Stomping on a Box that I Thought was Empty 01 – Queen in Black #1, Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #1, and Queen in Black: Hela #1

It’s probably not a great sign when your next big event starts four weeks late. You probably don’t want that to be the first thing that people talk about either. You want people to talk about the spectacle and how cool it is and how fantastic the writing is and the amazing art – or Hel, in this case, the blind bag promotion for the first issue. (If you’re curious, I did grab a blind bag since the cost was the same and I got the David Marquez cover with Knull fighting the Defenders of Dark... plus Spider-Man...?) It’s meant to be hype, hype, more hype, and did I mention the motherfucking hype! Instead, you’ve got people like me watching as releases get pushed and moved as the first issue is pushed by four weeks to the point where the second issue is somehow coming out the following week. I always find it laughable-but-somewhat-expected when events begin slipping their schedule as they go, because these seem like the one group of titles that you’d think publishers would ensure hit their deadlines. Events are all moving pieces and, theoretically, purposefully thought out in how those pieces fit together, and scheduled as such. You can’t have tie-in A come out before main event issue B because it will spoil the big reveal. When I do my reading lists for events, I always base them entirely around the main event book and what happens in it. What’s funny is, I sometimes wonder if I take more care and thought with those reading lists than publishers do with their release schedules. That surely can’t be possible, but I have two decades of paying attention to events that say otherwise. I mean, there was a brief moment where Queen in Black #1 got pushed to this week and Marvel hadn’t officially rescheduled Queen in Black: Hela #1 from its original release date of last week, and I was left strongly hoping that we’d get a tie-in originally meant to come out three weeks after the first issue of the event the week before the first issue. Alas, you know?

Funnily enough, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference had Queen in Black: Hela #1 come out before Queen in Black #1. Upon finishing all three books for the event this week, I turned my thoughts towards an eventual reading order and, for a second, wondered if I’d put Queen in Black: Hela #1 in the spot of ‘prologue’ issue given that it’s entirely devoted to explaining Hela’s plan and actions leading up to Queen in Black #1. To be honest, I’m still undecided, which is fine because reading orders aren’t produced until the event is over and you can see how everything unfolds. What I didn’t expect is how essential the Queen in Black: Hela issue felt to providing context to Queen in Black #1. If, like me, you haven’t been paying attention to the Symbiote side of the Marvel Universe and are only tuning in here because you’re a Thor obsessive, then you probably have no idea how or why any of this happening – and the first issue of the event doesn’t make much efforts to clue you in.

Now, I don’t necessarily hold that against Queen in Black #1. I come from the school of thought that not answering every question or providing the full context of events in a comicbook is somewhat desirable. Growing up, I would often get random issues off the spinner racks at convenience stores or even the local comic shop, and those dangling threads were where imagination thrived. As long as you could understand (and enjoy) the story presented, then those other details were things to seek out and learn rather than complain about not being shoehorned into the issue via unnecessary expository text. What we’re left asking is if Queen in Black #1 is good enough to be viewed through that lens or not.

The premise of Queen in Black is both simple and obtuse in that you think that it should actually be about something involving the heroes of Earth, but it’s not. Basically, Knull was the King in Black, got defeated, tried to take back his throne when he replacement was deposed, and Hela took it instead, exiling him to the realm of light or something like that, thinking that it would take him off the board, but, instead, he took that power for himself, and, now, both Knull and Hela want to conquer Earth in their schemes to kill the other. Why? We don’t actually know. I’m not sure the why matters. This is the story of two gods fighting over who gets to conquer and use Earth for their own purpose. In the grandest tradition of Jim Starlin, Al Ewing is writing a cosmic event where the bulk of Earth’s heroes don’t actually matter except that they’re who should be in the story. I imagine, as it goes along, it will be Symbiote-themed heroes and maybe some Asgardians who actually do anything of any true import.

