With apologies to my childhood stalwart Batman, Thor is my favorite superhero. Sure, there’s no shortage of cool superheroes out there, but how many of them gallop across the sky in a chariot pulled by goats?
There are simply so many influences his stories can be pulled from, and so many directions they can take: urban fantasy, epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, historical fiction, myth, space opera, family drama, fish-out-of-water comedy, and of course, traditional superheroics. Thor himself is an underrated character: both the noble defender of the Nine Realms who will fight on no matter the odds, and a swaggering warrior with a lust for life. Mighty enough to wreck shop with the power of the storm, and down to earth enough to enjoy a snowball fight, he’s a superhero a mortal feels like they could be friends with, and exactly who you want on your side when Frost Giants are breathing down your neck.
While I enjoy comics quite a bit, neither am I someone who knows them chapter and verse, and I’d never read any of Al Ewing’s work before his run on Thor. Still, when it was announced that he would be taking a shot at the character, (with illustration by Martin Coccolo and cover art by Alex Ross,) the buzz was instantaneous and The Immortal Thor instantly became one of my most anticipated reads.
And at last, here we are, with the first two trade paperbacks, All Weather Turns to Storm and All Trials Are One, in my grubby little paws. So, do they live up to the hype? In a word, absolutely.
In a few more words, Ewing clearly has high ambitions for his epic, and even in these two short volumes, there’s a lot going on. Without getting into spoiler territory, dark elder gods are stirring, who don’t have humanity’s best interests at heart and who may have a connection to our main man, the God of Thunder.
I loved these books. Volume one gets the slight edge; it’s got brief but enjoyable scenes of Thor spending time with the humans of Midgard, having to use his wits to escape a trap he can’t hammer his way out of, and of course, some epic-scale action. We see Thor at his most powerful, yet still going up against a foe that outclasses him (and who also throws a gigantic wheel at people, which is awesome), putting him and those humans he has to protect in real danger.
The second, by contrast, is a bit slower, with a few digressions, and yet, it still quickly enthralled me, going in some unexpected, but clever (and surprisingly amusing) directions, as Thor contends with old enemies wielding a power profoundly dangerous in its subtlety. Like I said, Ewing is ambitious, and clearly has themes he wants to explore, deeper than just hammer-swinging action, and that’s particularly on display here. (Not to worry, there’s still hammering afoot as well.) And of course, it ends on quite the cliffhanger.
Good-naturedly goofy at times, but serious when it has to be, these trade paperbacks are a ton of fun that do a great job showcasing what Thor devotees like myself love about the character, while still only scratching the surface of where these storylines can go. (It’s also worth noting this this is a great place for Thor newbies to jump in.)
Bottom line: Ewing is clearly onto something special here, and I can’t wait to see where The Immortal Thor goes next. Highly recommended.
