Thor in the 1980s

And so we get into the in 1980s, which had some of the most memorable Thor stories of all time. However, they are in the middle of a reverse shit sandwich. There is a lot of crap before and after those really good stories. Spoilers: I’m talking about Walt Simonson’s run on the book.

Before we get to that goodness, we first have to talk about the tail end of Roy Thomas’ run on the series. Thomas picked up the book in the late 70s. Along with artist Keith Pollard, he was tasked with incorporating Jack Kirby’s Eternals into the Marvel Universe and explain their place in a world that has real live gods running around and why some of these Eternals have similar, if dubiously spelled, names (other than the fact that the Eternals were not very original). Unfortunately, this story arc suffers from too much going on all at once. It seems like this was a bit of a vanity project for Thomas, who spends more of the 27 issue “Eternals Saga” story to explain why the Asgardians of the Marvel Universe are different than the Aesir of Viking mythology. It detours into a bizarre adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. All of this a round about way to explain the relationship between the various religious pantheons of Earth to the Celestials and, by extension, the Eternals. This also tied up some of the luke warm plot threads of the last decade, specifically the creation of the Young Gods. The whole point of them was to prove to the Celestials that humanity was worthy of continued existence. It’s all a busy mess and the Young Gods, who were being foisted as a new pantheon of god-like superheroes in the Marvel Universe have since been relegated to minor parts in other storylines thereafter and mostly forgotten.

This story arc explains that the Asgardians have gone through a cycle of death and rebirth and that’s why things are so different from mythology. Looking back at it, I think people were just reading way to much into stories that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were adapted in a freewheeling fashion. The problem with this story arc though is the fact that many later writers — namely Walt Simonson — would refute the claims made by Odin’s eye, which became sentient and divulged these secrets to Thor. This has made the true origin of the Asgardians and their actual pre-history very murky in future stories. Which I guess that’s fine. Thomas’ idea of Ragnarok cycles wouldn’t be revisted again until the 90s and 2000s, particularly when Thor became a hit in the movie theaters. That said, it’s a lot to take in all at once.

Still, Thomas stopped short of issue #299, with issue #300 being finished up by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Not sure why that is, but it’s been documented that Thomas had issues with then Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, which led to Thomas jumping ship and moving over to DC Comics. Not sure if this was the reason for Gruenwald and Macchio wrapping things up, but the 300th issue does read like someone came in to clean up shop and wrap up a story that seemed to be spiraling out of control.

This story arc also tries to cram in almost every other pantheon of gods, I guess the idea being that if the Asgardians and Olympians exist in the Marvel Universe, then so should everyone else. As I’ve said before, I find that this is the product of lazy writing. Instead of coming up with new characters or stories, writers will just pluck from mythology because it’s all public domain. Most of these pantheon of gods, like the Young Gods, would make tiny appearances and do a whole lot of fuck all in later years. The number of gods who make an impact in the Marvel Universe hereafter that aren’t either Asgardian or Olympian can be counted on one hand.

It’s interesting to note that issue #293 reveals that the last Ragnarok happened on the birthday of Jesus Christ. To me, this is amusing as Marvel tends to shy away from Christianity when it comes to personifying the characters from the Bible in a way they do other religious characters. This is famously on display in an earlier Ghost Rider story where editorial re-writes had a character who was clearly Jesus be revealed as the devil in disguise. You never really see Yahweh or Jesus depicted in the same way as Thor and usually Christian characters are often replaced with characters unique to the Marvel Universe, like Mephisto and the One Above All. This is probably so they don’t earn the ire of religious groups that are so prevalent in the United States. Still, it leads to endlessly pointless debates on if Mephisto and the One Above All are the devil and god respectively and further endlessly pointless debates on if they are the most powerful in the Marvel Universe. Basically, what I’m saying here is that people who come at fiction with their religious beliefs are the shittiest fans on the planet and should be shut down as hard as possible. You’re wasting everyone’s time, just stop it. You want to preach about God being more powerful than Odin, do it in church, not on a comic book forum you wastrel, but I digress.

Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio continue as writers on the book (with the exception of issue #303) continue writing until issue #308 when Doug Moench (who wrote issue #303) takes over. Gruenwald and Macchio continue on writing the Tales of Asgard back-up stories until issue #315 when these back-up are dropped again.

