 THURSDAY MORNING QB ARCHIVE |  | THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK | | A water-cooler review of this week's comics | | | By The Wizard Staff | | Posted March 20, 2008 | |  | | When the new batch of weekly comics arrives at Wizard HQ, the workday stops and the fanboys and fangirls inside take over. Every week in Thursday Morning Quarterback, we discuss and debate three of the most attention-getting titles, be they good, bad or indifferent—and maybe crown one of them our Book of the Week!
Your critics this week:
WizardUniverse.com News Editor Jim Gibbons: “Cross-genre books like the sci-spy Casanova make my day, but great writing in titles from classic capes to crime capers is equally exciting.”
Wizard Research Assistant Rachel Molino: “I like anything with clever, realistic dialogue, solid art, and action that isn’t too far-fetched.”
Wizard Associate Editor Andy Serwin: “I’m into offbeat superheroes like James Robinson’s Starman or genre books like Brian Azzarello’s Loveless.”
ToyFare Managing Editor Adam Tracey: “I’m definitely a Marvel Zombie, but I’m also a big fan of some Image titles as well. Oh, and the occasional DC book or two.”
Reviewed this week: Thor #7, Witchblade #116, Captain America #36, Quick Hits out the wazoo and plenty of Extra Points! Can you dig it, fanboys and girls?!?
WARNING…Spoilers ahead!
THOR #7
Marvel Comics
J. Michael Straczynski (W)/Marko Djurdjevic & Danny Miki (A)
| | 
ANDY: “I guess the hook for me here was that this was Marko Djurdjevic’s first interior work after doing strictly covers up to this point. And I have to say, he doesn’t disappoint. The artwork looks phenomenal.”
RACHEL: “I like the art in this book a lot. I was immediately drawn in by it.”
JIM: “To be totally honest, I was expecting the interiors to be all painted like his covers. I’m mildly disappointed at that, but I think it still looks great for pencils. I want to see him do more interiors.”
ANDY: “So where we’re at here is, Thor’s just used his god-like powers to revive ALL the Asgardians who were hidden on Earth. Now he needs to chill to restore his powers, so he goes into this coma-sleep where he runs into Odin, who’s been on his mind a lot. Meanwhile, with Thor in a coma, Don Blake’s up and running around Asgard, so with Thor laid up, he decides to track down his old flame, Jane Foster.”
JIM: “This is an interesting story, but so much of it is being narrated by other people: by Thor’s interior monologue, by Odin’s old crows who are telling the story to Thor. JMS’ Thor is not very conversational. That has sort of deterred me from the book in the past.”
RACHEL: “I think it’s cool. I don’t want to hear him talk about the stuff going on. Everyone else in the story here does a good job of getting the info across.”
ANDY: “I’ve been hot and cold on almost every issue of Thor. There’s always something I love in every issue, but there’s almost always something that makes me roll my eyes, too. In this ish, it was when Donald Blake showed up after Thor went to take his Odin-nap; Blake’s there, and he comes off like kind of a goofball. He’s making jokes like, ‘Is that a sword in your pocket?’ I’m glad they’ve integrated him back into Thor’s universe, but I didn’t care for that scene here.”
RACHEL: “I did not like that either. It was too goofy for what was going on in the rest of the story. But more to the point, who is Donald Blake?”
JIM: “When Thor’s not Thor, he’s Donald Blake, a wooden staff enthusiast. He’s a doctor in 2008 carrying a wooden branch as a walking stick! I love that.”
[LAUGHS]
JIM: “It seemed a little out of character, because you haven’t seen him that jokey up to this point.”
ANDY: “I did laugh though when Blake’s trying to scam him way onto an airplane. He’s talking to someone, and drops hints about a superpowered sex scandal that took place in Latveria; something about getting caught without your weapons…and you’re powers. That was a cool little bit. I want to know who THAT person is.”
RACHEL: “Do you think it’s Doctor Doom who lost his pants? His metal pants? Those are tough to replace.”
JIM: “And they’re loud when they hit the floor.”
[LAUGHS]
JIM: “Later on, I thought it was cool going back to the Freudian myth of killing your father; that’s what Thor is ultimately wrestling with here. It’s an interesting psychological story, but they worked in plenty of guys hitting each other with swords, which is always appreciated.”
RACHEL: “I like the last page a lot, when you see Odin cradling little baby Thor. That was very touching, actually.”
JIM: “It’s an Asgardian Kodak moment!”
[LAUGHS]
JIM: “I would like to call out Odin’s fashion choice of polar bears as his shoulders. If that’s not badass, I don’t know what is. I’ve got to say that’s my ‘Fashion Accessory of the Week,’ which he can see here as Odin’s crossing swords with Surtur, the fire demon.”
| | 
ANDY: “Um, has anyone told Odin that polar bears are an endangered species. Someone get PETA on the phone.”
JIM: “Not in ancient Asgard’s limbo they’re not! But as much as I enjoyed this issue, and the series as a whole so far, I think there’s a bigger critique: There’s a lot of cool stuff going on, but not much of it is tying in to the rest of the Marvel U. You think there’d be stronger ties to other events going on; it seems a bit weird to have one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes isolated in the Midwest. There’s two Avengers teams, and Thor’s not on either one of them.”
ANDY: “I agree with that. Things are certainly happening, but it seems like there’s a missing gravitas to the whole affair. It’s almost as if JMS doesn’t want it to get TOO epic. Don’t keep the Thunder God on the ground, in my opinion.”
JIM: “It’s an enjoyable read, but it feels like it’s not affecting the bigger picture of the Marvel U. What’s Thor doing to stop the Skrulls? He’s taking a nap right now.”
For the Thursday Morning QB review of Witchblade, click here !
| | | | | | | |
Share this article
![[Slashdot]](http://slashdot.org/favicon.ico)
![[Digg]](http://digg.com/favicon.ico)
![[Reddit]](http://reddit.com/favicon.ico)
![[del.icio.us]](http://del.icio.us/favicon.ico)
![[Facebook]](http://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
![[Technorati]](http://technorati.com/favicon.ico)
![[Google]](http://www.google.com/favicon.ico)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.stumbleupon.com/favicon.ico)
|  |
 | |
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
|  |
| |
|
