It’s fine.
Parts of it are better than others. On the whole, it’s a perfectly solid Thor comic and that’s a little disappointing. I think it’s a matter of expectations. You see those three names on the cover and you’re expecting something really special. The sort of book where you’re confused about the lack of recognition for it. It’s very much a love letter to the character and the Kirby beginnings of it. The conceit of the story, which follows the returning menace of a rogue storm that was turned against Thor by Loki once upon a time, is a solid one and suited to a three-issue story like this. From the beginning, the pacing seemed off in that the three time periods aren’t divided evenly, but spaced somewhat randomly with the first one taking up half of the first issue, the second one taking up the second half of the first issue and three quarters of the second, and the third one taking up the final quarter of the second issue and the entire third with some of the framing story elements interspersed around and in all three time periods. That roughly spaces out the final two time periods taking equal space with the earliest roughly two-fifths that size. To an extent, that makes sense given that the earliest story is akin to a “Tales of Asgard” backup almost compared to two full-size adventures. Conceptually, I understand it; reading the comics, it doesn’t feel right.
The choices of time periods is part of the problem. From the Rude-painted covers to his luxuriating in Kirby-ness interiors with Royer, an artist whose name conjures his work as Kirby’s primary inker in the 1970s, the third time period, taking place during the Dan Jurgens Thor run, seems out of step with the other two. Rude and Royer doing a “Tales of Asgard” style story and, then, a large story during the early days of the Avengers (ask Busiek and he’d probably tell you exactly where in Thor and Avengers continuity that part takes place) is pure Kirby-in-the-Marvel-Age stuff. It looks and feels like it’s trying to live in that period to a large extent and to have that feeling continue on to a period marked by modern art styles (Thor #41 came out the same month as Godstorm #1 and featured Stuart Immonen as the penciller) without any change or adaptation, while giving the book a sense of visual cohesion, also gives it an inauthentic feeling. I don’t mean for Rude to change his style as, despite my saying that he and Royer are in ‘Kirby mode’ here, Rude’s style is Rude’s style. A hybrid of Kirby, Alex Toth, Paul Smith, and others, Rude looks like Rude. No, I’m talking about the approach to the page in layout.
Aside from the Avengers sequence at the end of the first issue, which is almost entirely in the two by two layout, most of Godstorm is in a two by three six-panel layout, or is there as the default layout that Rude plays with by dividing or merging panels. Only a handful of pages break from that basic layout outside of the Avengers sequence. Even though Rude plays with that two panels per tier, three tiers per page layout throughout the series, it’s obviously there and is a key visual marker. Along with the two by two layout that I’ve often spoken of associating with “Tales of Asgard,” it’s a common Kirby default, because it provides a good base for churning out pages. Six panels per page is a good number to give room for solid action beats, a couple of word balloons, and not leaving the reader feeling like they’re flying through the issue. Again, the association with Kirby’s approach to Thor (and other Marvel comics) when drawing stories during/around the first two time periods makes that continued approach in a then-contemporary Thor story feel temporally out of step. While Rude’s style always echoes the past a little, the inventiveness in layouts and panel compositions in a work like Nexus always looks fresh and exciting. The third issue of Godstorm does not. The entire project looks and feels like something out of the past, yet over a third of it takes place in the (then) here and now!
Maybe the problem is, as I said earlier, expectations. Despite runs on Iron Man, Avengers, and Thunderbolts, Busiek’s involvement at Marvel always seemed inseparable from his strong knowledge of continuity, to the point where even present-day runs felt like they had one foot in the past. He’s the Marvels guy. The Untold Tales of Spider-Man guy. That’s unfair and it is what it is to an extent. Add in Rude on art, he was in the middle of a streak of small projects like this for Marvel that either took place in the past or played off past stories in a big way. Out of those projects, this is the only one where Royer inked Rude (aside from a story in Fantastic Four #50 in 2002) and is the most heavily Kirby-based. It’s a project dead set on evoking the past, with the first two issues largely taking place in the past, and this seems like a project rooted in the lost cracks of continuity. And it is. To the point where the final third seems incongruous even though it features numerous elements that fit cohesively with the two first issues. Rude and Royer’s art is incredibly consistent, while Busiek builds up themes and plots that make sense as they follow one another. It’s a disconnect between what makes sense intellectually and what feels off. I hate leaning on words like ‘feels’ and ‘seems,’ yet can’t avoid it because so much of why you like or dislike something comes down to those words. This is an exercise in trying to make sense of it all.
The framing story takes place in the year 912 in a village on the coast of the North Sea. An old, wiry man tells stories of Thor to two young boys (who resemble Thor and Loki somewhat). The first story is from the past and explains how the leader of their village’s family came to possess a piece of Mjolnir that hangs on a necklace, passed down the generations, while the next two have the old man divine the future and tell two more stories based following up on the events of the first one. A storm led astray by Loki is the continuous villain through all of the stories, taking different forms, and acting as an anchor, of sorts. The first story is very much a simple one, laying the foundation with Thor pissing off Loki, Loki taking revenge by turning one of his own storms against him, and Thor being forced to exert his power and imprison the storm deep in the sea. During this story is when a piece of Mjolnir is broken off and Thor gives it to the brave Vikings that assisted him.
