Thor: Heroes Return Omnibus, Vol. 1

Thor (1998) (New Editions) #1-5

by Dan Jurgens (Writer), Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis

A hero returns - and an epic saga begins! Dan Jurgens ushers in one of the greatest eras of Thor - and it begins with the truly blockbuster art of John Romita Jr.! The Thunder God walks the Earth once more, but his new lease on life comes with new enemies - and a new mortal alter ego! Will Thor's comeback be cut short by Dark Gods, the Destroyer and Doctor Doom? Then, on the Eighth Day, the unstoppable Juggernaut will be just the beginning for Thor, Iron Man and Spider-Man! The heavy hitters keep on coming - like Mangog and Thanos! But if Thor is busy saving Midgard, who's protecting Asgard? COLLECTING: THOR (1998) 1-35, ROUGH CUT; SILVER SURFER/THOR ANNUAL 1998; THOR ANNUAL 1999-2000; PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN (1999) 2, 11; IRON MAN (1998) 21 (B STORY), 22; JUGGERNAUT: THE EIGHTH DAY

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Adventure, Action, Science Fiction

1232 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der schwergewichtige Omnibus hat gemischte Gefühle hinterlassen. Die Comics aus den späten 90ern sind nicht meine Favoriten, und so musste ich mich mit Dan Jurgens epischem Run erst einmal etwas anfreunden. Die Zeichnungen haben mir zum großen Teil nur mittelgut gefallen, wie die Handlung sind sie sehr bombastisch, riesenhaft, grell. Sie erinnerten mich ein wenig an den Disney-Film HERCULES, den ich zur selben Zeit mit meinem Sohn im Kino anschauen musste, als diese Comics gezeichnet wurden: immer größere Muskelberge dominieren das Bild und die Bösen werden immer böser, so dass man auf den Sieg des Helden fast nicht zu hoffen wagt.

Die Handlung rund um die "Angelegenheiten", die Thor an die Erde binden, hat mir wirklich gut gefallen, davon hätte ich mir größere Abschnitte gewünscht. Aber irgendwie ist es ja klar, dass der typische Thor=Leser den kosmisch=göttlichen ewigen Kampf von Gut gegen Böse sehen will. Und so reiht sich dann ein übermächtiger, scheinbar unbesiegbarer Feind an den anderen, und mit der gleichen Inbrunst, mit der der Gott des Donners ständig "I say thee nay" ausruft, besiegt er das Böse dann doch.

Viele gute und witzige Ideen stecken in diesem Ziegel, aber auch viel kosmischer Tinnef. Gute drei Sterne, würde ich sagen, wobei auf bummelig 1200 Seiten die Eindrücke natürlich schon unterschiedlich sind.
Ob ich den zweiten Band auch Lese, wenn er erscheint? Mal schauen ...

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun setup and many adventures right after each other make for a fun read.

Sometimes I think Thor's strongest power is just saying "I say thee, NAY!" and winning whatever battle he's in.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun collection to read. I have read some of the issues out-of-order over time, so it was a enjoyable to read all of the issues consecutively for a change. It has some interesting character development not only for Thor, but for other characters in the Thor canon. It introduces new villains right away in the book, as well as a mysterious character called "Marnot" who plays a huge part in Thor's life for a time. I vaguely remember the run of the "Lost Gods of Asgard" storyline that ran in Journey Into Mystery issues 506ish through 515, so it was also interesting to see how that storyline panned out in the issues of this new Thor comic. Overall, it moves at a pretty good pace; I think two things "disrupted" the pacing, however. The first would be the artwork - the alternating of artists every other issue disrupts some of the narrative's flow. The second would be some 'big cross-over events' that were inserted into the series; they seemed a bit out-of-place.

Thor has to be a tough character to write, at times. He is like Superman – if he deals exclusively with “Midgard/Terran threats,” then the ‘fight’ or story should be pretty much over by page two or three and the rest of the comic/story is fluff. He has to have characters that will provide some kind of challenge. Also, he tends to be written as “lash out first, consider the consequences later” by other writers. Jurgens actually has Thor’s “don’t think, just react” come with consequences he does not expect or intend, so that was good. Not only that, I have always thought Thor was much smarter than he is regularly portrayed as being in the various incarnations in his comics; he tends to be portrayed as fairly buffoonish (which makes Loki a good foil for him). However, having lived as long as he has and having interacted with Earth and Earth’s inhabitants like he has (AND interstellar denizens of the universe at large), he should not be such a buffoon. So, in that regard, I did like how he was not quite the buffoon he has been portrayed as being by other writers. I think that ‘buffoonishness” stems from authors not really knowing how to write him; let’s face it, an inadvertent accidental slap could kill a mortal. If Thor were to really ever cut loose, it would be pretty dramatic and traumatic for those involved. Thor has to constantly hold himself in check to avoid accidentally killing a mortal opponent.

