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Thor #3

Nov 2007
J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel

Thor #3 cover

Story Name:

Everything Old is New Again


Synopsis

Thor #3 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Not knowing why he is drawn there, Thor visits New Orleans to begin his quest to restore the gods to Asgard. Viewing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, he is accosted by a hostile survivor named Ezra who expresses his anger toward the superheroes who did nothing to stop the disaster. As he stands alone, Thor sees Iron Man; the Armored Avenger tells Thor about the Superhero Registration Act and demands that the Thunder God join the government forces and move Asgard—or the military will do it for him. Thor’s response is to denounce Tony for betraying his former comrades and hunting them down in the name of the Act—and worse, for creating the Thor clone, violating his person and abusing their friendship. Tony tries to explain but Thor cuts him off with a hammer blow to the helmet. Angered, Iron Man unleashes a repulsor ray blast at the God of Thunder, who is unfazed by it. Iron Man jets toward his opponent but the Mighty Thor knocks him out of the park for a home run. He then calls down lightning to short out Tony’s armor then rips open his helmet to give him a stern lecture. He demands to be left alone, with apocalyptic warnings of the consequences of government interference with Asgard. Thor finishes with a demand to be left alone coupled with another veiled threat then releases Tony. A defeated Tony Stark suggests a compromise: that Asgard be treated as a foreign embassy with diplomatic immunity. Thor agrees and allows Tony to walk home, postponing a discussion of the clone issue until a later date….

Thor then encounters Ezra; the man’s niece explains that he has been bitter since his wife’s death in the hurricane and realized he was powerless to protect the ones he loved. Thor sees the depth of grief in the man’s eyes and recognizes him as the human host of Heimdall, who similarly stood by helpless in the face of the destruction of all he held dear. Thor transforms him into his real persona.

At SHIELD HQ, Tony Stark is informed there is now another inhabitant of Asgard and he decides to let it go. For now….


 

Review / Commentaries


Thor #3 Review by (August 30, 2012)
Review: So here we have Thor’s take on the Civil War: he was against it. Which makes Tony Stark the bad guy in this issue. The interesting part comes in light of the reports that Marvel intended Iron Man to be the good guy in the Civil War; strange how most of the writers saw him as the villain of the piece (not hard since picturing Captain America as a bad guy is almost unthinkable—despite the plethora of evil patriotic types). This issue also highlights the major problem in dealing with real-world issues in a comic book: so why didn’t the superheroes save New Orleans? Don’t know if this was ever addressed in the comics but it needed to be if you’re going to invoke a real-life tragedy as texture for the story. Well…that’s probably too much to ask. Kudos to JMS for introducing a little human drama into a comic book centering on superhuman gods. Double kudos to Oliver Coipel and Mark Morales for their majestic art.


Thor #3 Review by (August 30, 2012)
This comment will be about where Thor #1-3 fit in with what was happening in the rest of the Marvel universe around that time. Fantastic Four #536-537 saw Thor's hammer appear on Earth. During FF#538 Don Blake touched it. Later Thor's new #1 saw this act resurrect the Thunder God. But FF#536-537 were part of 'The Road to Civil War', FF#538 was part of CW, and Thor #1 came out during World War Hulk. Civil War and a large chunk of Initiative had appeared in between. So how come it took so long for Thor to return to Earth? In this issue Thor tells Iron Man off about Civil War but doesn't mention World War Hulk. #1-3 were actually released during WWH. The Official Index and its backers the online Marvel Continuity Project put this issue in between the 2 events. But that still leaves a gap between here and FF#538. Paul Bourcier's Marvel Calendar, an adjunct to the MCP, goes even further. As part of organising the happenings in CW, PB separates FF#538 from FF#537 (also allowing him to move #537 a long way before CW for other reasons). Also the back end of #538 belongs with #539 in a later part of CW, and PB takes the Don Blake bit with it. (The start of #538 is within CW#3, but the end is between CW#4&5.) PB has Don Blake finding Thor in the void in #1 at that point. But we only see them on Earth at the end of #1 *after* CW is over (just after Captain America's funeral). That's still quite a gap, but maybe his fight with void monsters took a while, and maybe getting back to Earth wasn't simple. The recreation of Asgard on Earth in #2 happens straight away. And this issue follows a few days later. (#4 will be placed *within* WWH.)

The result is that the time gap is split up and spread out. And Thor gets back too late to interfere in Civil War or attend Cap's funeral. He won't involve himself in WWH either. He'll be too wrapped up in finding his fellow Asgardians. And maybe he's sickened by what his fellow heroes have done in his absence (sending Hulk away as well as Civil War). He won't get dragged back into mortal superhero affairs until Secret Invasion.


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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Olivier Coipel
Mark Morales
Laura Martin
Olivier Coipel (Cover Penciler)
Mark Morales (Cover Inker)
Laura Martin (Cover Colorist)


Characters

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