Thor #45
Written by Dan Jurgens
Art by Tom Raney and Scott Hanna
Published by Marvel Comics
Tom Raney is one of my favourite pencilers, and one who has been severely under-employed in recent years. I mean, for all I know, he may be making a fortune in non-comics illustration work, or perhaps cleaning up as a day trader or something. But as far as visible comics work goes, his output in the past couple of years has been small, and on minor, undeserving projects. The Search for Cyclops, and some X-Men fill-in issues.
I learned to adore his work when I sought out DC/Wildstorm's Stormwatch trade paperbacks. Bryan Hitch made a huge impression as penciler of The Authority, but Raney's earlier work on the ancestral title proved to be dynamic, engaging and extremely appealing. Raney started out rough in those TPBs, but you can see his confidence and skill grow with each volume, and by his final stint as penciler in Stormwatch: Change or Die, you're wishing that he never left, that writer Warren Ellis had continued the title with him, or found something else for them to do together.
Ellis has actually said that he hoped to someday work with Raney again, and I hope to see that happen someday. In the meantime, I am staggered to realize that I will be buying The Mighty Thor on a regular basis now.
Writer Dan Jurgens has now been with this title for 45 issues, and no matter what you think of his run, that is no small accomplishment in this era of primadonna creators too busy with A) Crack B) The Internet and/or C) Nintendo to actually do any work for months at a time. I have read occasional issues of Jurgens's Thor, but was never compelled to stick around for more than a month or two. I've never been a huge fan of the character, and was only fiercely loyal to it when it was written and drawn by Walter Simonson.
Much like with Simonson, I would check out just about anything drawn by Raney, and from the cover alone, it's clear that a new era has begun for this title. I've seen enough new eras come and go over my 30 years of comics reading that I remain skeptical, but this issue more than delivers the goods: Marvel hasn't put out this solid an issue of a superhero comic in a long time.
Casual readers of my columns over the (gah!) years I've been writing about comics may have come to the conclusion that I hate superhero comics, and some may even be wondering why I am reviewing this issue. At least one is sitting there right now pulling his hair out that my review isn't coming from the same cookie-cutter as the ones he prefers (Hi, Andrew Wilshire!), but anyone who is expecting a straight review from me without digressions and interludes and detours probably gave up about the time I mentioned day-trading in the first paragraph. At any rate, what I mean to say is that I don't hate the genre of superhero comics. I hate the financial crimes and editorial fuckery of your typical mainstream superhero comics publisher, and I absolutely loathe the vast majority of crap that said mainstream publishers jam the stands with on a weekly basis. But amongst all the crap, there are some gems. Some superhero books that I hold in high regard, and even regularly re-read with joy and delight. Watchmen. Swamp Thing. Daredevil: Born Again. Batman: Year One. Ellis's Stormwatch and The Authority.
Of course, there are no more Stormwatch comics being created, and any hope that the quality legacy they represent might be continued in The Monarchy was shit on and pissed on and puked on and flung out the window by the scary-talented writer Doselle Young, whose subtle ability to create great comics is so subtle as to be completely undetectable to the human eye.
So, those of us who fondly remember Stormwatch and The Authority stumble ever onward, hoping against hope that someday we'll see their like again. The Ultimates looks like the best bet for that happening, but the preview material I've seen so far does not have me optimistic. Of course, I was not optimistic about this issue of Thor, either, and I was completely wrong about that.
Raney's cover, a close-up of the post-Odin Thor contemplating his fate (or summat) is a glorious image of power and majesty. It spoke volumes to me from across the comics shop, and for the first time in many years, I was excited to crack the cover of an issue of this title. The excitement didn't fade even when I was done. God damn, I said to myself. I want more. More Thor!
If it seems I am giving most of the credit to Raney, well, I am. Nothing at all against Jurgens, though. His script, about Thor sending some Asgardians on a dangerous mission (and making them question the new Lord of Asgard's judgement), more than rises to the occasion of this new era. This is classic Thor, with all that implies about the power of myth and the deception and mischief of a certain party. But it's Raney's gorgeous pencils, literally the best work of his that I have ever seen, that make me anxious to see what happens next. Whether called upon to depict gods or men, sea voyages or desert landscapes, battles or quiet conversations or silent contemplations, Raney delivers well-designed pages filled to bursting with power and grace. He has never, ever delivered a single issue this confidently, this dramatically. Raney's art has been so wasted over the past couple of years (he did nice work on that Cyclops mini-series, but who really gave a shit about the story?), that it is a refreshing and welcome surprise to see such a grand return to form here.
Jurgens ends his story with ominous hints of what is to come, and I truly am looking forward to seeing what he and Raney can do here. Jurgens has been a competent craftsman with hints of greatness in the past, and here he has been partnered with an artist who is capable of depicting whatever he can come up with. The ball is in his court, and so far, with this issue, all signs are good.
I don't know how many issues a year Raney can turn out, but I hope if it's not 12 that Marvel can come up with a more elegant solution than the missed deadlines and poorly-matched fill-in artists we've seen on New X-Men. Based on the strength of this issue, I can say Jurgens and Raney have the potential to turn Thor into a huge success in 2002. Fingers crossed, I anxiously await next month's issue. Good job, guys.