The Mighty Thor #1
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Oliver Coipel
Cover: Oliver Coipel
“The Galactus Seed pt 1″: I’ll go ahead and admit that I’m not the biggest Thor fan around town. I do like the character, however, his stories never quite held my interest for too long except for when Simonson was handling him. Well, now that the Marvel PR machine is into Thor overdrive because of the upcoming movie I figured this would be a good time to check out the new series.
The story opens with the Silver Surfer seeking sustenance for his master, the planet devouring being known as Galactus. He senses a form of energy and then sails off to find it. We then find Thor and Sif traveling to the root of Asgard’s World Tree, which is gushing vast amounts of energy into the atmosphere. They’re met by creatures who wish to protect the tree, and somehow Thor’s brother Loki knows he is in danger and attempts a rescue of his older brother. During the battle Thor is wounded, but we also see that the Surfer has arrived at Earth and can see the energy from the World Tree from space.
This issue is your standard set up in a new series which just gives you bits and pieces, though some parts are easily put together. This intro by Fraction is a decent read, and by throwing the Surfer and Galactus into the mix he’s got the makings of something pretty cool. The potential for Thor to go up against either should make for some great action. Now, if you’re looking for something totally new and exciting about this issue, then you might have to wait a while. Odin is still an ass and the Warriors Three are still the cool kids in Asgard. Nothing about this story really blew me away, but it wasn’t a bad read by any means. I’m just a bit confused about the reboot, since the previous series was fairly young.
As expected, Coipel handles the art in this issue better than Thor handles Mjolnir, and gives you a story worth looking at. The scene where Galactus is starving and drooling was a great panel, as well as the sequences with the World Tree. A lot of that had to do with the coloring that helped give those pages the impact needed to look as good as they did. The only thing I find odd about some of Coipel’s work is when Thor’s face seems extremely round and flat. I’ve noticed this before in some of his other works, and if it wasn’t either for the costume or him being the only huge blonde guy in the crowd it would be hard to recognize him.
Fraction has introduced several powerful beings in this issue and the setup is perfect for a serious beat down later on. But more than that I’m hoping for a good story out of all of this that keeps my attention longer than five or six issues. Thor is a pretty cool character, a Marvel icon, and a member of their flagship team, so let’s hope they deliver a series worthy of the god of thunder!
Infinite Speech
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