Everyone in comics knows Robert Kirkman. Everyone in comics knows Michael Avon Oeming. And by all means, thanks to his movie, everyone knows Thor.
But back in 2005, Kirkman was just a guy making a couple Image comics people liked, Oeming was the guy who did Powers but wasn’t a go-to name in the industry and, well, Thor was dead. Or “dead” like comic characters tend to be.
So when a What If? that featured all three of them came out in December of that year to little fanfare, finishing at 91st on the monthly sales chart with a little over 24,000 sales, it didn’t leave much of a blip.
Looking back though, that was one hell of a book and there were a lot of people that missed out on the greatness that was What If? Thor. I’m covering it today in this week’s edition of Longbox Diving.
When you think of the ideal Thor, what do you think of? For me, I think of the Thor from Robert Kirkman and Michael Oeming’s What If? Thor. Filled with the right blend of honor, tempestuousness, brutality and defiance, the Thor of this book is spot on and a blast to read. Plus, Oeming’s Thor is a hulking giant who feels like he could be attractive to someone like Galactus.
The representation of Thor in itself is reason enough to buy this book.
You know what else sells this?
The fact that its full title is “What if Thor was the herald of Galactus?!!!!”
Just let that sink in for a second. How could that not be awesome? The simple idea of Galactus rolling around the universe with one of the greatest Avengers in the history of Avengers as his herald, leading him only to planets filled with savages and killers to sate his hunger, is absolutely incredible. It’s the perfect fodder for a book like What If? in which we’re supposed to be given ideas that could never be executed in the proper Marvel universe.
The way Kirkman unfurls the plot is genius, presenting a normal person from our precious 616 universe viewing other versions of our favorite heroes using the “Othernet” (aka the internet of another dimension). It’s a fantastic device to explain the existence of this particular What If?, and the 616 character is kind of a real life internet web video comic reviewer (sort of like our 4 Color team, except less drunk) that is instantly recognizable and entertaining as all hell.
The story is obviously filled with great Thor moments, but the little touches Kirkman throws in – Loki being the bad guy in the end, Balder becoming Chicago’s premier superhero after the Asgardians have to escape to Midgard, the Asgardian craze that catches on – fills the book with all kind of superb details that really brings everything to life.
This book is just a rocking romp filled with a ton of imagination and awesome that is classic Kirkman.
Plus, that Oeming guy? Totally good at this drawing business. This is a beautiful book that has some powerful and badass imagery (Thor with Mjolnir AND the power cosmic? Too much awesome!). No matter what Kirkman throws into his script, Oeming nails it. One moment in particular that I loved was a 3/4 page panel that shows the back of Loki squaring off against a still in shadows Galactus as he approaches. It gives an incredible sense of scale to the proceedings, and really gives you as a reader the sense of what Galactus appearing would feel like.
So it’s a beautiful book with big ideas, excellent execution and good times for all? This is one of the best books to look for the next time you jump into your local comic book shop’s back issues and long boxes. Many people missed it, but for fans of any one of the three – the writer, the artist or the character – this is a worthy book to try and find if you can.