Now, Queen in Black: Hela actually spells out Hela’s goals for Earth (turn it into a Norn Stone, carve a Rune of Fate into it, and become so powerful that she can rule the Realms and destroy Asgard) except those goals don’t truly mean anything. Like so many evil schemes, the endgame is a MacGuffin to enable the story. Knowing what Hela has planned for the aftermath of defeating the heroes and conquering Earth is trivia nothing more. Only if she actually wins (or has some approximation of winning) and begins to enact those goals will they be material to the story.

Once you get that it’s two opposing forces of evil fighting one another for the right to fight the heroes of Earth, that’s all you need. And, in the first issue of Queen in Black, Hela gets there first and much of the issue is spent fighting her Symbiote forces as the heroes of Earth learn that they were mistaken in thinking it was Knull invading Earth as initially suspected. Oh, I guess more context is required, because that reveal only works if you know about what happened in the final issue of Immortal Thor where Skurge destroyed the bridge connecting Asgard to Utgard and, in the process, destroyed the Bifrost that Loki had repaired using magic that bound it to the other bridge – and, in the process, cut the Nine Realms off from Midgard (Earth), turning Asgard back into a place of myth, rewriting history in the process. No one remembers Thor as an Avenger or superhero (Beta Ray Bill has taken his place in history) and that means no one (save Bill) knows who Hela is (which is how she defeated Knull to take his throne).

While readers always know more than the characters (except for when information is withheld for dramatic/story purposes), Queen in Black is an odd event because we know who the main antagonist is, know her history, and she’s a fairly familiar character... and the heroes have no idea who she is. Except that also has no impact on the story, honestly, because her invasion forces are various Symbiotes bonded with different races from across the universe and that’s pretty much what was expected if it were Knull. There’s meant to be a differentiation in methods with Hela’s gathering of forces more subtle than Knull would be and that doesn’t totally land. It largely reads like “Oh, it’s not Knull, it’s someone with his powers who uses a bunch of Symbiotes just like him! And, damn, Knull is back with a light-based powerset and crystal-looking Symbiotes who don’t need hosts!”

It’s pile upon pile of details that make no difference to the story. It’s all blah blah blah dialogue that’s full of nouns and verbs and adjectives that try to make this seem more complicated than what it is. This is a big dumb summer event and don’t let anyone trick you into thinking otherwise. How much you’ll enjoy it is mostly based on your appetite for Symbiotes.

*

The third issue for this event released this week, Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #1, is a little frustrating. The two Defenders teams are alluded to in Queen in Black #1 when Cable recruits Agent Anti-Venom and the concept is somewhat clever: a team of ‘light’ heroes to attack Hela and a team of ‘dark’ heroes to attack Knull. When it comes to events, balance is a delicate concept to manage. How much to include in the main book versus how much to farm out to various tie-ins. Some events are easier than others, conceptually, to balance things. An event like Avengers vs. X-Men could shunt as many fights between members of the two groups that had no material impact on the larger story to the tie-ins. Here, the two teams engaging with the primary antagonists is taken out of the core series (unless scenes pop up in the second issue) and placed firmly in this tie-in. It strikes me as a little backward from what we see in Queen in Black #1.

The main physical conflicts in that issue are between the heroes of Earth and various Symbiote landing forces across the globe. While important, those are the sort of fight scenes that seem like they would normally be shown in detail in tie-ins, while direct engagement with the two primary antagonists of the story seem more like core book material. Granted, this event is structured a little differently from many events. Currently, there are 17 issues in this event with only four being issues of ongoing titles that exist outside of the event (three issues of Venom and one of Black Cat). The remaining 13 are all mini-series and one-shots that exist only as part of this event. While it isn’t guaranteed that everyone buying the Queen in Black core series is buying everything else, it’s not unreasonable to think that a large portion of those readers will be doing so. Going back to Avengers vs. X-Men, that was an event with a core series, two mini-series and one one-shot created for it (and one of the minis was the epilogue series), and the rest of the tie-ins were all issues of pre-existing ongoing series. While not told in a prescribed reading order with specific chapter labels, Queen in Black is a large story where you seemingly need everything, making the tie-ins more an extension of the core series than related-but-inessential tangents. After all, all but four issues in this event are written or co-written by Al Ewing; this is firmly his show.