This is an interesting period of time as, for most of the last decade, Thor’s alter-ego of Don Blake was seldom seen and after the Celestial story arc the rest of the Asgardians had been largely absent from the book. None of them played a very big role since Roy Thomas’ Ragnarok saga from issue #273-278. So a lot of this period was re-establishing the status quo but also doing something with the rest of the cast. Some of this doesn’t really stick. The return of the Tales of Asgard back-up stories allowed the writers to pick up on characters who were impacted from the last story line they were involved in — namely Loki being punished for his part in Ragnarok and Balder, who spent this whole time hovering between life and death. While Loki’s punishment proves short-lived and he quickly returns to form, Balder is fundamentally changed by his experience. Experiencing the torment of the afterlife made his hair go white and he renounces his warrior ways to become a full on pacifist. This leads to Balder finally rejecting Karnilla and finding new love from a woman named Nanna. When Karnilla tries to force Balder into marrying her, Nanna kills herself to prevent the wedding from happening. The changes in Balder’s life won’t really get too much exploration here but it will play a major part in many of the story arcs from Walt Simonson’s run a few years later.

Thor on the other hand, well after so many plot heavy stories from the last decade, would have his part of the book going a little lighter on content. It explores his character as well as using the thunder god to make social commentary. For example, Doug Moench’s first story in issue #303 has Thor protecting a church that is being targeted for demolition by the mob. It focuses on a priest named Father Cosa who is having a crisis of faith because of all his troubles to keep his small church afloat. When Thor saves the day it renews the faith. I suppose it is a commentary what role Christian faith has in a universe where Norse gods are walking around, or something, but I feel the story only half heartedly explores the idea. This is probably because Marvel of the whole arm’s length attitude Marvel has with Christianity. They’ve been burned by the church during the whole Seduction of the Innocent/Comics Code witch hunt of the 1950s not even 30 years earlier, I’m they didn’t want to kick a sleeping dog.

Issue #304 (by Gruenwald and Macchio) features a story where Thor saves an old woman who almost gets run down by a taxi cab. She thanks him but tells him that nobody would have missed her since she has no family. Thor goes on about how every life is important and the woman goes on to get killed when Thor later battles the Wrecking Crew. Again, the idea of life always having value is a powerful story idea but it falls kind of short when the character is killed off 20 pages later.

Issue #305-306 make an effort to wrap up a long dangling plot thread about Firelord, who had been slumming it on Earth since his first appearance. In it the Air-Walker is revived and we learn about both his and Firelord’s origins and relationship and how both men came to be Heralds of Galactus. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it seems like Gruenwald and Macchio were implying that Firelord and Air-Walker were gay. The idea of Firelord being gay is really on the nose, but you have to remember this comes at a time when talking about homosexuality in comics was not done. It’s not that outlandish an idea characters were implied to be gay, such as Jacob Fury in Defenders #46-50 and later the character Northstar in Alpha Flight #7-8. I can’t find anywhere that confirms this was hinted at further in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #20 by Steve Englehart but this has not been explored overly much. A later retelling of Firelord’s origins in Uncanny Origins reveals that he had a female lover in the past so one could assume that Firelord is bisexual. But again, nothing official has ever been said one way or the other. If you fancy reading these sorts of things into characters I don’t see why you couldn’t think he was gay or bisexual or whatever, is what I’m saying.

Issue #307 is a forgettable tale about Thor fighting some kind of dream demon, while issue #308 has him fighting a Snow Giant during a blizzard, another uninteresting story.

Issue #309 is a fill in issue by Bill Mantlo that was probably a commentary on slumlords that were common in New York City at the time. Back in those days it wasn’t uncommon that a property owner would burn down a building to vacate tenants and redevelop the land and rent property at a higher mark-up. Back in the days before Reno-victions, insurance fraud was the go-to choice for greedy property owners. This story’s serious subject is somewhat dimished by the fact that the villains drive a rocket power car and Thor saves the day with some help from a cat. Issue #310 is what will become a recurring use of Mephisto in this era of comics wherein he usually pits himself against a virtuous hero to prove that his corruption was stronger than a hero’s inspiration to others. This is about as close as Marvel gets to a Jesus vs the Devil kind of story. Like the other commentaries from this era it doesn’t do much heavy lifting and doesn’t really go very deep in the concept that its trying to talk about.

