Secret Invasion: Thor...

[fajrdrako]

Somewhere alongside my childhood passions for Nick Fury and Reed Richards, there was a love of Thor in Journey Into Mystery. The Norse gods fascinated me - all that pseudo-medieval drama, archaisms, and a flying hammer. Even though I didn't usually like the 'meek' alter egos of some superheroes, Don Blake also fascinated and delighted me.

But then the comic got boring, I stopped reading it, and really haven't picked up Thor since I was in my early teens. It didn't help that Asgard never impressed me after the Jack Kirby days, in spite of some good scenes by Bill Sienkiewicz with Valkyrie in New Mutants. I always thought that the Marvel writers had no idea what to do with Thor. How do you update a character tied to a culture that's been gone for a thousand years?

And then there's the recent Secret Invasion: Thor by Matt Fraction and Doug Braithwaite, which features Thor and the Asgardians I only picked it up now because Matt Fraction has delighted me so much with his current brilliant run on Invincible Iron Man. And with Thor - well, he didn't let the side down. Thor must be an awful character to write, all that pomposity and posturing, "Have at thee, villain" dialogue - and it isn't optional: if Thor talked like Spider-Man, the character wouldn't work at all. Or would simply be an entirely different character. It's the old-fashioned epic nature of Thor that makes him different, and makes him delectable.

Delectable again in the hands of Matt Fraction. That man is a miracle-worker. It wasn't so much the plot that was impressive, but the themes, and the juxtaposition of storylines: Doctor Don Blake delivers a baby on Earth while Asgard, with Beta Ray Bill, fights the Skrulls. It's all full of the old heroism and self-sacrifice that I love so much. And what fun to see Beta Ray Bill again, felled by injury and yet rising to the occasion. I loved the way Thor called him "brother".

Yup, Fraction and Braithwaite between them caught just the right note. Now I want more.