I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally mWhat's up, danger?
I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally motivate me to get to it. And I’ve really been missing out.
The idea of a new Spider-Man could have been yet another cheap gimmick. Yet the old Marvel Ultimate universe allowed them to take some chances like killing off Peter Parker for realsies, and then introducing Miles Morales as the new kid under the mask. It turns out that actual consequences make for good drama in stories. Who knew?
Bendis did a great job of crafting a new character as well as coming up with a plot that mirrors the the classic Spider-Man origin story yet still has a fresh and original feel to it. Miles has many of the same qualities that Peter has, but he’s not just a clone of him. (Which is good because Spidey doesn’t have a great history with clones.)
I was also surprised to discover that the new Marvel movie version of Peter Parker pretty much lifted the idea of Miles’ best friend who knows his secret. Only steal from the best, even when stealing from yourself.
It’s a great take on Spider-Man, and I can’t wait to read more about Miles and his adventures.
I’ve been meaning to read this title for years, but it took the utterly amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie to finally motivate me to get to it. And I’ve really been missing out.
The idea of a new Spider-Man could have been yet another cheap gimmick. Yet the old Marvel Ultimate universe allowed them to take some chances like killing off Peter Parker for realsies, and then introducing Miles Morales as the new kid under the mask. It turns out that actual consequences make for good drama in stories. Who knew?
Bendis did a great job of crafting a new character as well as coming up with a plot that mirrors the the classic Spider-Man origin story yet still has a fresh and original feel to it. Miles has many of the same qualities that Peter has, but he’s not just a clone of him. (Which is good because Spidey doesn’t have a great history with clones.)
I was also surprised to discover that the new Marvel movie version of Peter Parker pretty much lifted the idea of Miles’ best friend who knows his secret. Only steal from the best, even when stealing from yourself.
It’s a great take on Spider-Man, and I can’t wait to read more about Miles and his adventures....more
More fun stuff with Jane Foster as Thor being caught up in the War of the Realms, confronting a couple of jerkface Shi'ar gods, and dealing with the PMore fun stuff with Jane Foster as Thor being caught up in the War of the Realms, confronting a couple of jerkface Shi'ar gods, and dealing with the Phoenix force. But not Jean Grey as the Phoenix, which was a relief. ...more
This is a story about what happens when a mutant marries a robot, and they try to retire from being superheroes to live ordinary lives in the suburbs.This is a story about what happens when a mutant marries a robot, and they try to retire from being superheroes to live ordinary lives in the suburbs. Guess how well that goes?
Pretty fun stuff that comes in the era when the goofy and the grounded were mixed together in Marvel comics. Like the idea that Wanda and the Vision would take a break from the Avengers and try to build a life together is something seems normal and down to earth, but then they always still wear their superhero outfits around the house and get attacked by demons before they can even unpack. ...more
This is amazing in the way that it weaves together the weird history of Vision along with this new story of family and existence to come up with sometThis is amazing in the way that it weaves together the weird history of Vision along with this new story of family and existence to come up with something completely original and heartbreaking....more
They say that good fences make good neighbors, but what if your neighbor was an android with the ability to manipulate the density of his body so thatThey say that good fences make good neighbors, but what if your neighbor was an android with the ability to manipulate the density of his body so that he could simply phase through the fence?
Vision decides he wants a family so he creates some more synthezoids to function as his wife and two children and moves to the suburbs of DC to lead a more ‘normal’ life. However, some of the neighbors are worried about what a family of robots will do the property values, and it turns out that his family have personalities and problems that don’t fit into Vision’s narrow idea of the American nuclear family.
I’d heard about this title for a while, and I wish I’d gotten to it sooner. There’s a dark, almost Megan Abbott-esque kind of surban noir going on here, and it’s kinda crazy that we’re getting this kind of story centered on Vision.
It reminds me a bit of Matt Fraction’s run on Hawkeye because that was another comic about an Avenger trying to have a normal life, but Clint Barton is just a regular guy who couldn’t ever keep his superhero stuff from leaking into his attempts at an everyday routine. Here, we see that it’s Vision’s family that may be the main problem even as he tries to make the people around them conform to his idea of normalcy. It’s intriguing stuff. ...more
As Thor, Dr. Jane Foster is the Goddess of Thunder. However, when she puts the hammer down and returns to her mortal form she’s dying of cancer, and bAs Thor, Dr. Jane Foster is the Goddess of Thunder. However, when she puts the hammer down and returns to her mortal form she’s dying of cancer, and becoming Thor prevents her chemo from working. Being a hero is literally killing her, and yet Jane refuses to stop because the 10 realms need a Thor, especially now that the Dark Elves have teamed up with the evil Roxxon Corporation to wage ware on the light elves, Loki has returned, and Odin is being a real dick.
