everything. The deaths were real though so this came at a high price, but now the villains won’t be ready to strike Asgard for many centuries to come. Still, this was certainly not a heroic move on Odin’s part and you can understand why the heroes would be upset with him. He also tries to stop Thor from going back to Earth once again so Thor disobeys him and gets banished from Asgard. Odin likely won’t be earning any new fans from this collection.

Thor looks nice and heroic as he should. The first comic takes place back when he was very arrogant and he definitely didn’t mind insulting Loki back then. Loudly proclaiming that he was Odin’s true son, he marched headfirst into each battle, never doubting his victory. That’s definitely a version of Thor that likely has many fans and then the rest of the issues deal with a more experienced version of the character. Thor is still confident, but not in a rude way and he is always ready to give a fight his all. I agree with him in the decision to go to Earth since the planet would be in a dire spot without him. I have no qualms with how he was portrayed.

Odin doesn’t look very good as I explained in the spoiler paragraph. He makes some very questionable decisions and ordering Thor to stay away from Earth at this point in time is like asking Thor to disobey him. The main camera man was pretty good. He definitely presumed much when he asked Thor to take him to Asgard and he really didn’t think that one through. Even if he got some footage, it would be hard to ever go back there again. He may be a nice guy, but he’s not the smartest one.

Red Norvell is one of the big villains of the story after he gains the abilities of Thor. They have a decent fight although the outcome is certainly suspect. It was pretty circumstantial, but it was still pretty sad to see him grab Mjolnir and defeat Thor so handily. He’s not a likable character and while he did have a change of heart by the end, it’s really hard to root for him. He’s very full of himself and Red Norvell’s actions nearly jeopardize the whole planet. He also takes a life, which is something that he cannot take back. No, Red Norvell is definitely no hero.

Aside from him, other villains include the Frost Giants and the Midgard Serpent. The Serpent certainly has changed over the years. This design is still green and very large, but his eyes are very menacing. I wish that they had kept this design for the future comics. Loki is also present of course and he looks true to form. He’s always got a trick up his sleeve, as befitting the trickster. Hela also gets some props as Odin backs away when confronted by her. When in her dimension, it would seem that she is even stronger than him. The Hype Train just got derailed….

This is one of the classic Marvel comics so the art is naturally very good. You can tell that a lot of effort was put into it and all of the character designs look great. These are the characters that Marvel fans grew up with and you can immediately see why they are known as the definitive design for most of the characters who are present. You can’t have a great comic with bad art and having consistently good art helps to elevate the series to new heights.

It almost goes without saying that the writing is very enjoyable and it plays a large part in why the comic is good. Thor’s manner of speaking is pretty catchy and it provides a nice contrast to the slang that the humans use when they appear. Some of the slang words of hard to recognize because they simply haven’t been used in many decades. That’s how old the comic is, but this works in its favor. There are some unlikable characters like Red Norvell, but he’s not nearly as bad as he could have been.

Overall, This is a good Thor collection to check out. The stakes are high and we get to see how he handles facing an army without Mjolnir. The Midgard Serpent also gets its props as he looks very good against the heroes. The only part of the collection that isn’t great is Red Norvell and I don’t see why Sif went with him. It was to protect Asgard, but she should have just been confident that she could have defeated him along with Thor and the others. That scene was pretty frustrating for fans and Red Norvell went way too far. His big change of heart is very hard to buy into. The short story at the beginning was also enjoyable. One little thing to note is that the collection is very small and you’ll be able to zip through it in well under an hour. At only around 120 pages, it feels shorter than the average collection. Still, Quality>>>Quantity right? I recommend checking this out if you’re looking for a well written action comic and it’ll help to tide you over until Avengers Age of Ultron hits theaters in around 2 months.

Overall 7/10