However, Defenders of Light and Dark is still a side attraction, making the confrontations with Hela and Knull necessarily unsatisfactory and possibly deadly for the two groups of heroes. As odd as it is for the first direct contact with the two antagonists to occur here, that it does tells us that these fights are borderline meaningless. I said above that Ewing looks like he may be following in the footsteps of Starlin’s events and this has the look of Infinity War where there are all of these tie-ins and fights and side quests for the non-cosmic heroes and they’re all pointless. Only the Magus, Adam Warlock, and Thanos really matter for the purposes of the story and, if you took out everything that wasn’t them, you’d have a solid three or so issues, at best. I get the feeling that all non-Symbiote and, possibly, Asgardian characters fill the same roles here, making the likes of Cloak and Dagger, Darkstar, and even Iron Man somewhat superfluous. There to add some, hopefully, interesting story and fill space.

The trio of artists for the opening salvo of this event, Iban Coello, Zé Carlos, and Carlos Magno all share a fondness for melodrama in their art. Everything is big and exaggerated, yet heavily detailed. The credits aren’t clear in Queen of Black #1 if Carlos does some inking or contributes pencils/inks as the Coello and Carlos are jointly credited as ‘artists,’ but Carlos also draws Defenders of Light and Dark, giving a natural relationship between the two books visually, further supporting the idea that the tie-ins here are a little more ‘essential’ to the overall flow of the story. Going into this, I wasn’t familiar with any of these artists and found they’re all suited the sort of big, dumb event that Queen in Black clearly is. With gods and Symbiotes, you need artists not afraid to push things beyond the realm of realism, willing to opt for ‘cool’ over ‘makes sense.’ Magno, on the Hela issue, has a more intricate line than the other two that fits a more Asgardian-focused issue – yet there are plenty of big panels of Hela being arch as fuck. What I love is that there is a unified sensibility at the core, something far too many events lack.

*

Getting back to the delays in this event getting started, if you examine the original solicits/schedule for the event, it went:

July 1: Queen in Black #1

July 8: Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #1, Queen in Black: Hela #1, and Venom #260

July 15: Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #1

July 29: Queen in Black #2

Now, the first three titles all got shifted to July 29, the last two to August 5 (so I guess read Venom Unchained #1 before Queen in Black #2?) and Venom #260 isn’t coming out until August 12, over a month late (on the same day as Queen in Black: Thor #1, which got pushed back a week). For the most part, this delay hasn’t messed with things too much with only Venom #260 being shifted well beyond its original window/placement. It was meant to be among the first wave of tie-ins with the two that came out this week and, now, it won’t come out until the week after Queen in Black #2. However, the good news is, currently, looking ahead, things will largely get on track. Of course, that’s presuming no further delays/schedule changes. What I’m mindful of is that, if this is an event where the pieces of story are somewhat carefully arranged/planned, we won’t be getting an early part until much later than intended and that will alter the reading experience. 

If you look at the three issues that came out this week, we got the first issue of the core series, which was meant to debut on its own and, then, two tie-ins that fleshed out elements of the core issue. Defenders of Light and Dark has the initial attempt to take Hela and Knull on directly, while Hela has the full story of how Hela went from ruler of Hel to Queen in Black and what her plan in. The solicitation for Venom #260 suggests that it would expand on Dylan Brock’s (and other Symbiote heroes?) story. Given that Queen in Black #1 spent a lot of time on their efforts to fight the invading Symbiotes, right up to their failure to prevent the unleashing on a different, dangerous Symbiote at the very end of the issue, it definitely seems like that issue won’t necessarily work as well after Queen in Black #2. But, we’ll see.

