Thor, Volume 2

This volume continues pretty directly from the last, with art by Olivier Coipel and Marko Djurdjevic (whose work I think actually fits the tone of Thor a bit better) and still written by J. Michael Straczynski. The first couple issues delve into the history between Thor and his father Odin, and show a really interesting side of Asgard. The rest of the book is devoted to Loki's grand plan to usurp Thor and eventually take over the throne; conniving with Doctor Doom, sowing distrust, and even jumping through time to make sure certain events happen. It sort of makes his origins into a giant predestination paradox, but the way he flippantly ignores any problems with that is pretty funny. By the 600th issue, his plan is in full motion, as Thor is forced into battle against his grandfather who's been magically trapped for years. It's sort of silly sounding I know, but I really enjoyed this volume a lot. Interesting story, good characters, and nice comic book art.

Thor, Volume 1

Nearly all of the Marvel comics I've talked about on this blog were borrowed from a friend who loves the universe, and I mostly stuck to events and crossovers. I started letting him pick though, and this time he loaned me something a little different - just some regular comics. Specifically, Warren Ellis' run on Thunderbolts and J. Michael Straczynski's stint at the beginning of the current, third volume of Thor (not to be confused with this trade paperback being the first volume to collect his work). It's basically a reboot of the story and characters after Ragnarok finally happened and the series took a break for a few years, except one that doesn't forget what already happened. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I still don't understand everything about how this works coming into the book pretty much blind, but I liked it.

These issues are mostly just dedicated to reestablishing Thor and the other Asgardians, as well as setting up plot threads for later. Not a ton really happens, though there are some interesting encounters, especially a scrape against Iron Man (who frankly deserves all the crap he gets for the Civil War fiasco) in the middle of a destroyed New Orleans. I'm not too clear on how the existence of Norse mythological figures and events fits with the overall Marvel universe but basically Thor's human alter ego (they are two distinct people who normally coexist in one place and basically trade off on who gets to do stuff) helps him wake up from some sort of eternal sleep/death. After that he recreates Asgard and starts waking up his friends who are stuck inside the minds of other mortals. There's some pretty funny stuff where the various gods are interacting with normal folks, and it's not long before it's clear Loki's up to his old tricks again (though I guess really they're pretty new tricks), so there's enough stuff going on in these six issues to keep it interesting despite not a lot of action. Sometimes Olivier Coipel's faces are a bit weird but he's still a solid artist and fits the book's tone, and Straczynski definitely knows how to spin a yarn. There are two more volumes to this story arc, and having already read one of them, I can hardly wait to finish.

House of M

I've heard some not-so-fantastic things about this story, but I ended up liking it a fair bit. Olivier Coipel's art is pretty darn good, and while I've definitely seen legitimate complaints about Brian Michael Bendis' writing, he keeps the cheeky dialogue to a minimum and weaves and interesting alternate reality story featuring a ton of Marvel characters in interesting ways. I also liked that it wasn't terribly action heavy, there's the requisite crossover giant clusterfuck battle at the end, but for the most part it's about the characters, not shoving them together into fights. Really, the central question is one I would generally expect super hero comics to try and answer - what's better, a perfect illusion or an imperfect truth? The decision the heroes make is an obvious one since it's hard to imagine a large comic book company completely flipping the status quo of its entire universe, but it's a neat experiment for a few months.

Basically, some time after Scarlet Witch went nuts and killed a few fellow Avengers, a bunch of heroes are having a debate over what to do with her when she uses Xavier to change the entire world so everyone gets what they want. Thanks to Wolverine's healing power I guess he's immune to the effects and along with a powerful little girl is able to slowly wake up a bunch of other heroes to the truth and they try to break the illusion. Not everybody's happy to realize the current reality is a false one, but their ultimate goal is never really in doubt. I didn't know a few of the featured characters, though Bendis did a decent job of keeping it understandable for someone like me who doesn't religiously read this stuff. Seemed like the right way to do a crossover. There are a couple threads that aren't resolved by the end, though I doubt any ended up being a huge deal.