"Thor: Reborn from Ragnarok"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Thor: Reborn from Ragnarok” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Thor was the Norse God of Thunder. He wielded the magic hammer Mjolnir which only Thor or those truly worthy could lift. He was a prince of the mystic realm Asgard. He was a member of the superhero team the Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes. But Ragnarok occurred, and Asgard was destroyed, and all the Norse Gods were dead.

            Mjolnir, however, survived the destruction of Asgard and fell to Midgard (Earth, as we mere mortals know it), and landed in Broxton, Oklahoma. The villainous Doctor Victor Von Doom had been stranded in Hell, but when Mjolnir fell to Earth, it created a void that allowed him to escape. Six months later, he found its location. Believing he was worthy of its power since it released him from Hell, Doctor Doom and his army of Doombots launched an assault on the base the United States government had built to protect Mjolnir. The military called in the superhero team the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom’s sworn enemies. The Fantastic Four battled Doctor Doom and his Doombots but were unable to stop Doctor Doom from reaching Mjolnir. Doctor Doom attempted to lift Mjolnir, but the hammer did not deem him worthy. It did, however, draw the attention of Doctor Donald Blake, Thor’s former human host, alerting him to the location of the weapon that allowed the transformation between his mortal form and that of the God of thunder. Blake traveled to Broxton and lifted Mjolnir and Thor was reborn.

            Blake and Thor decided to set roots in Broxton, so Blake booked a room at the Sooner Hotel. Thor then went out to the desert and used the magic of Mjolnir to summon and recreate Asgard. Local law enforcement was not happy with Thor, building land on private property, so Thor lifted this new Asgard to levitate above the ground. To satisfy the landowner, Thor allowed him to take from Asgard’s treasure vault, and Thor was given permission to keep Asgard in its new location in Oklahoma. Thor then realized that the other Asgardians were also on Midgard in the bodies of mere mortals, just waiting to be reawakened to the fact that they were Asgardians and restored to their true selves, and Thor began his quest to bring them back.

            Thor felt a calling to New Orleans, which had recently been devastated by a hurricane. Tony Stark/Iron Man arrived to greet Thor. The superheroes had just recently fought a Civil War over the Superhuman Registration Act. During Thor’s absence, the heroes had created a cyborg clone of Thor that had killed the superhero Goliath. Iron Man, who had been appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and in charge of Superhuman Registration, had come to ask Thor to register. Outraged by both Iron Man’s demand of registration and creation of an out of control copy that would commit such a heinous act as murder, Thor battled Iron Man. Iron Man relented to allow Asgard its status as a separate entity from the United States, and thus give Thor and any Asgardians diplomatic immunity, meaning they would not have to register. Thor then found the mortal form who had been hosting Heimdall and restored him back to his true self.

            Doctor Blake was called on a Doctors Without Borders mission to a refugee camp in Africa. While treating patients, there was an attack, and Thor’s intervention was needed. Afte protecting the refugees, Thor discovered the Warriors Three, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun, and restored them to their true selves.

            Heimdall informed Thor that the Asgardians in mortal form were disappearing, so Thor went on a quest to discover the source of this anomaly. Thor also was in search of his love, the Lady Sif, who as yet had not been located. Thor found that the Asgardian weapon the Destroyer had been holding mortal Asgardians hostage. The Destroyer needs a host to function, and the host was Balder the Brave, who had temporarily been corrupted, but Thor freed him and returned him to his right mind. Thor also discovered his adopted brother Loki, the God of mischief, and often his sworn enemy, who now inhabited a female form and wished to repent for his/her past transgressions and do right by Thor, and Thor decided to give Loki his trust. But Loki had been in contact with Doctor Doom, planning to bring the Asgardians to Doctor Doom’s country of Latveria behind Thor’s back.

            Thor flew to space and used all of the Odinpower in an attempt to reawaken every Asgardian still lost on Earth. In a weakened state and needing to replenish his strength, Thor entered the Odinsleep. Thor and Donald Blake were separated. Blake decided to search for Sif. Sif had once inhabited the mortal form of Jane Foster, so Blake went to have a chat with her and see if Sif was once again in Jane’s mortal body. Meanwhile, in the Odinsleep, Thor found his father Odin locked in perpetual battle with the monster Surtur, a battle that cycled over and over again for all eternity. Thor learned that Odin’s father Bor had been defeated by a sorcerer, turned into living snow, and that Odin had the power to recall his father, but chose not to. Bor’s spirit haunted Odin and said he would only leave Odin if he killed another father and took his son in as his own. At the same time, Blake found Jane Foster had been working in New York as an oncologist and discovered she was not hosting Sif. Unbeknownst to all but Loki, Sif was in the body of one of Jane’s cancer patients. Blake left New York and Thor left the Odinsleep.

            Loki revealed to Balder that he was a son of Odin. Balder’s death was prophesied to bring about Ragnarok, so to prevent the event from happening, his true parentage had been kept from him by Odin and Thor. Balder was then publicly coronated as a prince of Asgard.

            Thor traveled to Earth on the anniversary of the death of his friend and fellow Avenger Steve Rogers/Captain America and summoned the spirit of his comrade. He then caused a minute-long media blackout over the entire world at the exact time of his ally’s death, giving a minute of silence in honor of the death of a hero.

            Loki went to Hela, Goddess of death, to resume her male form, travel through time, and cause a mischievous act that forever changed the lives of Bor, Odin, and himself.

            Loki summoned Bor and used her magic to corrupt him into seeing the world in a demonic form. Bor attacked New York City, and Jane Foster called Donald Blake to bring Thor in to stop him. Bor discovered Odin was dead, and believing Thor had killed him, attacked Thor. Thor was unaware of whom he was battling. He called for the aid of the Avengers, but the official Avengers roster was currently being led by Norman Osborn/Iron Patriot, and not the allies Thor was expecting. The outcome of this battle had a terrible consequence for Thor, and had a devastating impact on him and Asgard for all time.