Issue #311 is an entirely different matter. In this story, an unarmed black man is shot by the police which leads to a protest against police brutality outside the clinic where Don Blake is performing emergency surgery to try and save the kid’s life. What’s really depressing is that this story is still relevant today, more so than ever in light of the George Floyd protests of the past year. It was a problem back when this story was written and it is still a problem — some might argue a worse one — now. This story, however, tries to play devil’s advocate by presenting the officer who shoots young Jimmy instantly regretting it and openly admits that he made a terrible mistake. I’m left to wonder if this plot device was necessary for the CAC to approve such a story (as back then you couldn’t paint law enforcement in a negative light and shooting an innocent person for no reason wouldn’t have been approved) It also tries to make some commentary on how both sides of a protest could use a personal tragedy to justify an escalation of violence. See, in this story we learn that Jimmy has a heart problem and the protestors and the police are too busy clashing with one another for anyone to listen to the information that could have saved Jimmy’s life. When Jimmy dies and the protestors try to use this as an excuse to continue rioting she gets deeply upset that they are taking advantage of her loss. It’s a real mixed bag of ideas and probably one of Moench’s better social commentaries, probably because it is still relevant. I find it interesting that the cop who shot Jimmy is written in such a way where he admits he made a terrible mistake that he instantly regrets. Perhaps this is an aspect to a police shooting that often gets lost in the sensationalist headlines, Black Lives Matters protests, and bullshit Thin Blue Line garbage that drowns out all else. Not sure if we can always be sympathetic to a cop in this situation, it’s not really for me to say, I’m a white guy and I won’t ever come close to experiencing this kind of thing in my life so I don’t really feel its my place to comment on something like that. At any rate, it’s a story that is still relevant today and there are many angles to be discussed in reading it.

However, after this issue any attempt at social commentary is dropped to focus on more fantastical stories. Also the focus on grounding Thor to Earth and reforming his civilian identity of Donald Blake gets shuffled to the sidelines once again as Thor battles alien creatures, angry gods, and time spanning serial killers. Doug Moench tries to establish a life for Thor, but he doesn’t really form a lasting cast of mortal supporting characters that would help ground Thor’s other identity. Just when we’re getting used to Don Blake working out of a clinic on the West Side of New York, he decides to relocate to Chicago after the events of issue #319. This leads to the current supporting cast of characters getting dropped. The only supporting characters this leaves Thor with are his fellow Asgardians which is always counter productive to try and find a use for Don Blake. After 20 years of this double identity nonsense and it just starts wearing thin. Moench doesn’t really give us a whole lot of spectacular stories.

This entire time, Keith Pollard continued on as artist for the book. His artwork remained consistent month after month thoughout this entire period. There are a few fill-in issues here and there by others artists such as Rick Leonardi (issue #309) and the legendary Gil Kane (issue #318).

Also during this period Annual #9 came out, written by Chris Claremont with art by Luke McDonnell. The art is kind of sloppy and I don’t know if that’s because of McDonnell or because it was inked by Vince Colletta, who is infamous for his rush work. The story is about Odin and Dormammu engaging in a chess match to determine the balance between order and chaos in the universe. It’s also used to remind readers that Sif was still merged with Jane Foster at this point, something that was brought up on the odd occasion but nobody was really doing anything to resolve the lingering questions about how that worked. This will be the last time we see Jane until Alan Zelenetz ties up this plot thread in issues #334-335, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The tail end of Doug Moench’s run is not all that memorable. There are some odd choices, such as the story in issue #318 where Thor literally fights stone heads on Easter Island and issue #319 introducing the Zaniac. A one off villian that we will later learn is an evil entity that possesses people, turning them into serial killers who apparently is why Jack the Ripper was a thing. I’d say one of Doug’s worst offerings is issue #320-322 which introduces the Menagerie, a troupe of anthropomorphic animals added to the series to give Thor nothing but grief. By this point there were no shortage of these types of characters in the Marvel Universe from the High Evolutionary’s New Men, Woodgod and the Changlings, the animal people of Pangea, and the Cat-People that created Tigra. There were a lot of animal men running around. Adding an entirely new set of similar characters is highly derivative and the story isn’t the slightest bit interesting.

