Welcome back to my summer binge of J. Michael Straczynski’s 2007 “Thor” Omnibus. After rereading Jason Aaron’s run and looking back into Walt Simonson’s epic run, I wanted to delve deeper into the stories of Marvel’s God of Thunder, so I found this book at my LCS and decided to give it a go. This week sees a few turning points in Straczynski’s narrative that I didn’t really see coming.
Written by J. Michael Straczynski"Thor" #6 Cover by Olivier Coipel
Penciled by Olivier Copiel and Marko Djurdjevic
Inked by Mark Morales, Danny Miki and Crimelab Studios
Colored by Laura Martin, Paul Mounts and Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic
Lettered by Chris Eliopoulos
Our story picks up exactly where we left it last time, with Thor looking for his fellow Asgardians. He has “awoken” the Warriors Three as well as Heimdall. Heimdall’s sight allows Thor to find the gods he wishes to bring forth into the world again, but something has happened. Heimdall tells Thor that he feels a great force that hinders his abilities to find these gods. What’s more, these gods are vanishing. Thor travels to a restricted government site and finds dozens of mortal prisoners. We can assume that many of these mortals are housing the souls of Thor’s missing Asgardians. He sees a woman who he believes houses the soul of Lady Sif when the Destroyer appears. It seems that the Asgardian weapon has awoken as well, and has been capturing mortals that may hold the souls of Asgardians. After a difficult battle, Thor bests the Destroyer, only to find that his brother Balder was the god behind the wheel so to speak.
Furthermore, the woman who Thor believed to be Lady Sif turns out to be Loki. Loki, Thor’s half brother and long time nemesis has been transformed into a woman. She tells Thor that she no longer wants to quarrel with him, that she has turned over a new leaf, and Thor hesitantly believes here. He’s right to distrust her, she still is the goddess of mischief after all. It seems Thor had been systematically awakening gods from their mortal shells. Thor would not awaken any gods that would stir up any trouble and Loki having traversed the spiritual realm before tricked him into awakening some of these gods. It is revealed that she has been working with none other than Dr. Doom. Hey! Now those prologue chapters from “Fantastic Four” make more sense. With the reveal that Dr. Doom will play a more pivotal role in the series moving forward, the inclusion of the two “Fantastic Four” chapters fits in quite nicely. While I didn’t understand, nor appreciate the inclusion of these chapters before, I’m totally on board with Dr. Doom serving as the book’s antagonist.
The next chapter is a more introspective look at Thor’s affect on Broxton. We get to know the townspeople more intimately and see more of their everyday life. The community comes to rally behind Thor and accept him as one of their own. One scene that stands out to me is a brief sequence in which one of the townspeople install a mailbox below hovering Asgard. It’s a perfect example of how Broxton has come to welcome the gods and goddesses of Asgard. There are other instances when Asgardians make impressions upon the townsfolk. A humorous scene involves the use of indoor plumbing. The end of the issue sees Thor make a pretty crucial decision and uses all of the Odinforce to awaken all of the sleeping gods. This happens in the sixth issue of the story and serves as a narrative and and artistic turning point.
After “Thor” #6 Olivier Coipel departs the book and a new art team comes on board. And while Marko Djurdjevic and Danny Miki both turn in some great work, I personally prefer Coipel’s pencils and Morales’ inks. Coipel gives us some great action sequences, especially in the previous issue when Thor fights the Destroyer. Djurdjevic does give readers a different style, as faces seem to be less round with more cross hatching. Colors in Coipel’s issues also seem more vibrant while Djurdjevic turns in more muted colors to match the setting of the latter issues.
Continued belowAfter Thor awakens all the gods he must enter the “Thor Sleep” much like Odin goes into a slumber dubbed the “Odinsleep.” Thor dreams of Odin’s ravens, who mock him and belittle him for not awakening the All-Father. Thor uncovers some of Odin’s secrets and we are given a kind of origin for the ancient god. Meanwhile, while Thor sleeps, Donald Blake is able to travel the world in a body completely his own. It’s an interesting turn of events for the doctor who seems so intertwined with the God of Thunder.
We learn that strained father/son relationships run deep within the royal Asgardian family. We see Bor and Odin’s relationship fleshed out some in these chapters and it’s an interesting contrast to Odin and Thor’s relationship. Thor and Odin reconcile, and Thor is able to forgive himself and standby the decisions he’s made regarding resurrecting Odin. Meanwhile we follow Donald Blake to see Jane Foster. It seems the Lady Sif’s spirit was trapped within the future Goddess of Thunder. Or so Blake thinks. It’s revealed that Loki tricks Blake and Sif’s spirit is trapped within a dying cancer patient. While Thor returns from his sleep with renewed purpose, he must soon contend with his enemies.
Well, I continue to like this book and find Straczynski’s work on the character to be mighty fine. It’s a great character piece that shows us many facets to Thor, as well as Donald Blake. While I wasn’t so enthused by Blake’s return, his story in this section was entertaining. Be sure to come back next week as we dive deeper into Straczynski’s run.
