Thor the Mighty Avenger #4

by Josh Crawley

Have you ever noticed how months, if not a year, before a comic book related movie comes out there’s a plethora of new comic books featuring that character? You haven’t?! Well, if you’ll allow me explain what I’m talking about…

Marvel Comics’ Thor is going to be in theaters on May 6, 2011. With the exception of the hiatus between Mike Oeming’s and J. Michael Straczynski’s runs on the title – and the infamous year of Heroes Reborn– Thor has been published pretty regularly for almost 40 years. There’s been the occasional mini-series and/or spin-off book over the years, but barring the speculation boom of the 90s – when vast amounts of products, especially new #1s, were needed to slap foil on – Thor’s never seemed to have quite so many irons in the fire as he does now.

As it stands now, there are two regular Thor titles (Thor, Thor the Mighty Avenger) and three mini-series (First Thunder, For Asgard, and Loki). Sure, those mini-series will  (hopefully) be finished by the end of the year, but I doubt it will stop there.

I can imagine what you’re saying. “Josh, they’re just trying to be sure there are graphic novels in the stores when the movie comes so they can take advantage of renewed interest.”

While that’s a great idea – and it works to a very, very small degree – I disagree with the execution. Not just because I rarely see superhero movies have much effect on sales of peripheral material, but there’s already so much material to choose from.

Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson

In the beginning (he said in a thunderous voice), we can choose from Masterworks – in both hardcover and softcover – as well as Essentials. The Eternals Saga volumes 1 & 2 collect #283 through #301. Walt Simonson Visionaries collect almost all of #337 through #382, plus Balder the Brave, which is also available in hardcover by itself. There’s also a Mike Deodato Visionaries written by Warren Ellis, three volumes of Dan Jurgens & John Romita, Jr. material from the Heroes Return era, not to mention three volumes – in hardcover, softcover, and two different dust jacketed versions of an omnibus – of Straczynski material.

Honestly, instead of pumping out a lot of new material, I would work on getting a lot of old material that’s already been produced back on shelves, such as Essential Thor volumes 1 and 3, which would make it easier to sell other books already available. Projects along the lines of Thor: Tales of Asgard – back-ups reformatted as a mini-series with new coloring – are a great start, and I wish they’d get more attention from publishers.

Of course, maybe I’m just bitter because I’m still waiting for a series of Mark Gruenwald Captain America Visionaries.

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Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster at Westfield Comics. He is not the keyboardist for Everclear.

http://www.twitter.com/joshcrawley

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics

ATTN: JOSH

7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22

Madison WI 53717

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