Doug would pair Thor against Mephisto one more time in issues #324-325, introduce a new Red Scarab in issue #326, and in the final issue of his run he gave us the incredibly dated video-game themed villain Megatak in issue #328. Alan Kupperberg took over as artist in issue #321 and it’s… not really all that different than Pollard before him as long as he was paired with a decent inker, which he wasn’t most of the time. It was on issue #329 that Alan Zelenetz came on as writer and the series suffered a rotating cast of horrible artists including Herb Tremp (issues #329 and 336) and Don Perlin (issue #332-333) mixed in with some fantastic work by Bob Hall (issues #330-331) and Mark Bright (issue #334-335) Added to the mix are some covers by Bill Sienkiewicz before his artwork became really stylized. Most of these covers are kind of sketchy nightmares but issue #333 which features Thor facing off against a vampiric Lady Sif is the real standout of Bill’s covers on this book.

The stories on display here are a lot of small stakes. Issue #330-331 (co-written by Bob Hall) introduces a new villain called the Crusader, a religious nut who thinks that Thor’s existence is blasphemy and tires to kill him. It’s an interesting concept however, as I stated above, Marvel skirts away from anything that might piss off Christians so this story is probably weaker than it should have been. Issue #332 and 333 present a story where Dracula turns Sif into a vampire. Which is interesting but like many a story where a main character of a book gets turned into a vampire, there is a quick resolution. Issue #334-336 wrap up the final loose end where we find out the fate of Jane Foster where she (basically) is unmerged from Sif and ends up marrying Kieth Kincaid. This was a last bit of house cleaning paving the way for Walt Simonson’s legendary run on the book that began in issue #337.

This is also the time that the 10th Thor Annual came out. It is another attempt to explain where the gods of the Marvel Universe come from and explore their connection to Gaea the Earth mother. It is another theology heavy story that tries to explain why these different mythologies exist yadda yadda yadda. It’s also that story that explains the origins of demonic entities like Set and Chthon that every resource mentions but never references the exact issue. So yeah, if anyone has spent interminable hours trying to pin down this reference like I have in the past, it’s Thor Annual #10. You’re welcome.

Then came Walt Simonson’s run on Thor and, holy fuck, what a much needed breath of fresh air. I’m not totally fan of Simonson’s artwork — a tad too sketchy for my liking — but his stories are the best of the 20th Century. The thing is, Simonson wasn’t really doing anything differently from previous writers. He adapted from Norse mythology, he had sweeping epics with massive universe ending threats, he focused time on a large cast of supporting characters. All things other writers tried to do but failed to capture the reader’s attention.

After years of being background characters, or filler in battle scenes, characters started were written with weight to them. That what they did actually mattered and was relevant to the plot. Balder went from Thor’s unobtrusive buddy to deeply complex character who struggled with a brush with death and how that fundamentally changed him as a person. Sif was no longer the sometime damsel-in-distress/love interest of Thor, she became a warrior in her own right and a woman who made her own decisions. She was no longer tied down with waiting for Thor to make up his mind and get married. She’s going off into space and getting cyborg-horse dick.

Speaking of cyborg-horse dick, this run also introduced the absurdly named Beta Ray Bill. Bill has, in my opinion, one of the most stupid names in comics but Walt introduces a new character who also has weight. Bill isn’t like the cookie-cutter supporting cast members of old, he has a personality, a running conflict, and we genuinely care about the character.

The other big thing that Simonson brought to the title was a Ragnarok story that doesn’t suck or feel played out and predictable. I am referring to the Surtur Saga which ran from Thor #337-353, which saw Surtur forging the Twilight Sword so he could destroy all life in the universe. This is a slow pace story that takes sixteen issues to reach its climax. It does a very impressive slow reveal of the major villain. It also doesn’t beat readers over the head by mentioning Ragnarok once. It is a solid story and the strongest arc in Simonson’s run.