Next week: Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #1 and Queen in Black #2 (I guess, given the initial release schedule, read them in that order)

What If We Kissed on the Blue Area of the Moon? 04 – What If...? Jessica Jones #1

“What if Jessica Jones was bitten by the radioactive spider?” by Justina Ireland, David Messina, Brian Reber, and Joe Sabino

Ah fuck, whatever, man. Look, there are some strong bits in this issue, pretty much any of the flashbacks to the time right after Jessica Jones got bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. And I do admire the central conceit being that Peter Parker is a selfish prick who only overcame that particular brand of nasty solipsism thanks to the death of his uncle. But, most of this comic is predictable mediocrity that does very little interesting with the concept. Spoiler alert: Jessica was just as terrible at being a superhero here as in the regular Marvel Universe and ends up in basically the same place as a result. Hey, I admire the whole idea of sticking to the character and all, but, I do have one question: what’s the point of this comic?

In the history of What If...? there have been numerous issues where the broad concept is that some characters can’t escape their fate or themselves. Stories where everything is different and, yet, somehow someway the character in question still lands in the same situation that we’re familiar with in the regular 616. Usually, there’s some ironic twist baked in or some tragic outcome, and I suppose Jessica’s family getting blown up or her teenage crush trying to goad her into putting the mask on by mimicking her worst enemy could qualify... but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like an ending where she suggests becoming a PI to Misty Knight and everything is converging with the regular comics. It feels like there are no real stakes or that Jessica’s shit life hasn’t been replaced with a remarkably similar-looking shit life.

Like nothing matters.

To a certain extent, that is the message of What If...? Uatu watches the world we mostly read our comics about, but he also watches all of these. These endless stories about endless variations where one thing changes and life still goes on. How many does he see where a seemingly important moment in time is dramatically changed and, yet, the ending is the same? Uatu watches as fate is unavoidable. Free choice is an illusion. Nurture versus nature is the fight that obscures the truth. Some would call that bleak; others reassuring. All I know for sure is that it doesn’t necessarily make for a good comicbook. It mostly makes me wonder how this was worth the cover price of $4.99 (and that’s USD... as a Canadian, that price gets raised via a very unfriendly exchange rate) and why I keep reading this year’s crop of What If...? comics and finding them so lacking, in general...

In a sense, there isn’t a lot different between this issue and What If...? Secret Wars #1 where it also ended with a hint towards converging with how things roughly played out in existing comics. In that case, it was the original Ultimate Universe continuing under the somewhat watchful eye of the god of the multiverse, the Maker, and eventually giving birth to a resistance in the form of the Ultimates ala the second Ultimate Universe. But, I found that ending charming and a little clever. I guess that’s because the route was surprising and somewhat logical. While the route that What If...? Jessica Jones #1 takes to a familiar place is logical, it’s hardly surprising. The journey itself is tedious. The ‘big reveal’ of Peter Parker is obvious and Jessica’s adult life is too much of a retread of the regular MU. Put simply: one comic had ambition, the other did not. And holy fuck will I overlook a lot of faults in an ambitious comic...

I’ve been surprised at the class of artists on this crop of What If...? comics. We’ve had some serious talent wasted on mediocre-to-bad scripts and David Messina is the newly wasted talent. The moment they saw his ‘retro’ pages come in, why did no one think to rewrite the whole thing to take place in the past? Moreover, that’s the only time Justina Ireland’s writing approaches anything like charming. Every page that takes place in the past overshadows every page that doesn’t by a large margin and it only serves to make the issue all the more frustrating to read. The rest of the issue feels like a dry walk-through that’s compulsory somehow.

The final insult: everyone involved seems to know all of this to a certain extent. The final word of the issue is given to Uatu: “NO MATTER THE PATH IT MUST TAKE, DESTINY ALWAYS FINDS ITS TRUE COURSE.” But, we’d already seen a whole comic that was the barest of changes for Jessica. Pretty easy to find the ‘true course’ of destiny when nothing matters.