Great stuff here with Jason Aaron rolling out an epic story with an all-too human character at the heart of it all. Jane as Thor is now one of my all time favorite Marvel heroes, and the plot is cooking with gas on several levels. The art fits the story perfectly with great action, and the perfectly drawn settings take us from fantastic realms like Asgard to the hospital where Jane gets her chemo treatments to moons of Saturn. It all works. ...more
Jason Aaron had a pretty cool idea here for one piece of the whole Secret Wars storyline. Following the whole MarvelYou can never have too many Thors.
Jason Aaron had a pretty cool idea here for one piece of the whole Secret Wars storyline. Following the whole Marvel multiverse going KERBLOOEY, Doctor Doom has cobbled together a planet made up of various fragments from all these realities, and of course he reshaped it so that that he rules it all. To keep order of this mess he’s got a bunch of Thors who act like a police department and enforce the law.
Having a bunch of Thors behaving like police officers is fun, and Aaron added a dash of David Simon so that you can see elements of Homicide and The Wire to give it that cop vibe. Ultimate Thor and Beta Ray Bill are detectives trying to solve a bizarre string of serial murders, and the case is the kind of high profile furball that can cost a cop his hammer. Along with them we also see various other Thors including other Marvel characters who are now worthy like Storm and Groot.
It’s a really interesting way to do one of these multiverse things with variations of the same character interacting with each other. Unfortunately, it was just done in service of the larger Secret Wars story so it’s too short at 4 issues and doesn’t feel like the full potential was explored. Still, it was one of the more creative angles I’ve read to one of these things so it was well worth a read....more
The identity of the new Thor is finally revealed, and it’s….*gasp* WHO?!?
Just kidding. This came out almost 5 years ago so that info has already falleThe identity of the new Thor is finally revealed, and it’s….*gasp* WHO?!?
Just kidding. This came out almost 5 years ago so that info has already fallen so far into the realm of common nerd knowledge even the reveal of the cast of the next Thor movie gave it away.
Since this a modern comic we can’t go more than 15 minutes without changing the title slightly and releasing a new #1, and with Secret Wars looming this version of Thor had a limited shelf life. Still, I very much enjoyed this particular run with a mysterious woman wielding the hammer as original Thor struggles to deal with his new unworthy status. It’s short but we get a pretty great battle between new Thor and the Destroyer that was sent by Odin just because he’s being an incredible asshat about a woman having the name and power of Thor. (Imagine that.) The annual included here has 3 lightweight but fun stories too.
Now I guess I’m onto the next title which is called Thors. We’ll see how long that lasts....more
Yeah, that’s what the hellhound says in this one, but I gotta admit that it’s a catchy slogan that I’d like on a t-shirt “Freedom and murder for all!”
Yeah, that’s what the hellhound says in this one, but I gotta admit that it’s a catchy slogan that I’d like on a t-shirt.
The god formerly known as Thor has had a rough time of it. First, he heard a revelation that instantly made him unworthy so that he lost his hammer, and then he got an arm chopped off although he got a pretty nifty replacement. (Hopefully, he won’t run into Rocket who would try to steal it.) He’s so bummed that another superhero now has Mjolnir as well as the power of Thor he even gives up his name and starts calling himself Odinson. Well, at least he’s got a big goat to ride around on…
I found this mini-series entertaining despite a pretty mopey ex-Thor. That’s mainly because it’s got some great guest stars like Beta Ray Bill, who is such a stand-up guy that he even offers Odinson his own hammer, and Thori, the murder loving hellhound. The Collector shows up in a good villain appearance along with some of Thanos’ minions, and everyone is trying to get yet another hammer, the one that the Thor from the Ultimate universe used to wield that somehow dropped into this version of Marvel reality.
It’s also interesting to read this and see how certain elements of it were used in the Thor: Ragnarok movie. Like Thor getting a hair cut!
It all makes for a fun comic read although I found the final revelation about what Odinson was told that made him instantly unworthy of Mjolnir pretty weak and kinda confusing. It’s not about anything that ex-Thor did. Instead, it’s more of a broad general statement that’s always been true. It didn’t change anything other than maybe the way that Odinson thought about himself. So that makes it almost sound like being worthy isn’t a judgement that Mjolnir makes about the character of the person trying to wield it, but more of a matter of self-confidence. Which doesn’t really fit the way I’ve always understand the mythos around the whole thing. On the hand, it’s a comic book so why not?...more
“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR.”