I loved seeing Beta-Ray Bill; he has been one of my favorite characters ever since I first saw him in Rom #65. I had started getting back into comics, collecting primarily Thor and the Avengers before expanding to other titles, so it was interesting to get reacquainted with Thor after issue #300 (about the time I quit reading and collecting for few years). I discovered the Walter Simonson run, and loved it in its entirety. I still feel that is one of the best Thor runs, ever, bar none. So, anyway, it was good to see Beta-Ray Bill again as well as Sif's reaction when she sees him "again" after not having seen him for a while. It was a priceless moment.

I also 'loved' that Sif was put in charge of Asgard while Odin underwent his "Odin Sleep." Other characters have been 'put in charge' when Odin has either had to sleep or been missing - Balder the Brave and Heimdall come immediately to mind. So, it was an interesting change of pace to have Sif in charge. Granted, I felt they could have presented her as having 'done a better job' than she did; some 'missteps' occurred under her watch that need not have happened the way they did.

It is crazy how Odin never really seems to change or to grow as a character. In this series, he is still the rigid, unthinking, close-minded, stodgy, hypocritical father he has always been. I think I disliked his character the most in this series (in terms of the Asgardians) because of his lack of growth and change as a character. I would not call his taking Jane Foster's advice once or twice as 'changing his mind' or 'change of character,' as he is foolishly stubborn and arrogant and prideful to begin with, which puts him as backing himself into a corner and thus having issues taking advice from others (especially mortals) because of how he has shot his mouth off and reacted without thinking. Which, in itself is funny, considering the number of times he has chastised Thor for reacting without thinking, for jumping immediately into action without considering the consequences of his actions or alternatives that might end with less destruction.

I also liked how Jurgens handled "God" and the monotheistic religions on Earth. There were a couple of times it was said (implied) that there is a greater power than Odin (and the other All-Fathers/Sky-Fathers of the various pantheons in the Marvel U) at work in the Marvel U. So I thought that was an interesting and "unique" perspective on things, so to speak, in how it provided for Thor and his fellow Asgardians while acknowledging there is (are) greater source(s) of power in the universe. It as tactfully done, and I appreciated i

I sometimes do get tired of certain villains that 'keep popping up' in the comics. Mangog is one of them for me. "He" has been "dispersed" numerous times in the past so that the "billions upon billions of souls" of the 'dead/lost race' that make up his character/psyche can finally be at peace, and, yet, he is constantly 'reconstituted' and trolled out to bring about some kind of "Ragnarok-Event" and defeats practically everybody before Thor somehow defeats him. It gets kind of old, and I think this is one character they could do away with, myself.

I also think it is "funny-not funny"/stupid how many times characters do something that should warrant their death by some 'royal decree' of Odin, and yet, nothing happens to them. They are barely punished; barely get a slap on the wrist. Besides, it's not like most characters stay dead, anyway.

It is funny - I am no longer a big fan of JRJR's artwork, but he probably did some of his best work in a while during this Thor run. I liked his stuff from the mid-80s or so; the nineties and beyond were not good years for him. That being said, I do wish he had been the 'primary' artist for the majority of the run instead of alternating issues with other artists. I know I said this above, but I really felt like the changing of the artists and their work was distracting to the overall story and even took away from the story, at times

While I did like the introduction of the "Dark Gods" and all, I did feel like their story took waaaay too long in the series. I know there was quite a bit of 'other stuff' going on in the various issues, which is part of why it as long as it did, but it really seemed their story was drawn out. Plus, it is not like their entrance and departure had any real, long-term affect upon Asgard or the Asgardians. Sure, maybe some Asgardians died under their tyranny, but we never really know or care, because the ones who do die the reader really does not care about, so it was a 'wasted' death.

It was amusing to read that the Asgardians “only” had access to Asgardian magic and Terran technology when it came to rebuilding Asgard, yet they chose to do the work manually. I do ‘get it’ when it comes to doing the work by hand and the sense of self-accomplishment that comes with it. At the same time, it just seemed silly to me that the Asgardians do not have any kind of ‘tech’ of their own they can use to make parts of their lives ‘easier.’ Perhaps all they really do have is “Asgardian magic” available to them, except not every Asgardian has ‘special powers’ or is some kind of wizard/mage/witch/sorcerer. That, and some of the ‘scenes’ in the artwork seems to imply something other than sorcery or witchcraft is at work when they are viewing the Nine Realms or scoping out Asgard.

One ‘big’ weakness to me is Heimdall. He strikes me as a hilarious character, as he is supposed to be able to ‘see everything’ and yet he constantly allows enemies of Asgard to sneak into the kingdom to wreak havoc. Various enemies of Asgard are able to sneak past him in order to do whatever mischief they desire, and yet he never seems to suffer any kind of rebuke or discipline for his failure to detect these enemies. One of the ‘scenes’ (or “moments”) is especially hilarious, as the foes of Asgard are already within the gates and ready to smite Odin before he beings babbling about detecting these foes and the danger they present. Maybe the pages were printed out of order? In any case, it is pretty funny how far these villains get before Heimdall “suddenly detects” them and raises the alarm.