What If We Kissed on the Blue Area of the Moon? 03 – What If...? Secret Wars #1

“What if the Ultimate Universe survived the Secret Wars?” by Alex Paknadel, Cafu, David Curiel, and Ariana Maher

Three in and only now finding its way, this latest revival of What If...? I don’t know, it’s my instinct to nitpick and that’s where my mind goes immediately despite this being an improvement over the first two issues. What we have here is pretty much a Proper What If...? comic that follows Proper What If...? logic to tell a Proper What If...? story. In as much as we can call it a story. That’s where I keep lingering. That it isn’t really a good story. For all that What If...? Secret Wars #1 does right, it doesn’t actually do much more than pitch a high concept. Plenty of What If...? issues have fallen into that trap, mind. Come up with a clever idea and focus more on the cleverest way to convey that clever idea, never mind if the story is actually good or told well. But, I’m a tough audience.

Alex Paknadel gets one big thing right in What If...? Secret Wars #1 and it’s following the logic of what this comic is meant to be. As I’ve harped on over the first two installments of this look at these comics, the way What If...? works is that there is a point of divergence (usually the question that Uatu the Watcher asks) and, from that point, the issue plays out, but still follows the vague logic of a Marvel comic. Bad versions of this just do whatever the fuck they want like “What if Peter Parker got bitten by Dracula?” and, then, suddenly, Adam Warlock vampire hunter appears out of nowhere like that makes a lick of sense. This issue changes the ending of Secret Wars and proceeds from there in a logical fashion. However, like this year’s What If...? Thor #1, it kind of has a secret question at its heart and that’s the big twist that overshadows the issue. It’s a bit of a subtle tweak that is what leads to the Ultimate Universe surviving: What if the Maker didn’t betray Mr. Fantastic? That lack of betrayal meant that it was both Reed Richards confronting Doom and the one to emerge with the godlike powers was the Maker, not Mr. Fantastic – meaning, the multiverse is now being managed/rebuilt by the Maker, hence why his home Universe survived.

It’s a clever twist that the entire issue revolves around. Paknadel follows the logic of the real comics by having Peter Parker survive similar to Miles due to their kindness to the Molecule Man and uses his presence in the Ultimate Universe to analyse its differences to the regular Marvel Universe. It’s a darker, more chaotic place. More violent. Crueler. Highlighted are the endless events of mass destruction as Parker learns the history of the world as part of Nick Fury’s pitch to recruit him to SHIELD, where he operates at the Scarlet Spider. It gets darker when Peter’s physiology turns against him in this world and the radioactive blood in his veins gives him cancer. Learning that the interdimensional portal that could take him back to his universe is actually still active, Miles and Ultimate Peter’s friends team up to get Peter to it... and that’s the big reveal for the Maker and that Peter’s universe is no more. From there, it’s a bit of a lecture on the nature of the Ultimate Universe and it’s chaotic, destructive nature, and that leads into a tease where it suggests the birth of the Ultimates ala the second, recently-ended Ultimate Universe.

I admire the larger ideas at play and the core idea at the heart of the point of deviation (the Maker’s betrayal of Mr. Fantastic actually occurs after the defeat of Doom instead of before), and even the way it seeks to play off the concept of the second Ultimate Universe with the Maker trying to improve upon his home universe. But, as a story, it doesn’t quite hold together. Peter is told the portal is destroyed instead of simply that it’s being used to monitor the Maker, and the ensuing conflict that destroys the Triskelion is there just to prove the point that the superhumans on the world will eventually destroy it – there’s no real logic at the core of this, though, except as a way to showcase the big twist.

