Review:
Thor by J. Michael Straczynski

I avoided this series for a long time, nearly two years. Despite what I read about it, despite what my customers told me and the raves of my friends, I refused to read it. The reason? J. Michael Straczynski has burned me on every series he's done. Straczynski is a good writer who starts out very strong. Midnight Nation, Rising Stars, Amazing Spider-man all started out great but progressively got worse before a horrific end, especially in Spider-man's case. So I swore him off, wasn't going to get burned by another bad run of comics by him. But...the raving of Thor. More importantly, the art on Thor.

Olivier Coipel did the art on most of JMS's run on Thor. This guy's art is stunning. I remember seeing it the first time on the Legion of Super Heroes and knew this guy would be big one day. I kept looking at the covers, at the promo art and was astounded by how cool Coipel made Thor look. I loved the new costume design. But even his art wasn't the thing that finally swayed me.

First reason: Siege. Coipel is the artist on Siege. Siege stars Thor. The Siege lead ins over the last couple of months has made me very excited. With this excitement came the need to get caught up on all the major players involved in the event: the Avenger titles, Captain America, Iron Man, and...Thor. Now the second reason: JMS decided to leave because of Thor's involvement in Siege. The thought of not having a real "ending" made it all the more enticing. So I jumped into the first book with apprehensive glee.

Thor Vol 1
Following the events of Rangarok, all the Asgardians are dead, Asgard itself is gone and Thor is sleeping "the sleep of the gods" in the void. We open up with Mjolnir (Thor's hammer) falling from the sky. Donald Blake who used to be the human aspect of Thor picks up the hammer and is transported to the void. He convinces Thor to return to our world, becoming the dual identity entity they originally were. He also explains that the Asgardians are alive, trapped in human bodies on earth. So sets up the rest of the book as Thor restores Asgard above Broxton, Oklahoma and seeks to bring back the good Asgardians. Naturally that doesn't go the way he wants and Loki is restored--albeit in a female body. Swearing not to return to his old ways, Loki immediately launches into his manipulations and lies. Thor is forced to bring back all the Asgardians but at what cost to himself?