Sunday, January 20, 2019

Thor by Walter Simonson Volume 3

Thor by Walter Simonson, Vol. 3Thor by Walter Simonson, Vol. 3 by Walter Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While the rainbow bridge destroyed, Asgard's mightiest warriors are stranded on Earth. Thor alone stands between Loki and the throne of Asgard but what can Thor do while he's enchanted by Lorelei?

Thor by Walter Simonson, Volume 3 contains issues 357 to 363 of Simonson's revered run on Thor, as well as Balder the Brave 1-4. And it's dynamite.

A lot more is going on in this book than my teaser indicates. Odin and Surtur are missing, presumed dead. Asgard is in ruins. Thor is enchanted by Lorelei and Loki wants the throne of Asgard. And there's this epic quest to hell but I'll get back to that in a minute.

You can tell Walter Simonson was waiting his whole life to tell some of these tales. Thor's adventures are lovingly rendered, with echoes of Jack Kirby visible. I still marvel that Simonson was able to hit the deadlines every month with his detailed style and still find time to write the stuff. A lot of Norse mythology is woven into the backstory of the tales and I caught a Lord Dunsany reference or two.

The word "epic" is as overused as "genius" these days but this tome is definitely an epic. In the aftermath of the Surtur saga of the last volume, it would have been easy for Simonson to coast for a while but he does not rest on his laurels. Simonson played the long game and bounces from one epic to the next. While the Lorelei subplot kind of fizzled, it got Thor to where he needed to be: Heading up a group of Asgard's finest on a mission to Hel! Hela and company give Thor quite a bit of trouble and make a hero out of an Asgardian I wouldn't suspect.

Even setting aside that marvelous adventure, the rest of the volume has a lot going for it. Balder goes solo for a few issues, Beta Ray Bill and Sif watch over earth and try to figure out how to get the Asgardians home, and Thor suffers some grievous wounds, leading to Bearded Thor sometime in the next volume.

I'm as pleased as Volstagg at a buffet that Walter Simonson's Thor run has stood the test of time as well as it has. Four out of five Mjolnirs.



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