            Loki’s conspiring with Doctor Doom began to come to fruition as she was getting exactly what she wanted.

            Okay, now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the Tim Cubbin part. So, first off, I’ve read the first two issues in this book dozens of times, we’re talking close to a hundred times, if not that or more. It was part of the Road to Civil War, which I’ve read a lot, so I knew all that part already. That said, after that, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Honestly, at the time of publication between 2006-2009, I was either not a reader of Thor or not a reader of comics at all. And I have to say, I was pleased by this book. And I find that highly unusual, since there wasn’t much of a plot. But I found the content itself to be entertaining. I enjoyed what was actually there. J. Michael Straczynski, the writer, combined action with a touch of humor, and I liked that. There were plenty of good comedic moments, my favorite being the landowner raiding the Asgard treasure vault, and Thor being told he couldn’t build land on the ground, so his response was to levitate the new Asgard. I also thought it was funny with Loki being reincarnated as a woman. I enjoyed the confrontation with Iron Man over the Thor clone and the Superhuman Registration Act, I thought the outcome was brilliant. There were plenty of good plot twists, which of course I can’t tell you, but the stories with Bor were just such surprises I didn’t see coming, so my hats off to Straczynski for coming up with such good endings. (Now, of course, when I review the next volume, you will probably get a spoiler of the ending of this book, so reader beware.) And I loved the art in this graphic novel. I thought Olivier Coipel did an excellent job with the penciling, I really appreciated the work he did on this book. The quality of the artwork was top notch, just brilliant. All-in-all, I thought this was an excellent book.

            Now, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you have been over this before, I know I’ve been over this about fifty times by now, but I have to do it again for you newbs, so listen up. When I say accessibility, I mean if it’s possible to just pick up this book if you’ve somehow never heard of Thor before, or if you’ve heard the name Thor but don’t know anything about him, of if you’ve seen the movies or cartoons and think you know Thor, or if you’ve at any point been a reader of comics with Thor in them. This book makes me feel something I don’t think I’ve ever felt before about a graphic novel; I feel like it’s easier to pick up this book and read it if you know nothing about Thor more so than if you’ve seen the movies or cartoons. I feel this way because of the Donald Blake/Thor relationship. If you’ve only ever seen Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ve never seen Donald Blake aside from the brief reference of the nametag on the scrubs that Jane Foster mentions belonged to her ex-boyfriend. This hurts the understanding of this book to an MCU/non-comic fan. Thor having a mortal alter-ego was something the MCU never did, Thor just lost his powers because he wasn’t worthy, so this is quite different. I feel even readers of the comics from certain time periods might not get the reference either. Donald Blake goes back to the early days of Thor to the 1960s and I’m not sure how much they used him after a certain period, but Donald Blake seems to have vanished into the ether at certain points and totally forgotten, so even some comic readers won’t know Donald Blake. Heck, when I read the Fantastic Four Road to Civil War storyline back in 2006, I didn’t get the reference of D.B. on the backpack. He’s just not a well-known character, so knowing Thor outside of this book but not knowing Donald Blake is damaging to the entertainment value of this book. That said, I feel like this is an accessible book to new readers. I feel like it’s self-explanatory. It does have slight connections to Civil War, so knowing that does help, understanding the Superhuman Registration Act, the Thor clone killing Goliath, and Tony Stark being appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. are somewhat expected, but if you’re reading this review, I’ve just told you, so that solves your problem right there. It also does have a story featuring the Dark Avengers, which is the one part that is not self-explanatory, so not knowing about them is a little difficult towards reading this book. But other than that, I feel like if you’ve never read a Thor comic before and want to start, this is a good jump on point. It is Vol. 1, it is a fresh start, it’s a new series, a new direction, a new storyline, so I feel like this is a good entry point for a new reader. You just must accept Donald Blake first, so if you’re jaded by the MCU, you’ll have to work past that, but I don’t think it’s too difficult.

            Okay, so I know I’ve been going on for quite a while now, so you just want me to get to my main point at this moment in time: my numeric score. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I rate it on a scale of one to ten. One means this book was terrible and not worth reading at all, ten means this book is worth reading every time I have nothing else to do. So, you can guess this score is going to be high. I do have to say this is a GRAPHIC novel, so I can’t just rate this book based on the story, I must take the art into consideration, too. But that’s not a problem because I thought the art was stellar, so that really helps the score. So, if I take everything, all cards on the table, everything in this book, the story, and the art, I will give this book… an eight! This was an enjoyable book, but I can’t give it any higher than that because the plot was just a little weak, but if there were more of a story, I would have given this book a nine. Still, an eight is pretty darn good.

            Next, I’m going to tell you if I recommend this book, and to whom I recommend this book to, if I do so recommend it. So, yes, I recommend this book, but it does come with a caveat. If you have a preconceived notion of Thor, I do give caution. I’m not saying not to read it, I’m telling anyone to read it, but I’m telling you to leave what you think you know about Thor at the door if you’ve never read a Thor comic before. Otherwise, I’d say that, yes, I would say you should read this book, absolutely, 100% yes.

            Okay, so I’ve been going on for a long time now, so I’m just going to try to wrap this up as quickly as possible. I write lots of reviews, I’ve done dozens of them, you can expect a new one in less than a month from now. I also write short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content for you to read on this blog, if you choose. I post very frequently, I buy lots of graphic novels and review them all, so you can expect to see a lot from me. Well, I think that’s all I have to say for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!