The other thing Simson did in short order was finally get rid of Thor’s alter-ego, Don Blake, a character who had outgrown his usefulness in the title. The character who needed a crutch to walk around had become a crutch himself. Stories went nowhere as writers struggled to find a use for him and failed. This cut Thor loose from the constant b-plot loop where Thor would go off on some cosmic quest only to come back and have to rebuild Don Blake’s life from scratch, only to be called away from Earth for another major epic. It was tedious and redundant to do this over and over again, and Simonson made the wise move to just dump Blake. It wouldn’t be for good, mind you, but at least when J. Michael Straczynski pulled Blake out of the freezer 22 years later they were able to breath new life into this alter-ego. However, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Issues #354-355 saw Thor coming to terms with the alleged death of his father following the Surtur War (spoilers: Odin’s not dead) This also introduced Thor’s great-grandfather Buri and led to the first major contradiction in the continuity as Simonson tried to break away from Roy Thomas’ rather tedious Ring of the Nibelung five years earlier. Certainly not the first time a conflicting story has been told but this one was definitely the biggest. Later writers would instead lean into these conflicting stories rather than try to explain everything with endless retcons. I like this approach not only because I despite retcons and keeping Norse mythology of the Asgardians intentionally hazy and contradictory pay homage to the myths they are based upon because they too are often inconsistent.

That said, by this point Walt Simonson had begun to feel the pressure of being writer, penciler, and inker on the book and we start seeing fill in artists and writers work their way into the publication schedule. Issue #355 saw penciling duties done by Sal Buscema who will take over the role full time in issue #368. Issue #356 by Bob Harras and Jackson Guice is an amusing story where Hercules tells children a tale about how he beat Thor in battle. Having the Avengers’ butler Jarvis act as Herc’s foil makes this a humorous read.

Simonson was back for issues #357-359, which wrapped up the ongoing plot where Lorelei was trying to charm Thor which was, by this point, going nowhere. It also featured a b-plot where Sif and Beta Ray Bill clash with the GLF a paramilitary group of former Vietnam Vets that are being manipulated into ruining the American economy by the Titanium Man. For whatever reason, Simson has a pre-occupation with telling stories about “them dirty commies!” in his runs. He did something similar in the pages of Fantastic Four five years after this and TBH I can’t tell if he’s trying to be satirical or if he’s trying to be hyper-patrotic and frankly I don’t care enough about Simonson’s personal politics to go digging into it. You figure it out.

Issues #360-362 features Thor leading an army into Hel to free the souls of mortals that were trapped there. This rounds off the end of Balder’s story arc by having him come to terms with the very thing that haunted him for so many issues. It also sees the death of long time Thor foe, the Executioner, who dies a honorable death.

It’s also during this time that Simonson leans into plot elements where the Asgardians are being influenced by modern society. Volstagg quotes contemporary musicians and authors, the Asgardians begin building guns, that sort of thing. With other writers it always seems that the Asgardians are stuck in this weird sort of arrested development where they interact with the outside world and affect it, but the outside world seldom affects them. It seems kind of silly that in the face of modern conveniences that the Asgardians would stick entirely with their centuries old way of doing things. It just doesn’t seem that realistic, and Simonson showing this kind of cultural exchanges being both ways he breaths more life into the Asgardians. Unfortunately, not many writers would do this and subsequent runs on Thor suffer greatly for it.

Issue #363 was the only Secret Wars II tie in with Thor. While Simonson avoided having to reference the first Secret Wars up to this point, the line-wide sequel crossover was much harder to avoid. While the story introduces the fan-favorite villain Kurse, it looks to me that Simonson tried to keep the Beyonder’s machinations at arm’s length in this story, similar to other prolific writers at the time — notably John Byrne. It really speaks to how much of an editorial mandate this crossover was at the time.

Issues #364-366 is possibly Walt’s most well known story arc just for how off-beat it was at the time. You know the one I’m talking about: The one where Thor is turned into a frog. I for one am not a fan of this story. I’m all for rich characterizations but this is just three issues of Simonson giving names and personalities to frogs and rats for three issues. I do applaud him for getting away with something this ridiculous but it’s just not for me.

