Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,958 
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Post by Crimebuster on Nov 27, 2014 0:59:24 GMT -5
One of my all-time favorites.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 27, 2014 4:53:36 GMT -5
One of my few disappointments on this site was reading that Shax didn't like Walt's Thor. I considered sending the men in white coats to round him up, so I could then sit him down and give him a Walt Simonson themed intervention*, but realizing that such an act was technically illegal, I decided to let the matter stand. I just want to board to know that I'm over my initial shock and that I've moved on.
*This intervention would have consisted of me in a fake beard, trying to approximate the look of Mr. Simonson, toy Mjolnir in hand, while Shax is in a dark room, spotlight on face, etc. The whole police procedural bit. I would then prop Walt's Thor omnibus on a stylish lectern and meticulously go page through page, panel through panel, of the omnibus until he admitted that Walt's Thor is at the very least exceptional. To add to the atmosphere I'd play some Enya, light the rest of the room with tallow candles and serve Shax large flagon's of mead.*
*Mead = Bud Light. I don't know how to make actual mead.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 5:57:53 GMT -5
One of my few disappointments on this site was reading that Shax didn't like Walt's Thor. I considered sending the men in white coats to round him up, so I could then sit him down and give him a Walt Simonson themed intervention*, but realizing that such an act was technically illegal, I decided to let the matter stand. I just want to board to know that I'm over my initial shock and that I've moved on. *This intervention would have consisted of me in a fake beard, trying to approximate the look of Mr. Simonson, toy Mjolnir in hand, while Shax is in a dark room, spotlight on face, etc. The whole police procedural bit. I would then prop Walt's Thor omnibus on a stylish lectern and meticulously go page through page, panel through panel, of the omnibus until he admitted that Walt's Thor is at the very least exceptional. To add to the atmosphere I'd play some Enya, light the rest of the room with tallow candles and serve Shax large flagon's of mead.* *Mead = Bud Light. I don't know how to make actual mead. MMMMM mead! (the real thing not Bud Light which I consider an affront to real beers! There are actually a few commercially available meads that are quite good. Chaucer's Mead is probably the most readily available and is decent. However, as a medievalist in grad school, I met a homebrewer whose brother raised honeybees and he made his own mead using part of his brother's harvest....delectable. -M and yes, every thread must eventually turn to food and drink somehow someway!  |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 27, 2014 6:13:13 GMT -5
I forgot to add that the reason I chose Bud Light is because I'm cheap. Drat. In all seriousness, I think I'm going to buy some of that Chaucer's Mead the next time I read Walt's Thor (and while reading his excellent new Ragnarok series.).
Speaking of Walt's Thor run, I think it's a perfect example of taking what Lee/Kirby did, keeping all the great stuff, and only adding to the mythos. The real triumph of Walt's Thor, at least for me, is how he expanded on the characters of Sif, Baldur and even Loki and Odin. The Executioner was a classic Thor villain, but who actually cared (as in sympathized) about him as a character before Walt? The guy's just a brilliant storyteller. They were all better characters when Walt left.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2014 18:34:45 GMT -5
I'm with Shax. I enjoyed it but I do feel it is a little overrated.
I remember buying one of the frog issues as a kid and being a little annoyed. Why wasn't I seeing the "real" Thor?
Beta Ray Bill has always left me cold. This random alien shows up and is somehow more noble and better at being Thor than Thor himself?? No thanks.
At the time I had a really tough time enjoying the art. That has changed with age and now I consider myself to be a fan of Simonson's art. But as a kid it wasn't what I was used to and I really disliked it.
I do enjoy a lot of other things about the run though. It's certainly not bad by any means, just possibly talked up a bit too much.
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Nov 29, 2014 19:23:57 GMT -5
Well I have to admit this has made me curious again. I'm going to go back to these and finish them.
What I have noticed is how good Walt's art is, and how poor it is on X-Factor a year or two later.
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Post by badwolf on Nov 29, 2014 19:25:43 GMT -5
I love the run, although I didn't get into it right away and there are a handful of issues near the beginning that I'm still missing. Truly one of the best.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Nov 29, 2014 19:55:05 GMT -5
I was wondering how long it would take for my name to get brought up in this thread I never had anything against this run, to be clear. I just didn't get what the big deal was. Like destro, I was hesitant to like Beta Ray Bill because it felt too easy to give some new impostor character that kind of status, but I ultimately liked where Simonson went with the character. It was only after Bill moved out of the picture that I realized I had absolutely no affinity for Simonson's Thor, himself. As I continued to read on, that didn't change. |
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Nov 29, 2014 22:00:11 GMT -5
I really love this run for a few reasons....and I can understand that for the exact same reasons, some people may dislike it.
First off, Beta Ray Bill. Definitely a candidate for one of the dumbest name but it works somehow. To me, Thor is a golden boy and seeign someone come along who can actually show he is as strong if not stronger was an interesting idea. I also liked how they became friends after initially fighting. After that, the stories revolved around Thor's world for much of the run, featuring many solid characters and even giving some of the more minor characters a chance to shine. The artwork and stories, for me, are meant to be fun. Nothing real serious, nothing super corny. A nice middle ground that was just fresh to read at the time. Every cover and page was bursting with so much colour, which is something I also really enjoyed about the run. It may be a bit overhyped but I think everyone should read it regardless and would definitely count this in my top 20 comic runs.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2014 1:20:57 GMT -5
One of my all-time favorites. I agree with you completely ... Scott and this is a living proof of a rare man that can write and draw comics with ease and this cover of which I own is a testament of his work.  |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 30, 2014 10:34:07 GMT -5
I had absolutely no affinity for Simonson's Thor, himself. As I continued to read on, that didn't change. This is interesting because, if we're honest, even the Lee/Kirby Thor is sort of "generic" in and of himself. I don't think this is a bad thing because, well, so is Superman, Captain Marvel, etc. With Thor, it's the Norse trappings, high fantasy, and cosmic landscape that is the real star of the show. I also think we need those kinds of characters to contrast and balance the angst ridden heroes, the anti-heroes, etc. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Nov 30, 2014 11:03:44 GMT -5
This is interesting because, if we're honest, even the Lee/Kirby Thor is sort of "generic" in and of himself. True, but the concepts and visuals were so much fun, and the pace so quick, that I never really noticed. Simonson's stories (at least the ones I read) were slower moving in the modern day fashion, and often relied on moments where Thor would talk with another character or think/reflect instead of just leaping into action, and he bored me in those moments. But this statement carries with it an implicit assumption that all pure heroes must be boring. I would disagree. |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 1, 2014 7:32:56 GMT -5
I don't think that all pure heroes are boring, but I do feel that they're not given the opportunity to develop quirks and flaws very often. There seems to be an unwritten rule that if you're godlike, not only do you not have mere mortal problems, but you don't even have problems relative to your station.
I like characters that I can relate to on some level, like Peter Parker, but I also like characters that are clearly above most people, not just in power, but in morals and ethics like Superman, Thor, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, etc. I like to balance my wallowing in human frailty and imperfection with more idealistic themes. If that rambling mess makes any sense at all.
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Post by berkley on Dec 2, 2014 2:25:07 GMT -5
I still haven't read this run. I'm usually a big fan of Walt Simonson's artwork, but for some reason his Thor has never appealed to me. But I'll give it a shot one of these days. It could be my prejudice against 80s & 90s Marvel in general getting the better of me. But it wasn't a prejudice originally - I really did dislike almost everything I looked at or sampled from the company at the time, so much so that I stopped looking altogether after some point in the early 80s.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2014 19:48:48 GMT -5
I think one of my biggest criticisms towards Simonson's Thor is that it was a book that was clearly being written for more sophisticated older teens/adult readers. I would say the same of Miller's work on Daredevil. I can enjoy both NOW. And I expect that I will hear from some people who bought these titles off the rack as kids who really did dig them. But for me as a kid these books were just puzzling and not what I was looking for.
My comic book buying habits as a kid were really random. I rarely was able to buy two issues of any one title in a row. I needed to have my own money and be in a position to actually get one at a 7-11 which rarely coincided. So buying a random issue or Thor where he is a frog, or some random person in disguise as thor wearing a red mask, or some random alien being better than Thor just confused me and convinced me to not buy the book anymore.
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