Thor #337-340

Thor #337-340

Originally released in 1983

Written by Walt Simonson

Art by Walt Simonson

Looking through the list of characters in the tags, I realized I hadn't covered a single comic that focused on Marvel's original Thor.  I also hadn't read any of Walt Simonson's run on Thor, which has gotten a lot of praise from what I've seen.

Right from the start, it feels like Simonson was trying to change the status quo of Thor - maybe not to the extent of what Alan Moore did with Swamp Thing, but it kind of feels like the intent was there.  Even on the cover, there's a horse-looking man smashing the comic's logo, with a new logo debuting in the very next issue.  Was Thor cursed?  Is Loki responsible for this?

As it turns out, the character on the cover is Beta Ray Bill, an alien chosen to guard his people as they flee a horde of demons.  The augmentations intended to make him the mightiest warrior of his race also left him looking repulsive in the eyes of the people that he protects, but he went through with the process regardless.

Bill's ship is believed to be dangerous by SHIELD, so Thor is sent to intercept it.  A fight ensues, as is tradition, and in the scuffle, Bill grabs Mjolnir (Thor's enchanted hammer) and is able to use it.  This is a big deal, as the hammer can only be wielded by those who are worthy, and prior to Bill, Odin and Thor were the only ones who fit that criteria.

The main shift to the status quo seems to be how it handles the love triangle.  Previously, at least from what I've read, Sif was in love with Thor, but Thor (in his mortal guise of Doctor Donald Blake) was in love with the mortal nurse Jane Foster, though he didn't dare say so.  In these issues, after seeing Bill's courage, determination, and compassion, Sif starts to fall in love with him, being able to see past his appearance.

Meanwhile, as thanks for sparing the life of his son, Odin grants Bill a boon - the ability to change back to his normal humanoid appearance, by taking the enchantment from Mjolnir that made Thor turn into Donald Blake.  This causes Thor to raise the question of what happened to Donald Blake (since Bill's new hammer now has that enchantment on it), which goes unanswered here.

Throughout this, we also get details about the life of Balder the Brave, who recently returned from the dead.  This is where my lack of familiarity with the character left me a little confused.  Towards the end of this storyline, Odin describes Bill as being "the second son that I never had", but I was under the impression that Balder was Thor's brother. (there's also Loki, but I can see why Odin wouldn't count him)  Maybe I was mistaken, or maybe Balder is Thor's half-brother and isn't the son of Odin.

I'm not sure if the art was originally like this, or if the version on Marvel Unlimited is a re-release.  The colouring took a bit to get used to, but it wasn't long before I adjusted to it.  Once the story gets to the point where Thor, Bill, and Sif are fighting off an army of demons, there are some panels that feel like they're ripped right off the cover of a heavy metal album.  The writing was handled well, feeling weighty and dramatic without going full-on Shakespearean in terms of the dialect.  Volstagg provides some comedic relief, acting like a fool while effortlessly beating up a Vanaheim warrior that has come to challenge Balder.

We also get some idea of what's to come - a demonic being (I assume Surtur) is using stars to forge a weapon, while various giant monsters are spawning throughout Earth to swear vengeance on Odin and Thor.  The Enchantress's sister (Lorelei) and Loki also seem to be plotting something.  Lorelei seems extremely similar to the Enchantress, with both of them being vain Asgardian women who seek to seduce Thor, to the point where I feel like there must have been some kind of editorial reason or something that happened very recently in Thor's previous run that made it so the Enchantress herself couldn't be used.

Some runs can take a bit to get going, but this one hits the ground running.  It's off to a good start, and given that I found the Donald Blake drama of Stan Lee's era of Thor to not be particularly interesting (with his reasons for not being honest with Jane coming across as forced and, pardon the pun, lame), I'm curious about if the series has done away with the Donald Blake concept and how it will progress from here if it has.