What I’ve been pondering is if that’s a problem or not. Like I said, plenty of What If...? stories are no more than a high concept wearing the bare minimum of compelling storytelling. The core appeal of the comic is the clever high concept and the twists that come with it. In that regard, Paknadel nails it. You read the question for the issue and you think, perhaps, it’s Mr. Fantastic showing a kindness and restoring the Ultimate Universe, and Paknadel delivers a much better explanation, gives a quick thesis on the nature of the Ultimate Universe, and ties it into the second one. I mean, how can you not be a little impressed? Even the lack of a compelling story logic can be handwaved away to a certain extent by muttering a few words about how Nick Fury is a bastard who doesn’t trust Peter or was worried about his mental state if he learned his entire universe was no more. Still.

A few words about Cafu, an artist that I’ve long been an admirer of, going back at least to his work with Nick Spencer on THUNDER Agents for DC... He’s always struck me as bit of a cross between the weird not-quite-right realistic elements of Gary Frank and the cartooning of Frank Quitely. In this issue, the former remains, but the latter is excised as it seems like he tries to channel some Bryan Hitch bits here and there. It fits well for the Ultimate Universe, but also the way that Paknadel’s story plays up the dark elements of it. Things don’t look right. They look realistic but also twisted and a little freaky. We’re told that this is a bit of a universe-gone-wrong and it looks that way. I can’t think of a better choice of artist, honestly.

This issue comes pretty damn close to hitting all of the notes for a What If...? comic, save a story that really stands on its own. But, I’m a sucker for clever high concepts and great visuals. I hope this isn’t the high point of these issues as we’ve got five more to go... 

Looking at the Bigger Picture: Thorsday Thoughts on The Art of The Mighty Thor

I’ll be honest, I never really know what exactly to do with art books. If you’ve followed my writing about comics for any length of time, it’s easy to tell that I’m very writer-focused. While I’ve tried many times to overcome this flaw in my approach, it never quite sticks. I’d loved to lay it on my interest in looking at broad bodies of work by writers or big runs focused on a character where artists aren’t consistent on an issue to issue basis, but it’s really just the way I’m wired and prefer to look at things. But, as anyone will tell you, comics are a visual medium and this remains a fundamental flaw for me that I continue to work on however incrementally. And, I mean, I love comics art. For all that I direct my thoughts and energy to the writing (which is contributed to in a major way by the art, of course, but that muddiness always trips me up), if there’s something that’s going to wow me in a comic, 99 times out of 100, it’s an image. So, I’ve slowly, when the opportunity arises, taken to getting art-focused books like the Jim Starlin Artist Edition of his Warlock run or the Artisan Edition of Walt Simonson’s Thor or even the DC WIP edition of All-Star Superman #1 (and told my shop I want the upcoming editions for The Dark Knight Returns #1 and Watchmen #1). Usually, what holds me back is cost... and the knowledge that I’ll look through these books and struggle a little with what else to do with him.

Books that present original art are a challenge for me to engage with, to a degree. While I can look through and enjoy the art, maybe even read the story in this form, I usually feel like there’s more I can be getting out of them. Some other level of meaning and appreciation that I lack. Not simply the expertise in visual art, which would obviously provide a greater insight, but just something... more. Something extra. Something that’s lacking. Yet, I persist, because... well, them sure are a lot of purdy pictures.

My latest foray into books of this sort is Dark Horse’s The Art of The Mighty Thor, which came out in early June, and is focused on the works on Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson. It’s less a new release than a compilation/combination of each artist’s previous Artist Edition Thor releases from IDW, taking two issues from the Kirby book and four from the Simonson one to reproduce here along with the odd other piece of art and some covers. If you already own those other releases, there’s not much here for you, I imagine, besides Simonson and the editor’s introductions, and the desire to just have another edition. Between editions, there are some notable changes from what I can discern, with mixed results.

