Reviewing Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s ‘Essential Thor’
I don’t normally post links to reviews on other comics news sites, since we have so many of our own hitting the site here every day, but I had to make an exception for Tom Spurgeon’s recent review of the third volume of Marvel’s Mighty Thor "Essential" collection.
Thor has never been a favorite character of mine, as his dialogue always seemed a bit hokey and he’s pretty much the definition of a deus ex machina. But Spurgeon’s review of the collection, which features Stan Lee and Jack Kirby doing exactly what made them legends in the industry, has me contemplating a change of heart.
He describes the collected stories’ overall tone as "verily, there are asses over yon we doth must beat" repeated ad infinitum — which is a big selling point for me.
Spurgeon goes on to summarize the collection as follows:
It’s quite fun. The panels where Thor is not punching people so hard their light source changes are stuffed to the brim with either a) cool-looking Kirbyana almost always in the form of monsters and machinery, b) Volstagg, a fat coward who can bench press a bus, providing J. Wellington Wimpy-style comedy relief, or c) Thor screaming at someone about how awesome he is in preparation of punching them so hard their light source changes.
I love a well-written review, and this is certainly a great example of one. Head over to The Comics Reporter to read the rest of it.