Category Thor: God of Thunder

Jun 19 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 9

thor 9

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 9, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Shelby: Religion, mythology, and fantasy: all three have slightly different connotations. Religion refers to a set of beliefs about where we came from and where we’ll end up, generally involving some sort of god(s) and a moral code. My rural Wisconsin, Lutheran upbringing means I tend to default to the Christian God, Three in One, etc., etc. Mythology is more folkloric, a collection stories about heroes and gods: the stories that fuel all religions, but a term often ascribed to the religion of the other. As in, “my beliefs are religion, yours are merely myths.” Fantasy is the imagination that fuels the myths, the crazy daydream that dreamed up the stories in the first place. Personally, I believe it’s the myth, the story, that ties these three together: the imagination creates the story, and the story fosters belief. No where is the connections between religion, mythology, and fantasy more apparent than in Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder.

Continue reading →

May 10 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 8

Thor 8

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 8, originally released May 8th, 2013.

Patrick: I’ve got a story I like to tell about the end of my tequilla renaissance. Shelby and Taylor were there, they can tell you that I made some bad decisions that evening where booze was concerned. I’ll spare you all the theatricality of it, but highlights include: leading my friends in an incoherent late-night jam of Mario Bros. music in our apartment building; crying naked in the bathroom; and vomiting in the bed. What can I say – I’m a classy guy. If only I’d been accompanied by two more-experienced versions of myself-from-the-future, maybe I could have made less impulsive decisions that night. Maybe. Let’s see how that same line of thinking applies to Thor. Continue reading →

Apr 16 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 7

thor 7

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Lorenzo are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 7, originally released April 10th, 2013.

Patrick: We like our superheroes powerful. Even someone like Batman, who we like to think of as human — and therefore vulnerable — but even Bruce Wayne has a secret power: he always wins. So, like, what can any writer possibly throw at these characters to actually challenge them? End of the world? Piece of cake! Thor: God of Thunder has constructed a villain whose sole purpose is to Kill All The Gods. Even that’s not enough, so the God Butcher also has the ability to travel indiscriminately throughout time, simultaneously purposing resources from the past and attacking heroes while they were vulnerable. Fortunately, the deck is also stacked in the opposite direction as Thor teams up with himself for some hilariously grandiose heroics.

Continue reading →

Mar 19 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 6

Alternating Currents: Thor 6, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 6, originally released March 13th, 2013.

Drew:  As a child, it seemed impossibly unfair to me that we’re more or less born into our religious beliefs — if there was one right way, how could so many people be consigned to hell simply by luck of birth? As a precocious skeptic, this just confirmed that religion was nothing more than an arbitrary (but comforting) tradition, practiced differently by everyone — like the way your family prepares stuffing on Thanksgiving, or the particular Monopoly house rules you grew up with. Of course, the wrinkle in that attitude comes when somebody does reject their parents’ religious beliefs (or stuffing recipes, house rules, political practices, etc), actively replacing them with something they deem superior. That wrinkle gets even wrinklier when that generation has their own kids — do the parents teach their beliefs as gospel, or foster the sense of skepticism that led to them changing their beliefs in the first place? It’s a daunting, complex subject, but it’s exactly where Jason Aaron sets his sights as he explores Gorr’s origin in Thor 6. Continue reading →

Jan 16 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 4

 

Today, Jack and Patrick are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 4, originally released January 9, 2013.

Jack: I’d like to start by saying that I knew a guy named Thor once. He was (and probably continues to be) a gentle, mild-mannered Army logistician of short stature, broad shoulders, and profoundly Scandinavian heritage. Most of his behaviors were marked by a kind of good-natured exhaustion and an uncomplicated gratitude for peace and merry-making. It was from him that I first learned the Ben Franklinism, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” I mention this not because it has any particular relevance to this issue of Thor, but because I am a creature of anthropocentric narratives; I require a certain amount of character development before I can engage a story, and it has become clear to me that in this case I will only get that character development if I bring it to the table myself, because Jason Aaron isn’t going to do it for me.  I don’t really have a good grasp on who or what any of these characters are, both literally (I was never good on Norse mythology) and philosophically (what is a god?). I don’t much understand why any of them do the things they do, or what that has to do with the nature of the consciousnesses that I’m likely to encounter. That’s a particular and personal fixation of mine on storytelling, and I recognize it’s not everybody’s. In other regards, the craftsmanship is more than adequate. Continue reading →

Jan 2 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 1-3

thor 1-3

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 1-3, originally released November 14th, November 28th, and December 19th, 2012.

Shelby: We often praise Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman for its creative inclusion of the Greek pantheon in the cast of characters. In that universe, the gods are real, tangible beings who walk among the people, but we don’t see them doing much of anything. As far as I can remember, the only god in Wonder Woman we see actually invoked to do his job is Eros; most of the time, the rest of the gods scheme and plot to get what they want. Thor is different; he fights at the side of the Vikings and answers the prayers of those who need his aid. Writer Jason Aaron takes it one step further; for every weird and wacky universe Marvel has got, Aaron gives us a new set of real, tangible gods for it. He then asks the question, “If the gods are real, why can’t they be killed? What would happen to these civilizations if all their gods were dead?” It’s a heady question to be sure, and one that Thor has to face as he confronts the God Butcher at three distinct points in his life.

Continue reading →