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Simonson's Thor run is the masterpiece, the colossus of his lifetime's work. It's the one Marvel project that consistently manages to capture the grandiose, energetic madness of Jack Kirby. There's no issue without at least two subplots burbling away, and there's always more hammer-swinging action around the corner.
I had the first issue of this run when I was a kid. The cover alone announces Simonson's intentions; some weird alien horseheaded thing wearing Thor's outfit, throwing his hammer and shattering the logo. The story inside was no less memorable, even though I wasn't familiar with Thor. I still remember the final panel, Beta Ray Bill with Thor's hammer and all its power, Donald Blake a wreck of a man in the rain, and wondering what could possibly happen. The breaking of status quos, along with the introduction of Viking mythology and a keen sense of the character's own history, became the keynotes of the run. Ragnarok happened early on. It was a great story, built up to with increasing acceleration, which threw everything into the mix and managed to make the Norse pantheon cosmic and exciting again, and left Asgard in a state of flux which powered many a story.
Pick up any issue of the run and you'll get a good idea of why it's so revered. The entire thing hangs together as one long saga but no individual story last more than four issues, even if it's the end of the world. Dragons jostle with high-tech bank robbers. Skurge the Executioner fights the Hordes of Hel with a pair of assault rifles. There's a mix of Marvel and myth that feels unique, even if it is where the character originally came from. And the art is always fantastic, kinetic, powerful. There's a drop in quality toward the end of the run when Sal Buscema takes over but the finale is stunning, an epic battle with the Midgard Serpent drawn by Simonson again and a great couple of issues bringing back a long-forgotten character for a clever finale. Along the way Thor gets a beard and armour and Asgard gets a new ruler. It was, more than anything, this willingness to change and move forward that recalled Kirby, who was never afraid to change everything for his characters if it made for a good story.
Simonson stopped drawing Thor because he started drawing X-Factor instead, written at the time by his wife Louise. It was kind of soapy, as all X-titles are, and I've not read it since I was a kid but the art kept me buying it monthly. Apocalypse's attack on New York in Fall Of The Mutants was pretty epic. He wrote and drew a Fantastic Four run which was quite fun but leant too heavily on established continuity, at least in the issues I have.
And Orion, which should have been another Thor with its blend of cosmic fun and Kirby mythology, misfired for me. Parts of it were fun but it never really connected, possibly because the title character was an asshole. I persevered for 14 issues if memory serves and it was cancelled not long after. Sometimes you can't go home again.
I'd love to see him do the kind of stuff P. Craig Russell does, illustrating operas and sagas which lend themselves to an epic approach. I know he did some Michael Moorcock stuff. Something which suits his grasp of scale would be perfect. |
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