I only have the softcover Artisan Edition of Simonson’s Thor to compare. While The Art of The Mighty Thor is larger in dimensions than it, it’s also smaller than the full hardcover Artist Edition releases (or Artifact Editions – see picture to judge dimensions of various releases from the giant Kirby Is... Mighty! hardcover down to the regular trade paperback release), which is still large but not unwieldy. How much the size of the page matters versus how easy the book is to manage physically is a tough one to navigate. Too big and the book is a bit of a burden to actually sit down and engage with; too small and it loses the ability to really showcase the desired details. The Art of The Mighty Thor manages to hit that middle ground nicely as it seems like it’s trying to satisfy both the hardcore and maybe the more regular coffee table book lover.

Which probably explains the focus on only Kirby and Simonson.

I’ll admit that this release is more of a ‘best of’ release of their two previous original art reproduction books is a little frustrating. Admittedly, those previous releases are out of print and only available second-hand for inflated prices, so I get wanting to get them back into print and doing a book with both Kirby and Simonson hits the two ‘high points’ of Thor art as generally accepted by the masses. More than that, the scans of the original art already exist, making this an easier book to put together than searching for additional/previously unreleased art to use. So, I get it.

But.

There remains a part of me that would have liked a book titled The Art of The Mighty Thor to go beyond these two artists who have long been held in such high esteem on the title so as to overshadow everyone else. When you’ve got artists like John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Ron Frenz, Mike Deodato, John Romita, Jr., Stuart Immonen, Olivier Coipel, Esad Ribić, Russell Dauterman, Pasqual Ferry, and so many others over the years to choose from, there’s a lack here. Especially when you account for the previous Kirby and Simonson books. There’s the I get it element fighting up against the Yeah but one.

Moving past that and getting into choices made with the material at hand. Comparing the Simonson Artisan Edition to this, the level of detail you can see in the reproduction is much better in this edition. The way that the use of white out is highlighted is so much easier to see intricately than what’s visible in the pages in the Artisan Edition. I’m sure there’s still minute details lost to the process, but that element of production is top notch here. What I struggle with is the amount of each page we’re given. In the Artist(isan) Editions, the pages are reproduced in full in that the whole art board is shown, beyond the actual dimensions of the comic page drawing, so you can see the top notation for the comic/issue/page and any border notes. In The Art of The Mighty Thor, they zoom in to have the art mirror how the comic looks as much as possible with beyond-the-borders barely visible. In the Simonson pages, this isn’t a huge deal as there are barely any notations there; the Kirby pages are another story. Kirby frequently wrote story/dialogue notes in the margins of the pages for Stan Lee to reference when scripting the issue to know what Kirby’s intent was. Those sorts of details are a big part of the appeal of books like this, that ability to peek into the creative process and see where Kirby’s intent and Lee’s execution was the same and where it differed. Losing those notations is such a baffling choice. It’s probably the biggest flaw with this book and, as far as editorial choices go, one of the worst I’ve seen when it comes to a project like this.

The other choice that I really question and, here we get into the question of what this book is. After all, it isn’t simply an Artist(isan) or Artifact Edition like what IDW put out. It’s titled The Art of The Mighty Thor, emphasising the idea of showcasing art. Not original art pages... art. So, bookending the Kirby issues shown here and following the Simonson ones are cover collections for each artist’s Thor runs (Journey into Mystery is completely excluded, which is another choice, of course). Some covers are given the full page treatment, while others are put three or four to a page. There’s a mixture of original art reproductions and coloured-as-printed images depending on the availability of the original art for each cover. Frustrating, to me, is that not every original art reproduction is given the full page treatment, while some colour images of the printed covers are. To me, the original art reproductions should all get their own page, while the others can be crammed three or four to a page at smaller sizes, even if that means shuffling the order a little. That five of the six covers for the issues reproduced here have their original art available and those images are shrunk to accommodate additional text about the ensuing comic is also a disappointing choice. I understand where that one is coming from, but a different solution should have been found so those covers can be seen as large as possible.

