Thor #206-207Issue(s): Thor #206, Thor #207 Review/plot: Meanwhile, Tom Fagan helps out a wandering stranger with an Asgardian accent who turns out to be Loki. Also, Karnilla and Balder continue to pine for each other. Asgardians wear such awesome hats. Thor's fight with the Absorbing Man takes him to Rutland, Vermont, during the Halloween festival... ...so we also check in on the Marvel creators that we recently saw in Amazing Adventures #16 (and, as with that issue, their caricatures are drawn by Marie Severin). I guess we're seeing an improvement with Sif. Lately, Hildegarde has to scold her to get into battle, but in issue #207 she holds Sif back so Thor can fight alone. I guess it makes sense; you don't want to go up against the Absorbing Man with just a sword. The Absorbing Man absorbs Mjolnir at one point, but winds up knocking himself out with its power. Thor eventually tricks the Absorbing Man into absorbing water and dissipating. But then Loki arrives, wielding his flaming sword. Loki actually has Thor on the ropes, and Karnilla shows up to make a deal with Sif. If Sif will help Karnilla find Balder, she'll help with Loki. Sif eventually agrees, and Karnilla summons a storm that Thor can control (he didn't have his hammer, which is why i guess he couldn't just summon the storm on his own). A lightning bolt destroys Loki's sword and blinds him. Loki winds up falling off a cliff... ...and Sif and Karnilla disappear. I feel like Conway is just going through the motions a bit. A final showdown with Loki was needed after all of the recent mega-epics. But if it wasn't for the antics of the bullpen and the Vermont Halloween stuff (and your mileage on that sort of stuff may vary), the issues would be very dry. John Buscema's art is always nice, as is an Absorbing Man fight... ...but this series has lost its oomph. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: Thor is still banished on Earth as punishment for yelling at his father when Odin risked the lives of countless Earthfolk in Thor #203. This takes place during Avengers #105-108, as does Thor's appearance in Marvel Team-Up #7. The Marvel bullpen appear in Amazing Adventures #16 during the same night as this story. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (6): show 1972 / Box 7 / EiC: Roy Thomas CommentsGerry Conway gave us "Power Girl" at DC three years later. People who don't like huge-boobed superheroines have never forgiven him(or Wally Wood, but he's been dead for a long time...) Surprisingly, Marvel didn't even try to disguise Superman or Batman here. Posted by: Mark Drummond | March 30, 2013 4:12 PM Near the end of #207, a car gets stolen, and supposedly that car theft leads into DC's Justice League of America #103. The car thief was a JLA villain named Felix Faust, who was supposed to be working with Loki but bailed on him. Posted by: Mark Drummond | September 6, 2013 3:48 PM I added a scan of the car scene (but i didn't add Felix Faust as a Character Appearing). Posted by: fnord12 | September 7, 2013 10:08 AM Its too bad that Conway didn't create Powergirl for marvel instead of DC. Marvel has a general lack of "Good girl" type superstrong superwomen and DC already had Supergirl. Posted by: kveto | November 2, 2017 11:25 PM Power Girl was of course the Earth-2 (or retro-Golden Age) version of Supergirl. At DC. All of that's been endlessly revised since Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I hardly know or care much anymore. Speaking of multiple title crossovers, the Marvel/DC crossover at Rutland Vermont is cute but seems terribly self-indulgent, and it's literally sucking the life out of these stories by dominating the writers and artists time with something that's not really related to the title characters, whose own stories are being neglected and twisted out of shape for crossover purposes. It's worse in a way than the endless Marvel (and DC) intra-company crossover "events" yet to come, starting with Secret Wars and continuing ad nauseum afterwards. Posted by: Holt | January 20, 2018 8:35 AM Must be a pretty balmy Halloween up in Rutland for Roy Thomas to be running around in just a tank top. (And, I assume, pants.) Roy's from Missouri, no hardy Northman he, after all. But even SuperGlynis is better covered up. Perhaps Conway was predicting global warming, decades ahead of its time? Posted by: Dan Spector | March 18, 2018 11:48 PM Comments are now closed. |
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