The Most Jim Starlin Thor Comic: Some Brief Thoughts on Thor #323

Thor #323 does not have Jim Starlin’s name anywhere in the credits. A random fill-in issue (no doubt an inventory issue used for one reason or another) by Steven Grant, Greg LaRocque, Ricardo Villamonte, Diana Albers, and George Roussos, it breaks up the meat of the Doug Moench run on Thor with a story in Thor’s past. While out on some sort of adventure with Loki and the Warriors Three, they come across a large, muscular blue being with a giant war hammer that threatens them for coming too close to the border of his domain. What follows is a bit of a spin on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with him insulting Thor into agreeing to a contest where, first, Thor will strike the first blow and, then, the ‘Dark One’ will return the blow. Thor hits him with Mjolnir and knocks his head off and, like the Green Knight, the ‘Dark One’ simply picks up his head, jumps on his horse and demands that Thor follow him to his domain or be dishonoured. Thor insists on following despite the warning from Fandral that only Odin has ever come back from that region and that it is certain death. Taking Loki with him, as they come to a golden bridge, they encounter a seductive woman who tries to get Thor to stay with her. Before he rebuffs her, Loki rides off, leaving Thor concerned that he will tell all of Asgard that he has behaved dishonourably. To prove that he did not, Thor charges ahead, overcomes the bridge crumbling, and squares off with the ‘Dark One.’ Despite nearly dying from the first blow, Thor continues on, even as he’s beaten down more and more, taunted by both the ‘Dark One’ and the woman (his wife) as they tell him he’ll soon be their prize, turned into a statue to accompany the dozen or so that he passed at the entrance that were once warriors like him. In the end, Thor is spared because, as he’s about to die, he thinks only of his love for his father and the love Odin has for him. The ‘Dark One’ spares him and sends him back to Asgard with the gift of a horse having triumphed as Odin once did. Odin dismisses the gift and tells Thor that he faced Fear and his wife Desire, the enemy of all warriors, and that he would face them many more times in his life as a warrior.

It’s such a strange story, based in part on the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, but doesn’t adhere to it strictly, instead taking the rough plot and a little bit of the seductress/noble knight resisting elements. The opening scene is downright delightful in how it leans into Thor being a jerk of a big brother to Loki, fitting in nicely with the reworked issue 272 in the recent Immortal Thor #6.

Where I see the similarity to the work of Starlin is in the end and some of the artist choices. The idea of a story where Thor faces off against the physical embodiments of Fear and Desire is very much the ‘metaphor made literal’ approach that Starlin often embraced, particularly when a character would allow for that sort of mystical quality. His cosmic being often represented a specific quality like this and, even his Thor run with Ron Marz, leaning heavily into the physical manifestation of a psychological aspect.

In the art, it’s hard not to see Starlin both the ‘Dark One’ and his wife’s designs. The ‘Dark One’ is a blue-skinned giant of a man with a goatee and a Mohawk, looking straight out of ‘random alien casting’ from Warlock or Dreadstar. His wife, on the other hand, has similarly blue skin, but circles discolourations around her eyes, recalling Gamorra or Heater Delight along with similarly form-fitting garb. Apart, it would be easy to dismiss as a coincidence. Together, it definitely seems like a concerted effort to mimic Starlin’s aesthetic. LaRocque is around seven years younger than Starlin and could have been influenced by him, especially if this was an inventory fill-in done years previously when Starlin’s Warlock would have been a particularly strong enough. The line work of LaRocque and Villamonte definitely has a few Starlin-esque moments, while maintaining a different enough style.

While reading the Moench run, this fill-in was a pleasant treat. The ending is a little hokey, but, for a Starlin guy, it was interesting to read something that seems influenced by his work, even in small ways.

CBR Review: What If? Spider-Man Back in Black #1

I recently reviewed What If? Spider-Man Back in Black (godawful title for a comic, by the way) for CBR and, in the process, wrote the following: "What comes through in this issue is intelligence and thought as Grant considered exactly how Peter Parker really would react to an event like this. Not how he would have to act to fit the constraints of the genre and editorial mandate, but how he would act. Some may disagree with Grant’s conclusions, but the final pages demonstrate that he thought everything through, including Parker’s obsession with responsibility. While revenge may drive the character here, he isn’t stupid and he doesn’t expect to walk away if he gets it."

You can read the rest HERE!

Chad's Jackass Comic Creator Interviews from 2001: Steven Grant

[Continuing my embarrassing series where I post interviews I did with comic creators in late 2001. I was 18 and kind of a douche, okay? I really like this interview, because Grant has no patience for my idiocy. New posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday.]

Interview With . . . Steven Grant!
This is the guy who wrote, under Warren Ellis at first and later on his own, one of my favourite titles from Marvel ever: X-Man after Ellis did his Counter-X thing. “Finally!” I said, “Something new and different.” It was out with the old and in with the Shaman for Mutanity. I highly recommend everyone go out and get it. I’ve also been a fan of Grant’s Master of the Obvious column over at www.comicbookresources.com. It’s good and just ended, with Grant now starting a new column entitles Permanent Damage.

Me: Tell us about yourself.

