Thor on Point: the Good, the Bad, and the Ridiculous

[Miss Webb]

The Good: The asgardians are more godly, less aloof but more unreadable. More of the aesir are showing their own powers and abilities. This was a weakness in the title years past. The artwork is gorgeous again. Balder never looked finer. The shown link to primal universal forces in Thor, despite the broken hammer nonsense. Stephen Strange had to go "To the Top" to call on forces for the change. Loki scheming is interesting, but I'm getting this "doing it for the hell of it" vibe more than anything else, until he figures out what he really wants. And I absolutely love the return of Tyr and those fabulous hair rings!


The Bad: Once again, Thor is dangerously close to being made a prop for the hammer. Odin himself was never reliant on Gungnir, though he infused it with part of his essence. Odin repaired the hammer without draining himself. Since when did Mjlonir need so much power for repair? The smithing elves even fixed it for Thor once in the past! Blake being tied to Thor again is completely unecessary. Thor could either shapeshift to Blake's guise as a cover, and Blake could live his own life as a minor character on the title. Also, Thor still shows no variety in attacks. We're back to hammer bludgeoning and nothing else. And no real showing of Gaea born ability, either. I hope the Hammer/essence thing is retconned asap. The asgardians need to get their own dimension back soon. They're looking like a diminished lost tribe wandering the earth more than a pantheon.


The Ridiculous: Kelda standing still and allowing someone to rip out her heart is idiotic. Why not use her immortal strength to crack Doom's neck like a twig? Also, going to battle as a stormgoddess in a nightgown? Please! Could you imagine Thor in SEIGE battling in boxers, or a fluffly gown? And on the Odinpower, why not distribute it evenly between Balder, Thor, and Loki? It satisfies the increase power curve, yet keeps detente in order in times of crisis. One of the original ragnaroks had the so called "odinpower" as really a conglomeration of the power of Odin and HIS TWO BROTHERS.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The technical stuff about whether Thor still has the Odinpower, what the Odinpower is, how it relates to other Asgardians, and how Thor's power level is portrayed relative to Marvel's other powerhouses sometimes bugs me. But I just try to put it out of my mind and appreciate the stories without overanalyzing them. Yeah, it sucks to see Thor get owned lightning-quick in Siege when he's supposed to be right at the tippy-top of Marvel's list of powerhouses, but if you let it get to you, pretty soon you'll be so busy nitpicking or harboring grudges that you won't even be able to enjoy the fact that we've got a major event based entirely on Thor, a movie coming next year, and his comic is selling better than it has in decades. Whatever faults there may be with the presentation from time to time, it's a great time to be a Thor fan.