(A minor idea that I would have liked: maybe with some covers or pages, give a few examples of the original art next to the printed comic to really highlight what’s different. Not required, but one of those ‘would have been nice’ things that I couldn’t help but think about, particularly when seeing the colour printed covers included.)

The last choice I’d like to quickly touch on is the choice of issues selected here: for Kirby, it’s Thor annual #2 and Thor #134; for Simonson, it’s Thor #337-340. That means, what’s left out of previous collections are: for Kirby, it’s Journey into Mystery #111, 117, and 118 along with Thor #135; for Simonson, it’s Thor #360-362. We’ll assume that there was a relatively hard page count for this release that Dark Horse was aiming to hit and that’s an understandable concern. We also know that there’s the choice to limit this book to art from Thor, so the Journey into Mystery work is necessarily excluded. The page limit means losing the three additional Simonson issues makes sense, but I can’t see the argument for losing Thor #135. Coupled with the cover gallery choice, I know I would have rather had that additional Kirby issue included than the covers – and to balance out the Simonson ‘half’ of the book a bit more. An annual and two regular issues against four regular issues is a pretty fair split. I’d love to know why it was left out and hope there was something better than page count/price point as the reason.

All of that would suggest that I’m unhappy with the book when that’s far from true. It’s really that books like this invite diving into the details of editorial and production choices – and it’s important to highlight that those choices exist and impact the experience of the book. Some great choices are the inclusion of additional art peppered through the introductions by Simonson and the editors. One that really stood out to me was a piece that Simonson did for an ad in Marvel Age #6 to hype Thor #337 showing Beta Ray Bill holding Mjolnir and decked out in his full Thor-esque costume. If the art looks familiar, that’s because Simonson repurposed it in Thor #339 for the reveal of Beta Ray Bill after he pulls Stormbreaker from the forge for the first time. Comparing the two pieces, you can see how white out was used to help change Mjolnir into Stormbreaker, how Bill’s glove was changed to the gauntlet required to grab the hammer, and even how the date next to Simonson’s signature is taken out. It’s a neat look into the behind the scenes process that went into this amazing page.

Actually, thanks to the quality production, it’s the huge use of white out that really leaps off the page. Just how much it was used to correct or accentuate the art cannot be understated. It’s kind of surprising how each page is peppered with small and large corrections/alterations. Or even details like the cover to Thor #362 where you can see the pasting on of a new version of Skurge’s arm holding the gun. Those small details are so fun to examine – for me, more the ones where it’s alterations to add additional details, like using white out to highlight the lines on the Destroyer’s armour in parts where there’s black shading.

Engaging with the art of Kirby and Simonson itself... For Kirby, what stands out to me is the variety in his approaches. We tend to think of Kirby, particularly on Thor, as these big bold lines heavy with power and force. While that’s true, there’s often these moments of contrast and intricate detail that leaps off the page. When the High Evolutionary is using a wolf in his experiments, the line work on the wolf is so fine and un-Kirby-like that it’s lost in the final comic a bit by the colours. Here, it pops off the page for the purposeful choice that it is. In these original pages, you get a better sense of the space being used. That’s probably what stands out in Simonson’s pages the most, for me. Like Kirby, he’s so good at singular images that work on their own and in their larger context, but there are these moments where he uses the space of the page and individual panel so well to create an effect. Or the way ‘incomplete’ renderings both suggest the final image and add the element of energy as desired. The interplay of what’s drawn, what’s not, what’s suggested, and what’s left entirely alone is so much more apparent here.

What I’m left with is a book that I’m sure I’ll return to again and again despite my nit-picky critiques of some choices. Even as much as I disagree with some of those choices, they can’t overwhelm just how lovely it is to flip through these pages and luxuriate in the work of these two masters. Every time I do, I see something new, pick up a new detail, linger over a new panel for longer than before. Maybe each time, I’m getting a bit closer to that bit of extra understanding I’m reaching for. If not, well... there’s still Kirby and Simonson and Thor. Hot damn.