Explore the early ears of the God of Thunder in this adventure full of Marvel myth and magic! Join young Thor and his godly companions, Balder and Sif, as they travel the mystical land of Asgard on a quest of cosmic proportions. When Odin, the All-Father, sends his favorite son to gather four mystical elements that he will use to craft a powerful new weapon, not even Ragnarok will be able to stop the boy who would be king! Then, after their adventures across the wolds of Asgard, it's back to school for Thor, Balder and Sif...but when you're in training to be a warrior, study hall isn't so quiet! The lives of the three young friends take an interesting turn when Amora the Enchantress enters the picture. Sparks will fly when their schooling in swords and sorcery comes head-to-head!
Props to Marvel for gathering up all 12 issues of Akira Yoshida's Thor:Son of Asgard in one volume. Yeah I know they also put out some two volume editions but at least we got the choice of getting the combined collection. Basically these stories retell some of the big stories and ideas from the classic Lee/Kirby Tales of Asgard that featured the teenage Thor but with all the archaic language stripped out, though Yoshida still can't resist a few utterances of "I say thee nay!!!" - If I was writing Thor I don't think I'd be able to resist either. The first 6 part arc is your basic 3 teens on a quest to recover a bunch of mystic McGuffins. Sif and Balder accompany Thor on the quest followed closely by Loki and eventually running foul of the witch Karniila (Balder beware). The second arc focuses more on Sif and her romance with Thor, introduces The Enchantress Amora and Brunnhilda (Valkyrie) and draws heavily on Lee/Kirby plot lines. The final arc is a pretty blow-by-blow updating of the classic Death Comes to Thor Lee/Kirby story with Thor finally taking up Mjolnir to rescue Sif from Frost Giants and death herself. Greg Tocchini's art is pretty good, aided massively by the lush colouring. It's all quite light but fun.
To be honest of all the Marvel characters Thor has always seemed the one most out of place. After all among all kinds of ordinary human beings who become meta-human and alien beings where does a deity fit in?
That is what I loved about this graphic novel. Which ended far too quickly for my taste. It explored the idea of the realms of Asgard and Jotunheim as well as the other mythological places in a way that allowed me to accept them as belonging to merely a different part of time or space. That Thor could be seen as a being from another world rather than merely a distant magical deity.
I liked the way in which the character's petty arguments were emphasised. And in the same way I disliked that very thing. I appreciated how the authors revealed that these are not perfect flawless gods but are more like humans granted supernatural power. However I also found fault with the over-use at times of the arguments between characters to break up scenes where nothing was happening (isn't that what the artwork is for?). Nevertheless it is easier to criticise someone's hard work in putting together any novel rather than to create your own.
The reason this rises slightly above other graphic novels is to do with the glorious art work which combines nicely with the plotting. I gained the sense that this was almost a fairytale or myth created for older more mature readers. And as someone who likes Marvel comics (on the whole) and appreciates mythology and fairytales this struck a nice chord.
So if you are looking for a graphic novel to read in the nearby future you cannot go much wrong with this depiction of Thor. I would go as far as to say it is near celestial in its approach to creating Thor's mythology.
1,5 Naprawdę słabe origin story Thora. Kreska dość przeciętna, fabuła nie trzyma się kupy, postaci są albo mylone przez twórców albo seksualizowane. Wszystkie konflikty kończą się Disneyowskim happy-endem, często biorącym się znikąd. Nawet Loki nie ratuje tej historii. A Thor ani nie zachwyca ani nawet nie da się go lubić, miałki jak kluska - nawet umiera dwa razy i nagle powraca do żywych. A to jak zdobył Mjolnir i jak nagle umiał używać go perfekcyjnie w walce i latać to już jest taka wisienka w tej żenadzie. Jedynie ostatnie chaptery wyglądają troszkę lepiej ale historia dalej słaba. Thor zasługuje na lepsze Origin story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
No sabía que podía haber tantos personajes imbeciles en una sola historia, pero este cómic demuestra que si se puede. NO SE SALVA NINGUNO, cuando pensas que un personaje puede ser medio decente pasa algo que te demuestra que estas equivocada.