After another story arc involving Kurse, Thor #370 is another fill-in issue by James Owsley and John Buscema. It’s off beat as well but in a completely different way as the story takes place during the days of the American Frontier. Having Thor and the gods of Asgard being active in this time period seems like a no-brainer since they have been around for centuries. It also, I assume, pays homage to the western tales that were popular in the 50s and 60s. It’s an interesting story that was later revisited in the pages of Black Panther, surprisingly enough.

The next two Simonson/Buscema issues is an odd story that introduces the Time Variance Authority, which you might remember from the Loki TV series on Disney+. Simonson introduces them as a very Judge Dredd inspired organization fighting time crime and Thor helps them prevent the murder of Jane Foster. This is an odd story, since it reintroduces an old foe from the Kirby days, the crime boss named Thug Thatcher and has him get possessed by the Zaniac. As it turns out, the Zaniac is actually a parasite that jumps from host to host.

This then runs into the final arc of Simonson’s run on Thor which oddly ties into the Mutant Massacre event that was going on in the X-Men books at the time. This was likely because Walt was doing pencils for X-Factor at the time, a book that was being written by his wife, Louise. In this story Hela decides to curse Thor with brittle bones that cannot heal, something he painfully discovers while saving X-Factor’s Angel from the Marauders a team of mutant murderers killing the sewer dwelling Morlocks. Sticking Thor in the middle of this event is, for me, an odd choice as the thunder god didn’t really fit into the otherwise exceedingly dark and gritty story arc that the X-Men creative team was working on at the time.

Another great story telling element during this run is the humanization of Volstagg. For years, Volstagg was was usually around for comic relief. If he wasn’t being made fun of for his weight he was depicted as a boastful braggart who would turn into a coward in battle. Simonson takes the time to actually look into Volstagg’s private life and make him a more (pardon the fat joke) well rounded individual. Throughout the run we discover that Volstagg is a proud father with a whole bunch of children. We see a gentler more caring side to the character, particularly when he adopts the human children Mick and Kevin after their mother was murdered by Thug Thatcher. Volstagg and his family are there to help Mick and Kevin process their grief and make them part of his extended family.

However, it was a means to an end, as this was just the first in a series of literally bone-crushing battles for Thor until he was forced to build a suit of armor to wear to keep his body intact in issue #378. This led to a conflict between Thor and Jormungand the Midgard Serpent in issues #379-380. Issue #380 is unique in that it is written in prose done entirely in single panel full page splashes. It’s glorious. Things wrap up in issues #381-382 with Thor transferring his soul into the Destroyer in order to battle Hela and restore his body to normal.

It neatly ties everything up and marks the departure of Simonson from the book. According to sources, Walt was working himself ragged for the six-to-eight months leading up to the end of his run and he decided to quit while he was ahead so he could recharge and think about his next project. Which, in heindsight, I think this was the best move for Walt to make.

After the departure of Simonson, the book went through three months of filler issues before picking things up again. The first was by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and it was an “untold tale” of the original Secret Wars that filled in a plot gap in the narrative when Thor and the Enchantress took off to discuss the situation on Battleworld. It’s a lot of fluff. Issue #384 (by DeFalco and Frenz again) told an off beat story about a new Thor in the future year of 2537. It is your basic cyberpunk corporate dystopian future the likes of movies like Blade Runner, only with a guy who turns into the new Thor. Drago Ktor wouldn’t just be a one off character, but feature in more Thor stories in the following decade. This was followed by Thor #385, which is another Thor vs. Hulk clash by Jim Shooter, Stan Lee and with art by Eric Larsen. It’s… not good. By this point in his career, Stan had been phoning it in for years and this story is no exception and the inking by Vince Colletta makes Larsen’s pencils look like something that was drawn 20 years prior. Colletta always had this habit of making every story he inked feel like it was trapped in the fucking 60s and not the fun part.

