Join me, a lifelong DC Zombie, as I
attempt to remedy my woefully limited exposure to the Marvel
Universe. Be prepared for opinions forged in the depths of a mind
that is completely dedicated to the DCU. I promise to be as objective
and honest as I can be--even if that leads to contradictory opinions.
Updates will be rare, considering I have limited money for buying new
comics (and the fact that I would rather spend my limited funds on DC
Comics).
Like everyone, I am not immune to the
pull of comic book hype. Thanks to curiosity (and sales at various
Local Comic Book Shops) I have picked up a several stories over the
years based solely on word of mouth and reviews. This has lead to
some great purchases like I Kill Giants and Y: The Last
Man, but it has also lead to disappointments like Runaways
Volume 1 and Identity Crisis. (I realize that my choices
for disappointments are potentially controversial, but that is a
topic for another time.) More recently, hype has lead me to the
roller-coaster ride that is Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four
and Matt Fraction's stellar Invincible Iron Man run. While I
would like to write about those comics at some point in the future,
today I want to explore a different, entirely hype-based comic book
purchase— Thor: The Mighty Avenger Volume 1.
Strangely, I was not aware of Thor:
The Mighty Avenger's existence until it was on the eve of
cancellation. Perhaps this is not surprising considering how much
time I spend in my Justice League-themed trolls' cave—but I
digress. The word on the street was that Thor was exactly the
kind of book that thinking, well-read comic book readers were always
asking for—a smart, heartfelt take on the characters we love. The
other word on the street was that no one was buying it. Oh, sure,
people were buying it, but not people...you
know, the word people with the prefix “lots of” attached to the
front and “money, money, money” in parenthesis behind it.
Of course, this leads to a terribly
interesting topic with absolutely no discernible answers: What the hell
do comic readers actually want anyways? Hell if I know. For every
step forward a book like All Star Superman takes
the genre, there is an All Star Batman and Robin the Boy
Wonder mouth-breathing behind it
drinking Big Flats and making fart jokes. And these books get published because the Big Two know that they sell! Look at
DC's New 52: There are books that make me proud to be a comic nerd
like Animal Man and
Wonder Woman...and
then there's Suicide Squad
and Dark Knight. One
of which took the only character to have successfully translated from
the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series
cartoon show and turn her into a depressing, hammer wielding,
ultra-violent, scantly clad war crime. Sadly, none of
this should come as a surprise. It's not exactly a revelation that
the mainstream comic book audience is attracted to sex, violence,
and then somewhere way down the list, story and, even further down,
quality.
Which
brings us to Thor: The Mighty Avenger,
a book which has no sex, little in the way of visceral violence but
TONS of story and quality. Set in it's own continuity, separated
from the Secret Wars, Secret Dark Avengers Wars, and Double Secret
Probation Wars of the regular MARVEL Universe, Roger Langridge and
Chris Samnee's book drips with feeling. Somewhere between Darwyn
Cooke's New Frontier and
Grant Morrison's All Star Superman—Thor:
The Mighty Avenger takes place
in a Universe where heroes act like heroes and good, of course, always
wins. Perhaps it is telling that the first guest-stars to appear in
Thor are very cheerful
versions of Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne—a couple that is, perhaps,
most famous in the Bronze Age of Comics for having a married life filled with domestic violence. Yet, in Langridge's world, there is no hint of any
marital strife. In fact, the couple seems idyllic—something that
Thor and love interest Jane Foster might aspire to. It makes me
think back to the brutal scene in The Ultimates
where Pym and Van Dyne are revealed to be in an abusive relationship
and wonder why anyone would even want to write that, much less read
it. I am not outright condemning this kind of faux realism nor am I complaining about
Millar, all I am saying is that the optimism of Thor: The
Mighty Avenger is one of those
rare remindersthat good, sophisticated, or mature does not have to be
grim and gritty. In this age of comics so heavily influenced by Alan Moore and Frank Miller it is a uncommon treat to read such an unabashedly
positive comic book.
Having
said that, I believe (or, perhaps more accurately, hope) that Thor
heralds a coming sea change in comic books. A movement has been
building for a while in the works of writers like Morrison, Hickman
and Mark Waid. The gray and violent works influenced by the late
1980s persist, but comic books starring optimistic heroes are
returning. From Morrison's Flex Mentallo and
All Star Superman to
Thor: The Mighty Avenger and
Waid's current Daredevil run,
a brighter future seems to be forming for the comic book world. As I
read Thor: The Mighty Avenger I
find myself intentionally slowing down and extending the experience. I
have already begun the second volume and the eighth and final issue
looms large in the near future. There are very few books—from DC
or MARVEL—that have had that kind of impact on me. Thor:
The Mighty Avenger was one of
the most refreshing reading experiences I have had in a long time. The writing is pitch-perfect, and, though I have barely touched on it, Chris Samnee's art is absolutely amazing. I
love it when a comic book's hype is deserved.