Or she.
The events of the latest crossover have left the mighty Thor un“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR.”
Or she.
The events of the latest crossover have left the mighty Thor unworthy in Mjolnir’s judgement so the hammer is just sitting on the surface of the moon. Then when frost giants rise out of the ocean’s depth and Thor tries to stop them he gets his arm chopped off by the dark elf Malekith.
Talk about a bad day
Fortunately, there’s a mysterious lady who can wield the hammer as the new Thor.
Thor is a character that I never really gave a damn about in the comic books. After reading this, I do. Not just because there’s a new Goddess of Thunder, but because the old Thor is going through a lot of crap in this one, and that’s a lot more interesting than just the big blonde dude who talks funny and has a stupid helmet like the Thor of my youth.
There’s just a lot of intriguing stuff going in with the mystery of the new Thor, the turmoil of old Thor, and Odin being a real overbearing jerkface ruler on Asgard. There’s also a lot of fun action with new Thor battling frost giants as well as then having to take on old Thor when he shows up thinking that the hammer is still is. Best of all is the new Thor, and I particularly like how her thoughts tell us that she is not an Asgardian even if her speech comes out just as flowery and bombastic as old Thor’s at times. ...more
Full disclosure: I read the 12 issues this contains on the Marvel Unlimited app, not the actual book.
What if way back in the ‘70s Marvel Comics starteFull disclosure: I read the 12 issues this contains on the Marvel Unlimited app, not the actual book.
What if way back in the ‘70s Marvel Comics started a title that explored alternate versions of its stories? And then 4 decades later the company was now owned by Disney who was planning on bringing this idea back as an animated TV series on its new streaming service to capitalize on their string of blockbuster movies?
Nah…couldn’t happen.
So we’ve got a set of stories where the Watcher is used as an on-going framing device to show us ‘alternate worlds’ in which changes to the events of Marvel comics play out differently. I remember seeing this advertised a lot as a kid, but never really ran across too many of the actual issues. And frankly I found this a bit disappointing. It’s not terrible stuff, but it seems awfully limited at times.
That’s because most of these are set-ups that go back to the origins of the characters, and then they played those scenarios out in terms of some events in those early issues instead of taking a bigger view of how that would impact the whole Marvel universe. The most interesting ones for me were when Captain America doesn’t become a Popsicle at the end of World War II and when Jane Foster found the hammer of Thor instead of Don Blake. Those are the two that take a long view as to the implications instead of just looking at a few issues after the change is made.
The wackiest one is about what if the original Marvel bullpen had gained the powers of the Fantastic Four. So you’ve got real life Marvel employees Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky, and Flo Steinberg becoming superheroes. It’s silly and stupid, but it was also Jack Kirby writing and drawing a book that sorta looks like the old FF for the first time in years so it’s worth a look as a curiosity....more
Odin banishes the Enchantress and the Executioner from Asgard for their latest scheme, and they promptly team-up with Baron Zemo once on Earth. The reOdin banishes the Enchantress and the Executioner from Asgard for their latest scheme, and they promptly team-up with Baron Zemo once on Earth. The results are more Avenger-on-Avenger violence once Enchantress puts Thor under a spell which means that once again the superheroes spend more time fighting each other than anyone else.
Random Observations:
• Captain America pays wrestlers to attack him as part of his daily workout. That seems like it’d get expensive. • Iron Man gets suspended for a week for failing to answer an Avengers call. So essentially the others throw Tony Stark out of his own house for a while. • Tony may have a bad heart, but since this is the ‘60s that doesn’t stop him from casually having a cigarette.
Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil attack New York City, and their weapon of choice is….glue?
Lots of fun goofiness in this one. My favorite bit was CaBaron Zemo and the Masters of Evil attack New York City, and their weapon of choice is….glue?
Lots of fun goofiness in this one. My favorite bit was Cap and Giant Man street surfing on a hunk pavement behind a tow truck driven by Iron Man after they get glued to the ground.
Random Observations :
• Thor refuses to keep the Black Knight’s winged horse after capturing him because even though BK is going to jail, it still technically belongs to him. That brings up a whole bunch of legal questions regarding supervillain property rights.
• If Baron Zemo got his mask accidentally glued to his face years ago, how is drinking or eating anything?
• This ‘Teen Brigade’ thing with Rick Jones and his buddies is annoying the hell out of me. We’ve already seen the US military and the UN cooperating with the Avengers. Why would they need a bunch of punk teenagers hanging around?