THOR ANNUAL #1
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Size: pages
Price: 3.99
After reading this, I was so glad that Peter Milligan was not taking over the Thor title.
This was my first exposure to him writing the Thor, as I skipped all the other one-shots and mini-series that he did that featured him. Though if they are written like like this annual issue, then I would be glad that I saved my money. What Milligan tries to do is write a story in the JMS-Thor style, though since there’s no real interesting story to tell, the entire issue falls flat and the comparisons are made much more evident. We get the dialog device between Thor and Donald Blake that usually occurs in the main title, which takes up a good chunk of this issue. However, since this is overdone and the two NEVER have anything interesting to talk about, the reader will undergo an extreme series of eye-rolls when reading them. All of these scenes can be sumed up with just saying that Thor is calling Don a wuss, and Don retorts with something snarky. Additionally, one of the main plot points of this issue is the fallout of Thor killing his grandpa Bor in Thor #600, which has been done already much better by JMS himself. The other plot point is just Thor punching some random mad Egyptian gods.
And who the hell are these guys and why do they hate Thor so much? I understand that the main baddie, Seth, is the Egyptian god of chaos and so he does destructive things, but why is Thor his main concern? I would think that he would have grievances against other Egyptian gods, not one form a completely different and unrelated ideology. But for some reason, Thor is a major thorn in his side, so he sends out his lackeys to find him. The final fight isn’t even that interesting. Thor throws his hammer at one of the minions, which does nothing. So Thor makes the intellegent decision to…get this…THROW IT HARDER! He wins the day, Seth runs off twirling his mustache muttering “I’ll get you next time, Gadget…next time!” Yawn
Just don’t bother with this issue. There’s nothing interesting here and adds nothing to the Marvel Thor mythos. I’m just glad that after experiencing this horrible issue that it won’t continue after JMS leaves.
Art: 3 - Good
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General consensus appears to be this issue was a dude. It is entirely possible to tell fillers that have little or nothing to do with the main story going on in the ongoing so I don’t think there is really an excuse. Milligan’s Trial of Thor was better than this. The Matt Fraction ones and Alan Davis’s "Thor: Truth of History" were all far better than this.
I think knowledge of his issue relied on having a general knowledge on who Seth was, an evil Egyptian god that had fought Thor in the past and wanted revenge. I don’t have a problem with the lack of backgroudn. Like you, for me the story fell apart. Thor compares the possibility of killing Grog the same as killing Bor? Seth decides to run off instead of pressing his advantage and killing Thor despite Seth himself being at least as powerful as Thor backed by his goons and Seth stating Thor was stillw weakened.
And don’t get me started on the art. Ranging from the uninspired fight scene with Grog merely blasting constantly and Thor deciding to block/absorb some blasts and not others you have other problems. These range from panel sequences that don’t make sense to awkward body poses to the lack of damage on Thor’s outfit.
All in all I think everyone expected something a bit better.
Have to agree. I was looking forward to a decent Thor one and done, but in the end was just bored. The art was hideous and the tale Milligan told was flat. Shame because he’s great on Hellblazer at the moment.