Home :: Books :: Comics & Graphic Novels  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels

Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Thor: The Dark Gods

Thor: The Dark Gods

List Price: $15.95
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: VERY STRONG THOR STORY
Review: (...)

Upon his return from an adventure in an alternate universe, Thor has discovered the Golden Realm in ruins and his fellow gods missing... perhaps even dead. As if that weren't bad enough, a brush with death has forced the thunder god to merge with simple mortal Jake Olson. Now, the Asgardian Avenger faces his greatest challenge yet as he must locate his wounded father, break the chains of imprisonment which bind his people and defeat the dastardly Dark Gods, the seemingly unbeatable beings who have destroyed his hallowed homeland. Will the added power of the Olypian called Hercules and the former foe known as the Destroyer tip the scales, or will the famed Rainbow Bridge shine no more? Reprinting THOR #9 through the double-sized 12th issue, this sprawling saga unfolds with powerful, widescreen visuals that reimagines the legends of Norse mythology and merges them seamlessly with the sensibilities of today.

(...)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not so great a graphic novel.
Review: I have noticed before that Marvel doesn't do a very good job with writing fantasy-oriented comics, except maybe for the Dr.Strange mythos. They just seem to be much better suited at writing sci-fi oriented stuff such as the X-Men, SpiderMan, Daredevil, Punisher, Wolverine, Deadpool, Nick Fury, you know the drill. So when I picked up this Thor graphic novel (which is the first Thor story I have read by the way) I didn't know what to expect. And lo and behold, I was disappointed.
You see, in fantasy novels and ancient Norse myth, Thor was always portrayed as a relentless, mighty, rough, and sometimes vicious warrior-god, kind of similar to Conan from Robert E. Howard's Conan fantasy novels.
But, sadly, in this Thor graphic novel, he is portrayed almost as a cheap ripoff of Superman. And I was very shocked at this, because this book was written by one of the best writers in the Superman mythos, Dan Jurgens. So, as you can tell, I was very dissapointed in this Thor title.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very Poor writing...
Review: I really did not care for Jurgen's Superman stories, his writing on Thor is not much better. Here he builds the story all the way up to what is supposed to be an explosive climax, and it falls flat in the last ten pages of the story. I really miss the days when Walt Simonson worked on Thor. He treated Thor like a mythological character. Something the current writer does not do.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An Attempt to Recapture the 60's. So-So Results.
Review: It is clear to this reviewer that Dan Jurgens has attempted to revisit the earliest roots of Thor, journeying back into mystery and attempting to revive the grand and epic tales that Jack Kirby with an assist from Stan Lee wrought during Marvel's heyday. Does he succeed? Well, almost but not quite. There is an honest attempt to recall the glory that was Asgard, but ultimately it falls just short and reminds the reader of how far the mighty have fallen. Still, by attempting to recreate the essence and persona that Jack Kirby instilled into the Thor mythos and not merely rehashng the hackneyed plots that have permeated this title for the past 30 years - the story remains a worthwhile if vaguely unsatisfying effort. The art similarly tries to recapture the techno-style of Jack Kirby and manages to compliment rather than distract from the story, but it won't fool you into thinking that the King has returned to pencil the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A review from marvelmasterworks.freeservers.com: GREAT TPB!
Review: This book seems to have gotten some mediocre reviews up till now. One thing people need to remember is that this is a TPB collecting issues #9-13 of Thor, but there is alot of context to this story that isn't found in these pages. Reviewers are holding writer Dan Jurgens to a standard of creative precision that this format doesn't permit.

Thor #13, the final issue reprinted in this TPB (an anticlimax to some, it appears) was thrilling to those who, through the first 8 issues were wondering who the heck this Marnot fellow really was! I thought the revelation was deftly handled and played to Thor's grounding in mythology.

Marvel's rendering of Thor, as most people should know, is not strictly from the mythological background. That's just the backdrop to his heroics. One person complained he was too much like Superman. Well...that's what he was created to be! Thor was Marvel's answer to DC's Superman- an ultimate monolith of a super being. Thor is as close to untouchable and unbeatable in Marvel's universe as Supes is in DC's universe. Marvel's Superman has a lineage in Norse mythology though, not a far distant planet he is the sole survivor of.

And here's the main reason this collection gets 5 stars from me, and it's something no other reviewer has yet touched on: the art of John Romita, Jr. Absolutely breathtaking...astounding...I was motivated to turn each page to see what next amazing artwork he would conjure up to tell the story. And tell the story he did! I am a somewhat jaded comics reader by now, but his battle scenes were gripping- I just couldn't put this book down! His visuals of the Dark Gods are stunning, and the first battle between Thor and Perrikus is some of the finest battle scenes this comics fan has ever seen on printed comics page. There is a scene where Perrikus does something to Thor that one would have never thought possible, and it is so shockingly rendered that I felt the despair and heartbreak and shock Thor and the rest of the Norse Gods must have been feeling at that moment.

I'll not go into it more, but leave the glory of reading this particular run of Thor comics to you. It's some wonderful stuff.


<< 1 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates