Thor #475Issue(s): Thor #475 Review/plot: I will tell you all! Literally, all! I will *never* stop talking! Thor stops the Godlings from killing the soldiers, so they are imprisoned instead to be used as bargaining chips. The Godlings get sick of their name and ask to be called Godpack. They thought the original name made them sound like children, but it's not like the new name isn't also cheesy as hell. The High Evolutionary gets right to work creating more They're all made from the same busload of multi-cultural felons that the original Godpack were evolved from. Meanwhile, we see that the Vizier has located Thor at Wundagore for Odin. Also, the Man-Beast is training a contingent of New Men. Actually, they've also been renamed. They're now the Animutants. And Man-Beast is now Lord Karnivore. Imagine looking at all these Silver Age names and saying, "No, not corny enough!". Karnivore is running into some small difficulties, like trying to convince a guy evolved from a horse to rip his opponent's throat out. Karnivore kills poor Equius. He also shows Simbus, one of the New New Men that he recruited last arc, that he's got a secret weapon to use against Thor. Thor explores Wundagore and finds a crevice which opens into a cavern. And in the cavern he finds *groan* Donald Blake. Blake is frozen in the position he was in just as he was striking the stick on the boulder which transformed him into Thor for the first time. Thor thinks about this and remembers that Donald Blake was based on a "template", the implication being that this is therefore the real human Blake that Thor was switched with. But before he can think about it much further, the Lord Karnivore and the Animutants attack. It turns out Karnivore's secret weapon is Jane Foster Kincaid. Jane goes from begging Thor to do what Karnivore says to trying to sacrifice herself in a matter of three panels. Thor rescues Jane and brings her over to poor Don Blake, who has no idea what's going on. The Godpack handle the Animutants with relative ease, but the Man-Beast's attack on the High Evolutionary threatens to be more successful. Thor jumps in to help, but gets his costume torn up in the process. Karnivore manages to escape. It turns out that Karnivore was holding Jane's son, Jimmy, hostage. Jane reveals that she and her husband Keith Kincaid are currently separated. And poor Donald Blake is still stumbling around. But before dealing with that, Thor - encouraged by the acceptance he's gained from the Godpack after the fight - creates a new costume for himself by spinning his hammer. Yowza! So we'll have to wait until next issue to deal with Blake. I wouldn't put it past Roy Thomas to bring back Donald Blake for real, but we're going in an even more pointless and self-referential direction with all of this. With his Thor run, Roy Thomas seems to be regressing. With some small exceptions ("Urson-Wellz") we aren't seeing the weird pop culture-referencing humor that we saw in Thomas' Doctor Strange run, and things are definitely cornier than his West Coast Avengers run. There's nothing inherently wrong with doing a High Evolutionary plot in Thor, but we had one fairly recently with the DeFalco/Frenz run and it's a special kind of impressive that this run feels more retro than that. At least that run had the grandeur of Frenz's Kirby homage; M.C. Wyman's art manages to feel both retro and too 90s at the same time. And i don't know what's going on with the name changes - did someone think that the Animutants would bring in X-Men fans? Are we just embarrassed by Silver Age names like Man-Beast? Is the change from Godlings to Godpack meant to be character development?! Or is this all just being made up on the fly, with one bad idea quickly replacing the last? Quality Rating: D Chronological Placement Considerations: This should begin soon after last issue and Thor shouldn't appear elsewhere in between. Thor annual #19 takes place during this issue so i'll cover it directly after this. But next issue begins soon after the end of this one. Thor's costume changes during this issue, so any appearances of him in his old costume should appear prior to this. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (2): showCharacters Appearing: Anak, Bellam, Blitziana, Donald Blake Construct, High Evolutionary, Jane Foster, Jimmy Kincaid, Loga, Luminor, Man-Beast, Odin, Riger, Sif, Simbus, Tantro, Thor, Urson-Wellz, Vizier, Zefra CommentsBecause of this comic, the name Riger has been my go-to name for RPG characters for 20+ years. Posted by: Bonez | February 19, 2018 5:06 PM More on the Don Blake mess later but the point of the "template" thing was Blake was modeled after Keith Kincaid, as revealed in Thor 415. I don't know why Roy assumed it meant there was a real human Don Blake. Posted by: Michael | February 19, 2018 8:41 PM I can't see someone named "Equius" without thinking of a weird creepy alien guy with weird domination fetishes and a thing for horse porn. Posted by: Morgan Wick | February 19, 2018 10:47 PM Long time listener, first time caller here. I've never been compelled to post anything because I can't offer the often incredibly insightful, helpful comments offered by other visitors to this site, but... My god; Thor's mid-90's costume. I had forgotten all about it. I'm not sure I could pick a better example of Marvel's desperate Image-esque period than this comic. The cross hatching, the Liefeldian art, the shiny new costume, the Mr. Olympia-shaming physique, the... knee pads? 9-year old me ate this stuff up. Posted by: Kubik | February 20, 2018 5:01 PM Kubik, I think that an even worse costume for Thor will be appearing not too long from these issues, shortly before Onslaught... Posted by: Piotr W | February 20, 2018 5:56 PM I'm afraid I disagree, Piotr W; I find that both Deodato costumes, while by no means perfect (the half-cowled one takes away the Asgard-ness), are better than this one. Posted by: DAMartin | February 22, 2018 11:59 AM Jane Foster is not listed as a character appearing, or is that not the real Jane? Posted by: Tuomas | February 23, 2018 2:33 AM It's really her. Thanks Tuomas. Posted by: fnord12 | February 23, 2018 10:56 AM Comments are now closed. |
|||||||||
SuperMegaMonkey home | Comics Chronology home |