The first question that keeps running around my head is not a polite one, but, I feel, must be asked and pondered: do you think Greg Land is in on the joke?
I don’t mean the larger joke of Roxxon Presents Thor #1 with its over-the-top corporate sponsorship bent. I’m sure he got that. But, does he get why he was chosen as the artist? Why Marvel would pay him his, I assume, fairly hefty page rate to draw a fake comic that’s sold at a lesser cover price than the series it ties into and, more than likely, sold less than that monthly series? Why, of all the available artists, he was amongst the most suited to draw this specific comic to deliver the proper effect? It feels a little mean to pull at this particular thread and, yet, I’m not the one who published the comic.
After all, when parody comics are produced, the chosen artist(s) usually affects a specific style apart from their own or deliver visuals so over the top that the intent is unmistakable. In Land’s case, while the content of the script requires some humorous visual elements, he mostly draws the issue as he would any other, with a glossy sheen unlike anyone else. His art looks like the slop that a company like Roxxon would put out because it’s the sort of slop that a company like Marvel puts out. For a time, Land was one of the publisher’s ‘hottest’ artists, lambasted by the critics, loved by the masses, no doubt, in part, due to his habit of referencing porn stars for his posing (I’m looking at one panel of Loki that’s got everything but the cock in his mouth). At times, Ewing leans into it (the two-page beach scene) and the effect is downright perfect. An artist’s entire visual style turned into a punchline.
Land’s contribution to this issue isn’t the substance, it’s the style. Any artist could draw this comic and it would contain the same characters in roughly the same poses. They could even imitate Land’s style and maybe deliver some truly hilarious takes on some inappropriate photo references. They wouldn’t be Greg Land and that authenticity is what takes the idea of this comic to another level. There’s a specific meaning to his name in the credits, an entire back catalogue of comics and ‘swipe files’ posts that get brought along as added meaning. It’s a crucial modernist element in this obviously postmodern comicbook. It’s like if DC had gotten Rob Liefeld to draw that Doom Force one-shot.
And I wonder if he knows and what that’s like.
*
On the final page, the third panel has the Minotaur arrive with a bag full of money, accompanied by Gaea (looking far more like her usual depicting than she did in The Immortal Thor #8) and she says to Thor, “--AND YOU MUST HAVE PATIENCE! IF CHANGE IS NECESSARY, IT MUST COME SLOWLY... LEST THE MORTAL WORLD BECOME TOO MUCH A PARADISE!” This bit of dialogue (and Gaea’s inclusion) plays off her role in unlocking the gates of Utgard, bringing Toranos to Earth to destroy humanity as punishment for its destruction of the world, and why would a comicbook created by the Enchantress include that? The point of this comic is to push Roxxon, self-parody Roxxon, and present a version of Thor that will influence how humanity views him, which will then impact who he is on Earth. Why is there a reference to Gaea’s efforts to protect the planet from humanity? How does Amora know about that? And, when the comic shifts to Thor reading it, muttering “THIS IS NOT WHO I AM,” where did we last hear him say something similar when being told a story about himself?
Let’s jump back five whole pages from that Gaea panel to a large panel that takes up the bottom third of a page where Loki, looking very much like how they looked for their first many years in Thor comics, laughs gleefully, “HEEE HEEE HEEE! YET MY PATHETIC DRONES HAVE BOUGHT ME PRECIOUS TIME--TO WEAVE MY MAGIC! / FACE THE ILLUSIONS OF LOKI, THOR--HE WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN, AND WILL ALWAYS BE--THE GOD OF LIES!” If you’ll recall, this all exists within the narrative that Loki tells. They are the narrator of The Immortal Thor, the one who remade the black bridge that leads to Utgard, the one whose Skald magic retconned the Utgard gods into the story of the Elder Gods and their and Thor’s journey to Utgardhall. We’re meant to view this as nothing more than Loki-back-as-villain in a jokey fake comic wherein Amora uses the former god of lies because they are the most well-known Thor villain and, presumably, because she doesn’t like Loki. But, is this Loki signing their work?
After all, this comic is a crucial part of a spell that would pay off later, where Thor’s image on Earth no longer matches up with reality. No longer the same hero that people remember, he becomes this glossy corporate creature. A mascot, a logo, something that couldn’t possibly be real and walking around, making it so much easier to detach the reality of Thor and Asgard from Earth later, shifting them all back into the realm of myth and fiction. And it’s all done under the guise of Amora and Skurge using Dario Agger for their own purposes... “YET MY PATHETIC DRONES HAVE BOUGHT ME PRECIOUS TIME--TO WEAVE MY MAGIC!”
And so we continue to dance around the title of the series, The Immortal Thor. Thor dies. He’s died before, he will die – hell, Thor dies in the next issue! So, how is he immortal? It feels fairly obvious to me... but, we’ll leave that for next week, where I’ll discuss The Immortal Thor #10 and The Mighty Thor (2011) #13-17.