Issue #386 begins the on-going run on the series was taken over Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. This pair has frequently worked together over the years and they have done some great work together. Their work on Thor on the other hand… I’m going to have to say is a mixed bag. That’s because a lot of their stories lean heavily into the influences of Jack Kirby. After Simonson’s run DeFalco and Frenz’s work on Thor feels like a huge step back in terms of the quality of story telling harkening back to a more simplistic time in comic books that really doesn’t resonate 20 years after the fact. Frenz, who is also a highly capable artist who had a memorably run on Amazing Spider-Man starts off in his usual style but as the book progresses the art becomes more and more derivative of Jack Kirby’s style of artwork. Which is fine if you are doing a special tribute to Kirby, but to ape his work month after month gets tiresome after a while because imitation can only be so innovative.

At any rate, the thing I strongly dislike with Tom DeFalco’s run is how quickly he tosses away elements that Walt Simonson worked so hard to develop. The facial scarring that Thor received in Thor #361 is the first thing to go in issue #386 as DeFalco makes Thor clean shaven. Characters are quickly rolled back to their roles and personalities as they were defined two decades earlier by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The biggest departure was the sudden disappearance of Mick and Kevin who would be largely absent from future Thor stories, only making a handful of appearances thereafter.

I am not usually a fan when a writer comes in and undoes the work of the previous creative team. It’s regressive and it keeps a character in a state of arrested development. This is usually more common in Spider-Man and it seldom works, unless we’re talking about the time the Punisher became an demon hunting angel. At any rate, this regression doesn’t last long and there are some aspects of Simonson’s run that continue to endure, such as Beta Ray Bill who still makes appearances in the title. However, many of DeFalco’s creations during this run are incredibly lame. First, we have the Mongoose, who makes his debut in Thor #391. He is one of the High Evolutionary’s New Men and easily one of the most ridiculous. I don’t know what DeFalco was thinking because the mongoose is not a very threatening animal. In the following issue he introduces Quicksand, a gender swaped Sandman character who has about as much character as a bucket of sand.

By far the absolute worst creations of this period goes to Earth Force, a group of three humans given power by the Egyptian Gods who appear in issue #395. Their powers are uninteresting, their characters are undeveloped, and their costumes make them look like a team of Egyptian themed butt-plugs. While some Earth Force sexual penetration could be erotic, it doesn’t make for interesting superheroes. We also have the return of Odin in issue #398-400, which reveals that he didn’t die in the final battle with Surtur and has been a prisoner of Seth this entire time. Odin’s return also leads to him having his missing eye restored, because why not?

This period also sees Thor becoming friends with Eric Masterson in issue #391, an architect and recent divorcée who is trying to make a life for himself and his son Kevin. He becomes roommates with Hercules to boot, because I guess we’re unintentionally skewing gay? You had all these other supporting characters that have been focused on for the better part of five years, but hey why not toss all that out the window and focus on entirely new characters struggling with divorce and custody battles, because when I think “epic stories about Norse gods” I immediately think about divorce dads. While Eric Masterson does go on to become a more pivotal character in the pages of Thor in the 90s, it does come at the expense of a lot of characters that were being developed before hand.

At this point, DeFalco begins undoing all the changes that had been made to the title over the last 20 years just to circle back and do Kirby-era style stories. The deconstructing the hard work of others almost seems maliciously deliberate and I think it does the title a great disservice. It almost seems petty. I think you could still have told Kirby-esque Thor stories without undoing everything every other writer did to try and liven things up. In the end, DeFalco begins making massive changes to the title in the next decade, so what was the entire point of going “back to basics” if you were going to just change shit up later?

Like many titles at the end of this decade, Thor ended the 1980s with an Acts of Vengeance cross-over. In issues #411-412, Thor is pitted against the Juggernaut. This would be an interesting match up that — surprisingly — hadn’t been done before. I mean, Spider-Man tackled the Juggernaut before Thor did, what’s up with that? These stories are notable simply for the fact that it was used as a backdoor pilot for the New Warriors book that would begin its run in 1990. The New Warriors would go on to become heroes in their own right and have periods of popularity before been relegated to the realm of mini-series that wouldn’t always project the characters in a serious light, but that’s an entirely different essay.

That concludes my retrospective of Thor in the 1980s. From here we will eventually give into arguably the worst era of Thor ever put to paper. Under going multiple reinventions, more than a few questionable costume changes, and a complete series reboot, the 1990s were not very kind to the god of thunder, but that’s a story for another time.