(N.B.: I’m totally aware that these are broad generalizations. In today’s trade-focused world, there are fewer pages per issues and fewer panels per page, and while writers still do long-running sagas, they tend to stick to one story over the course of a trade and then move on to something completely new. ![]() When Kirby, Ditko, and Lee were re-inventing comics in the 1960s, they tended not to do long-running story arcs, packing a ton of content into each issue but generally resolving things after a few issues if they didn’t in the same issue that they began something. Simonson began Thor at a good time in comics history. Issue #337, with its logo-smashing and Thor-alien cover, is a tremendous announcement to the comics world that Simonson will pull no punches. The first three pages set up the epic in amazing fashion, while the final two pages, with Blake scrambling over the wreckage of Bill’s spaceship, trying to reach a father who has abandoned him, show us that Simonson isn’t going to ignore the human element of the book, either. Simonson, of course, was building on the years of characterization that others had done before him, but there’s still a desperation in Blake that stirs our hearts, more than the foreboding from the first few pages of the issues, in which we catch our first glimpse of Surtur and his preparations to break the universe. Simonson is so good at this that at the end of his first issue, he gives us a full-page splash of Donald Blake, stripped of his power, standing in a driving rainstorm and screaming to the heavens after Odin, mistakenly, takes Beta Ray Bill back to Asgard because the alien has picked up Thor’s hammer and been transformed. Simonson, more than any Thor creator except Kirby (the most operatic comics creator ever) understands the value of spectacle, and in his best works ( Thor and Orion, I would argue), he is able to blend this spectacle with excellent storytelling, so that the emotions the characters feel isn’t just a façade for the gigantic plots but an integral part of the whole. ![]() ![]() Thor has always been the most operatic of Marvel’s or DC’s superheroes – the Nordic theme evokes The Ring of the Nibelung, of course (although I guess we should call those Gesamtkunstwerken, to be specific), but even other characters who might seem to be operatic – the Greek mythic heroes, Hercules and Wonder Woman, would fit, as would Kirby’s New Gods – don’t quite reach the heights that Thor and his cast of characters often do. Walter Simonson’s epic run on Thor has all the hallmarks of an opera except for, of course, the music. You could be forgiven for calling this an opera. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson (writer artist, issues #337-354, 357-367), Sal Buscema (artist, issues #355, 368-369), Terry Austin (inker, issues #342, 346), Bob Wiacek (inker, issues #348, 367), Al Milgrom (inker, issue #367), Geof Isherwood (inker, issue #369), George Roussos (colorist, issues #337-341), Christie Scheele (colorist, issues #342-363, 365-369), Paul Becton (colorist, issue #364), and John Workman (letterer, issues #337-355, 357-369). You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. ![]() Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.
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