Thor, Vol. 1

This is the kind of book that gets a person excited about superheroes, no doubt about it. I started with  Journey into Mystery, Vol. 1: Fear Itself  as a starting point for Marvel comics (after loving the film,  The Avengers ). I was immediately hooked and wanted to see how we got to that point. I decided to skip over House of M and Civil War, as those stories seemed too dark, and I didn't want to go too far back. I had read great reviews about Straczynski's reintroduction of Thor, which also introduced Lady Loki, and decided to jump to this point. Though the story is fairly well contained, it is helpful to know something of what happened before, especially in Civil War. So, I recommend newbie readers like me hit Wikipedia to get an overview of those prior major events.This book opens with the human Donald Blake, who once hosted Thor's spirit, calling the God of Thunder from the Void of nothingness. The cycle of endless Raganaroks had been broken, but humanity still needs the gods. Thor chooses to be reborn, and he uses his power to rebuild Asgard - in Oklahoma! He then begins searching the world for his people, bound within humans waiting to be awakened. He intended not to awaken certain Asgardians, Loki, Enchantress, et al, but while engaged in battle was forced to awaken everyone at once. Loki is somehow reborn as a woman, and Sif cannot be found. The stage is set. The most exciting part of this book is the clash between Thor and Iron Man, when Thor reveals just how powerful he is - that he had always held back before. He's ticked off at Tony for using his genetic code to make a "fake" Thor and passing him off as the real deal during the Civil War.Overall, this is a fantastic (re)introduction of Thor. The story is engrossing, and I love the artwork. Thor is totally bad a@@, and the fights scenes are expertly rendered and thrilling. Highly recommended!

I really hadn't read much of Thor, but wondered what had happened to him during the Civil War event. This book follows soon after the registration act and the Initiative. I find Straczynski to be a pretty good story teller most of the time. I've enjoyed his Spiderman run and Superman Earth One 1-2. This book was strange to me, but Thor is someone I really haven't read much of and watched the movies. I did think the artwork was great and I enjoyed the battle with him and Iron Man.

Though arguably the most powerful of all the Marvel heroes (he is a god, after all), Thor's initial run ended through his own choices. Instead of allowing the eternal return to occur, he broke the cycle of death and rebirth. His most recent appearance in the Marvel Universe had been as the genetic monstrosity siding with Iron Man in the Civil War event. Taking some of Thor's genetic matter, they constructed a Thor clone, who was very nearly as powerful, but lacked judgment and compassion. Hercules killed him in a battle between Iron Man and his allies and Captain America and his allies, aping Lloyd Bentsen's famous verbal demolition of Dan Quayle by -- as he killed him -- proclaiming that he knew Thor, but that he was no Thor.In this challenging series, J. Michael Straczynski has to make it believable that Thor could arise from nothingness to not only live again but to bright Asgard back to life. The impetus comes not from Thor himself, but his alter ego, Dr. Don Blake (who in his original incarnation in 1962 was lame and had to have a cane to walk, but who here seems far fleeter of foot). The artwork, penciled by Olivier Coipel, makes all of this far more believable than the actual text. And so, somewhere out in western Oklahoma, Asgard is reborn.Much of the rest of these issues focuses on Thor's recovering lost Asgardian souls who have become entrapped in human hosts. We also see the return of his nemesis Loki (who was the cause of the original teaming up of the Avengers, when he tricked the Hulk into fighting them -- it will be interesting to see if these two elements will be retained in the forthcoming THOR and AVENGERS movies), bizarrely enough in feminine form, and who while obviously not trustworthy, assures Thor of his (her?) good intentions. We doubt this because we learn that Loki is in contact with Dr. Doom, who appears in a single panel.One of my complaints with Thor in his original form was that he seemed spectacularly weak at times. I mean, we are talking a god, one of the most powerful Norse gods. All indications are that this is definitely not a nerfed form of Thor. He and Iron Man have a brief and very physical encounter. It lasts a few seconds, with Thor expending only enough energy to bring Iron Man within a inch of death. Their encounter is left with Iron Man agreeing not to forcibly impel Thor to join the Avengers (this all takes place in the Civil War universe), though Tony Stark clearly does not consider the matter closed. Thor indicates that when he has leisure, he intends to call Stark to account for the monstrous clone made with his genetic material. This volume ends with us knowing that both Loki, somehow cooperating with Dr. Doom, and Ton Stark, leader of the federally authorized Avengers, have plans touching upon Thor in the future. But these could be the least of Thor's concerns. His last act, as the final issue reaches its final panel, was to reawaken all of the remaining Asgards. That would, of course, include Odin.A final aside. If you love Norse mythology, the Marvel take on it has always been a fairly painful affair. Odin was always cast as a bit of a heavy. But, in fact, Odin was perhaps the largest hearted of all the old gods. In contrast to the Greek gods, who saw the humans as their toys, Odin often did great favors for humans. For instance, in the Norse version of the Prometheus myth, the gift of fire is not stolen from the gods, but Odin himself shares the gift with humans. I also love the magnificent image of Odin, sitting at a great banquet table neither eating nor drinking. Instead, his two great ravens go to and fro over the world, returning to whisper what they have to him, all so that he can do his utmost to postpone Ragnarok, the final battle between the Norse gods and the forces of darkness, where their inevitable defeat will lead to the Twilight of the Gods. Yet, so many popular representations of him have him reduced to a petulant, power hungry, mean-spirited tyrant. In Neil Gaiman's marvelous AMERICAN GODS, he is even reduced to a con artist. The second volume in this series is out in January (I have not been buying the individual comics). My fear is that the Odin depicted there will be as inaccurate and as unflattering as most previous portrayals.

After reading about the various aspects of this Thor series by JMS, I really didn't think I'd like it. A doctor with a stick that magically transforms him into a god? Thor bringing back Asgardians through the memories & souls of living human beings? Asgard residing in America? I didn't wholly believe this could be in anyway cool, but I was completely wrong! I love the inclusion of Donald Blake & the interactions between him & Thor, & those between Asgardians & the locals. It works. Best of all though, Thor is completely kick ass - Iron Man is completely taken aback by his true power & even questions whether he is Thor; he just didn't know how strong The Thunder God truly is. The whole JMS run is brilliant, but be warned, the only problem being that the end of this story is finished elsewhere in the Latverian Prometheus by Kieran Gillen & not in any volume by JMS. Best piece of advice I can give you if you must finish this story, is to purchase the Thor by Kieran Gillen Ultimate Collection, as the Latverian Prometheus story is included, & will work out cheaper than buying the story TPB on it's own.

I usually prefer to read about more grounded and reality based superheroes, such as the Punisher, but I found this to be entertaining and engaging. I will likely by the next volume in the series.

This is a very good book - Good characterisation, very good plot and pacing and the art is very good too. I recommend reading 'Thor: Disassembled' first as it leads into this but yeah, Straczynski is on the money here.If you like Thor then this is a good place to start for sure.

Quality was very poor, cover ripped and pages stuck together

I needed this vol as part of my dissertation work and was nervous about the delivery estimate but it arrived very fast in excellent condition and the graphic novel itself is very useful and entertaining.