Grant: Born Madison, Wisconsin; grew up in the late 60s with lots of involvement in sex, drugs, rock’n’roll & politics; went to University of Wisconsin and became a film and music critic for local papers. Moved to NYC in 1978, started doing odd jobs for Marvel Comics while working as writer for Trouser Press magazine. Moved around, both my home and my career, ever since: Los Angeles, Seattle, Las Vegas, DC, First, Dark Horse, TSR, Vortex, Wildstorm, Eclipse, Tekno, Capital, Chaos, etc. etc. I can no longer keep track of all the companies I've written for. It's been an interesting enough life to live, but it's pretty dull to talk about.

Me: How did you get interested in writing?

Grant: Dunno. Just always did it. Certainly reading comic books from an early age helped. But I was always reading books; I started reading novels before I started reading comics. If you're around stories enough you start generating stories.

Me: What have you written?

Grant: Gobs of work for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and others over the years. Let's stick with what I've created: WHISPER at Capital (which went to First). BADLANDS at Vortex (which went to Dark Horse). ENEMY and OUT FOR BLOOD at Dark Horse. DAMNED at Wildstorm/Vertigo. PSYCHOBLAST and TWILIGHT MAN at First. MANHUNTER (a later version) at DC. Also did X at Dark Horse and the last year of X-MAN at Marvel, but I didn't create either of those.

Me: What are you currently working on?

Grant: Two graphic novels for AIT/PlanetLar Books, including a WHISPER graphic novel. Three graphic novels for Platinum Books: SOCORRO; PALADINS; and GUILTY. A Superman graphic novel at DC that was begun with Gil Kane -- it was Gil's idea -- and is now being drawn by John Buscema. Odd jobs at Marvel and DC. I've been doing some film work and prose fiction as well lately. And I'm writing the new column PERMANENT DAMAGE at CBR.

Me: Did you find it weird that Joe Quesada came into Marvel speaking of doing comics differently and then
cancelled X-Man, which was probably the most different title Marvel had at the time?

Grant: Not really. While I probably would've kept it around, I understood the reasoning behind it. Bill and Joe are rebuilding the company around the X-books. If I'm trying to get people involved in the X-books and I drop something in front of them like X-MAN that's totally removed from the X-books, it's just going to bewilder them. So I don't really fault their decision, though I wish they'd made a different one. X-MAN was being done differently, but it wasn't being done in the way Joe and Bill meant differently. A subtle but important distinction.

Me: In one of your Master of the Obvious columns you made several predictions and later when it was re-ran asked the readers to judge how right you were. How right do you think you've been so far?

Grant: I haven't really been keeping track. Besides, it doesn't matter what the score is at halftime, it matters what the score is when the game's over, and the game isn't anywhere near over yet.

Me: How far ahead of posting do you generally write a column?

Grant: 3-6 hours, usually.

Me: Boxers or briefs?

Grant: None of your business.

Me: Cats or dogs?

Grant: At this stage in my life, I'd just as soon have no pets at all. Saying “cats or dogs?” is like saying “blondes or brunettes?” Depends on the specific blonde or brunette.

Me: Summer or winter?

Grant: Autumn.

Me: Any cool stories involving a chick?

Grant: Except that we don't call them “chicks” anymore, sure.

Me: I just gave you a case full of 100 untraceable bullets, who do you use them on?

Grant: Untraceable bullets only exist in fiction. Anyway, I'd never shoot anybody. Even my worst enemies I don't have any great compulsion to shoot, and I don't believe in restructuring governments through the barrel of the gun, so who else is there? I like target shooting, though. I'd riddle a handful of targets on a firing range with them.

Me: Who are some of your favourite writers?

Grant: My favourite comics writer these days is probably Warren Ellis. I find pretty much anything Warren writes tremendously entertaining. William Gaddis is my favourite novelist. J.G. Ballard, James Ellroy, Malcolm Lowry. I don't really follow authors much anymore. I read specific books for specific information or other purposes, but usually not solely because I like the author's work. Most modern fiction is pretty pathetic, really.

Me: Who is your hero?
Grant: Phil Ochs is the closest anyone comes to being my hero.

Me: If you could have one person, living or dead over to supper, who would it be?

Grant: What are you, Barbara Walters? Why not just ask what my favourite color is? I don't even like to eat with people I know. You never know what anyone's table manners will be like. For that reason, probably Gandhi, since odds are he wouldn't eat.

Me: How much of X-Man was you and how much Warren?

Grant: Warren conceived the new direction, loosely outlined it, pretty tightly wrote out the opening sequence with Mr. Scratch and Mr. Forge, though I shuffled the dialogue around and added some of my own. The rest was fairly sketchy, with Warren setting up specific dialogue here and there, but he really didn't have much input past the first issue of the second arc, and no input at all into the final arc and the final issue. But it was his idea, and it was a great idea.

Me: What's the one comic you want to work on?

Grant: The next one I think up. And I want to work on it within a month of thinking it up, not three or four years. As for other people's characters, I'll work on them, but I don't have any crushing urge to work on any specific one. I'd rather create my own.

Me: Which artists do you really want to work with that you haven't already?

Grant: Oh, gobs of those. Anyone whose work has intelligence and distinctive style, really. That's what I look for in comics art, since storytelling is really a function of intelligence. Smarter artists may not necessarily draw better, but they tell stories better.

Me: Who do you love?

Grant: Again, none of your business. I don't really discuss my personal life.

Me: Any final words?

Grant: Not really, thanks. After writing MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS (soon to be collected by Larry Young at AIT/PlanetLar) for two years, I've pretty much said everything I can say about comics.