I did like (love) that Thor went to find the Destroyer and convince "It" (Colonel Case) to join Thor in saving Asgard in exchange for Colonel Case's "spirit" being restored his mortal body. That was pretty cool, and I did not see that coming at all. I loved it! I also loved the "full-page spread" of the Destroyer as it stands amidst flames and billowing smoke before the fight begins with Thor and the Avengers. There was some phenomenal artwork throughout the series, be it covers or internal artwork, and this one-page shot (almost like a 'one-shot') was beautiful, in my opinion. JRJR did a great job capturing the essence and threat and majesty of the Destroyer in that picture.

I did like that Wanda showed up a few times in the series - it was fun watching (and reading) her interact with Thor. Even though she is a "merely" a mutant and maybe "three times stronger" than a normal human, she was still able to hold her own and assist Thor (and Odin) in defeating the holders of the Living Talismans. I also liked her putting Odin in his place, when she points out he can either accept her help or he can die as his body is slowly dissolved by highly corrosive stomach acid.

I also liked how various threads from the Heroes Return limited series, Journey Into Mystery series, and even original Thor series were picked up and ‘answered’ by Jurgens in this volume. In addition, I also liked how different elements hinted at or added ‘early on’ were expanded upon further in later issues. It was nice to have those plot points attended to and not forgotten, which has happened from time to time in various comic book series (such as in Amazing Spider-Man 500, where it hints at an upcoming Doctor Strange mini-series that tied directly into the events that transpired in the Spider-Man issue but then never took place).

Marnot turning out to be one of Odin’s raven’s was hilarious to me, especially considering how he stared Hela down in order to send Thor back to Earth in the guise of Jake Olson. That was an interesting decision on the part of the writer – to make Thor “mortal” again by giving him a mortal guise with which he would interact with the rest of the mortals. I did like the cast of supporting characters from Earth that were included; I felt they added to the story (although I did dislike how Hanna’s heart was broken when Thor as Jake told her that she was actually engaged to his “twin” brother Loren and not Jake; I thought that was pretty stinky, as was Thor’s inability to tell the Lady Sif that he still loved her above all other women. Granted, she clearly still had feelings for Beta-Ray Bill, too, so there you go.

It was interesting to me how often Iron Man showed up in the ‘early’ issues of the series – well, the first twenty-five issues, I guess. He seemed to show up quite a bit, as did Spider-Man. Which was fine with me; it was still a surprise, is all.

Overall, it was a fun compilation to read. The artwork ranges from amazing to stinky. The character development is not as continuous as one might like, but it does happen, at times. It would always be nice of the development of character continued throughout the series or was picked up by other writers when they take over, but the lessons learned never seem to truly last (sad to say). I did like the introduction of new foes Thor’s canon as well as the “reintroduction” of old foes. Overall, it was an entertaining compilation to read, and I could see myself reading it again somebody.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its been ages since i read a Thor run, i do like the character but i have only read the J. Michael Straczynski run, The classic Simonson run and Aaron's run which was cool. One thing i always have a problem with is the language of Thor, i get it, he is a God from Asgard, but it just does not read easily, this one included ! First couple issues are dialogue heavy and a bit of a slog, but after that it gets better as your getting used to it. The artwork really helps as i am a fan of John Romita JR. Who has such a significant style, and i dig the era, late 90s. Makes me think about that fantastic Spidey run. The later end of the book is drawn by Andy Kubert, and thats even better artwork, all in all a decent omnibus with kickass artwork and a fast, action packed story!

[Videogamenerd13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

ANYONE ELSE! DON'T READ THIS, LOL, THIS IS FOR ME TO REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED! NOTHING BUT SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




AGAIN! FOR ME! DONT READ!

Great time with one of my favorite characters. Thor dies/some crazy villain says he can live and saves him from Hella as long as he inhabits the body of a recently deceased paramedic named Jake Olsen. So thor and jake Olsen are now one and the villain that made offer turned out to be odins raven. Many villains but the best from the book are the Mangog and Thanos team up. Thor prevails by obtaining armor and shield forged by ???? (old stinky villain cant remember name). Malekith, obtains the casket of ancient winters and tries taking down Asgard while Oden is in his Oden sleep.... Ulik also tries after malekith fails and almost decapitates Odin in sleep but Odin happens to wake at the right moment and stops the attacks on asgard. Lady Sif was fill if for throne holder during Odins slumber. Thor Girl makes first appearance. Absorbing man brief appearance. Loki was in there setting Jake Olsen up after he obtained his likeness from Hella as a way to take thor down but Odin sent him off to pay for his crimes.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a healthy return after the Heroes Reborn fiasco.

Jurgens channels a lot of Kirby, which is good. But he never masters the voice of Asgardians.

His channeling of Kirby is uncreative, but mostly enjoyed.

I was eager to finally have some of the Jake Olsen stories under my belt and to better understand Goldilock's second mortal entanglement. At least now I know that the Olsen story is utterly fumbled. Maybe the second half of Jurgens run does something with the odd fitting pieces of Donald Blake 2: The Sequel, but I suspect this is moving toward murkier depths.

The Beta Ray Bill appearance was far too brief and meaningless for my tastes. Balder too gets his normal short shrift.

[Sotofunkdamental · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aventuras interesantes de Thor, que sirvieron para revitalizar al personaje.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find my spoiler-free review here:
https://www.nerdinthenoke.com/2018/11...