Thor #601 – Review

J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Marko Djurdjevic (artist), Paul Mounts (colorist)

Before the Review: I’ve never read Thor before. Okay, slight exaggeration – I have a yellowed copy of Thor #384 that I rescued from a discount bin.
But I’ve never read J. Michael Straczynski’s Thor before. I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

The Story: We find Thor sitting around a campfire, pondering the shattered Mjolnir. In killing his grandfather, Bor, he broke the godly hammer, and it’s a cause of some confusion for the two-in-one of Blake and Thor; how do you fix Mjolnir?

Meanwhile, Loki and Balder are visiting Dr. Doom in Latveria, and moving forward with plans to determine the future of the earth-bound Asgardians – while some of them start to decide their own.

The Good: J. Michael Straczynski’s done an incredible job; since I had very, VERY minimal exposure to Thor before, I was delighted to find that the comic reads well, with characters and storylines that pull you in, regardless of the Asgardian English they employ.

It’s a funny juxtaposition to have a young, ineloquent diner cook and a demi-goddess falling for each other, but it works – just like the rest of Thor. The art, by Djurdjevic, is outstanding in so many ways. His interplay between the real and the fantastic gives Thor a cinematic quality of storytelling that’s hard to come by in any comic, much less a movie. It’s immersive, identifiable, and is a perfect fit – and Paul Mounts’ colors bring out the best of Marko’s pencils.

The Bad: The comic is certainly engrossing, but the epic scale of things can be a little intimidating if you (like me) are new to reading Thor, even with a healthy knowledge of the Norse pantheon.

Unlike other epic sagas that could be confusing without knowing all the key players, Thor manages to be welcoming, and doesn’t overwhelm the reader with an abundance of characters.

In other words, if you don’t read Thor, and you’re intrigued (especially after hearing about the Kenneth Branagh-directed movie coming in 2011), start reading Thor. You may feel like you’re lost in Asgard, but just remember – it’s still in Utah.

The Grade: B

-Brian Lynch