The second story is the exact sort of story that you’d expect from this project, taking place sometime during the first year of Avengers with the lineup of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Giant-Man, and Wasp. Introducing a new villain, the Weather-Maker, it almost comes off like Busiek decided to do a one-off “Untold Tales of Thor” story. Were it only the Avengers taking down a previously unknown villain, it would be an entertaining story; Busiek, though, adds in elements from Thor’s solo adventures when, the object of the villain’s affection (he’s a complete incel) is gravely injured, Thor must use the skills of Dr. Donald Blake to save her life in defiance of Odin’s call for his son to return to Asgard due to a conflict with Trolls. Obviously, Blake saves the woman and Thor incurs his father’s wrath. Meanwhile, in prison, the Weather-Maker uses a hidden piece of his weather technology and accidentally summons a portion of the long-imprisoned storm that merges with him/imbues him with power, creating a new villain, Torrent. The second half of this story has Thor making a deal with Odin to return to Earth to handle Torrent under the condition that he will return in time to parlay with the Trolls or Loki will take his place as Crown Prince of Asgard; of course, Loki has betrayed Asgard, is working with the Trolls, and they attack the Asgardians prior to the parlay, leaving Thor looking like he has failed his home again. Somehow, Thor manages to defeat Torrent in a manner that also defeats the Trolls, and all is well, while the small part of the storm returns to the whole, still deep in the sea.
The third story has Jake Olsen on a cruise to Norway and friendly with a woman on board. She’s visiting home and it met by her brother, an off-shore oil driller who was meant to be a fisherman like his father before him. The choice to be something different has caused a big family rift. The man’s drilling frees the imprisoned storm and Thor must battle it, while saving the lives of the drillers. Loki gets involved and betrays the storm, but all is made right by the end, including the family rift – and we learn that this family are the descendents of the leaders of the village where the framing story takes place. And, then, we learn that the old man telling the stories is, in fact, Odin. Ta-da.
On the whole, it’s a cohesive story with the recurring antagonists of Loki and the storm and, the theme of fathers and sons with different expectations and desires. The middle story is the most successful in its attempt to both tell an entertaining, compelling story and act as a bit of a ‘love letter’ to the Kirby/Lee run. Rude, coupled with Royer, manages to capture the feel of Kirby quite a bit. Although Rude’s line work is a lot softer and rounder than Kirby (few jagged lines from Rude), there are a lot of places where he lives inside Kirby’s style and gives it his own spin. He’s fantastic at those Kirby panels where you get a character’s face that highlights the asymmetry, one side looking somewhat normal, while the other is completely unhinged. Kirby’s Thor also slowly grew over the time, never to the muscular size of subsequent artists and Rude captures that lean power of the early Thor. Additionally, his take on the Trolls is pure ugly Kirby with square/rectangular heads and the closest to hard, sharp line work. Busiek couples that with the recurring ideas and themes of that run, the conflict between Thor and Odin as the son emphasises the importance of his time on Earth (where his father sent him) against the father’s insistence that Asgard should take priority at all times. The weird bargain where Loki would become Crown Prince should Thor not return in time is such a hoot that I’m surprised Lee and Kirby never did it. The middle story very much could have been released as a single one-shot and been incredibly successful in its nostalgic love.
The third story doesn’t just suffer from Rude’s strict adherence to the Kirby style and page composition that doesn’t suggest a change in time, but in that it’s a fairly generic Thor story. Nothing much is at stake for Thor beyond saving innocent people and defeating the out of control storm and Loki. Where the first story is like a “Tales of Asgard” short in its brevity and simplicity, and the second is an “Untold Tales of Thor” in all of the best ways, the third is your ‘random issue of Thor that means nothing at all except for how it reuses some stuff from some old comics and doesn’t actually do much with them.’ If it wasn’t part of this project and was just released on its own, I’d be tempted to call it a bad attempt to do what Kurt Busiek does so well when he pulls in bits of old continuity for modern stories. Aside from the thematic connection with the father/son and wrapping up the storm story, there is no true point to this third part. It so genuinely underwhelming and unnecessary that I do wonder if Godstorm would have been better served by eliminating the third story/issue altogether and finding a way to either be a 64-page one-shot or only two issues. I wonder how much my reaction to Godstorm would be changed if that had been the case.
What I had hoped would be a bit of a lost classic turned out to be a little more complicated. I admire the skill and concept of Godstorm more than I enjoy reading it. If it stuck to the idea of being a lost story from Thor’s past, that’s where the team of Kurt Busiek, Steve Rude, and Mike Royer truly shine. I’m not sure where the idea to tell a portion in then-contemporary continuity stemmed from, but it was a mistake that mars the story. It feels out of place and doesn’t justify itself beyond wrapping up some loose ends that don’t need closure. The final issue comes off as more obligatory than anything. Great looking and competently crafted though it may be. It would be a curious exercise to take out the framing elements, turn the middle story into a comic with the first story as a backup feature and release that as a single comic. That seems like what this project wanted to be before it bloated. If I sound overly critical, it does betray how enjoyable the first two issues are – and, despite my criticisms, the third issue is perfectly entertaining. It’s an incredibly well-drawn Thor adventure that surpasses most random Thor comics.
It’s about expectations and potential. This could have been a great Thor comic, an all-time classic. Instead, it’s fine. Gorgeous throughout, clever at times, and a good way to spend half an hour or so.