Well I am kinda happy that it was only 12 issues. Like the story was a bit rushed and I did not even got into the characters that much. I can imagine that there are better versions with much nicer style of drawing.
I read this series when it first came out and had wished it had continued on for more than "just" twelve issues. I think I reread this in 2010 when the compilation collection was released, and enjoyed it just as much. Had I rated it the first time, I probably would have given it four stars, maybe even five. Now, though, I think three stars is good (say, 3.3 - 3.5, rounded down). There are three separate arcs in this compilation; the first arc is six issues long and the next two arcs are three issues each. The stories are set during the characters' "teen years," and I thought the writer did a decent job portraying the characters as teenagers. It moves at a decent pace, overall, and it held my interest throughout. It was definitely a quick read!
The character development was a bit spotty, though.
Another re-read bites the dust and I liked it more than the last time I read it a few years ago. Solid story and artwork of the younger days of Thor along with his father and friends in Asgard, before he was worthy of Mjolnir.
"To possess too many is to lose much more." - Balder
In the beginning, there's a quest that Thor and his friends have to go and gather some stuff for Odin to make an enchanted sword, then we get in some Enchantress trouble, and finally in the third arc young Thor proves he's worthy against Hela.
"Those we hold dearest in our hearts.. are the ones that will lead us to ruin." - Karnilla
It reads fine, like watching an adventure series. Loki is present of course throughout the whole book and he's trying to be as much trouble as he can to everyone around him, but we mainly get Thor, Sif and Balder here.
"I offer you death, Odin." - Karnilla
The other thing that I liked is the last story, which is arevisit of the old story from Lee and Kirby from the 60s, how Thor became worthy of lifting Mjolnir, which was great that Yoshida kept the same plot but made it his and expanded on it. Wouldn't mind a bigger battle with Hela to be honest, but still great.
"Failure suggests defeat, and you have yet to give up trying." - Balder
First book in the Master Marvel Reading List. This book is three stories about Thor as a teen. The first half is Thor's first adventure. Odin sends Thor and his best friends Sif and Baulder off on a scavenger hunt for 4 things to make a magic sword. Standard fantasy quest. The adventuring party: Thor, Baulder and Sif. Thor is an arrogant, hot headed prince and Baulder is just "a nice guy", but Sif is clearly the most interesting. She has a chip on her shoulder for constantly being belittled, overlooked, or objectified by every loin-clothed wearing jock. And then the second story line comes along and she is reduced to fighting other women for Thor's affection and the third is literally the damsel in distress. Quite sad.
In terms of the Marvel Comic Timeline, this looks to be the first to happen, taking place about 1500 years ago.
This series depicts the Marvel Comics superhero Thor, when he was a teenager, learning how to be the eventual ruler of Asgard. This first volume follows his path to become worthy to wield Mjolnir the mystic hammer that is his trademark as an adult. Many of Thor's supporting character get some nice play here as well, including Sif, the warrior-maiden who is Thor's beloved, Balder the Brave, Loki, Thor's mischievous foster brother, Amora the Enchantress and Brunhilda, the Valkyrie. Sif get some particularly strong development -- and this is a nice companion to her own excellent, but short-lived starring turn in the Journey into Mystery comic.
Thor as a teenager who has yet to wield Mjolnir. A fun arc showing Thor and Sif and Balder going on various quests and Thor attempting to prove himself worthy of wielding the mighty hammer. Some teenage-level drama (first kisses, magic love mirrors, etc) sprinkled with battle scenes but otherwise a fairly light dramatic read.
The coloring and writing are decent but the facial artwork is TERRIBLE. So much derp.
First issue is very promising. The backgrounds are gorgeous!
The first arc is better than the later ones. Love seeing the young Thor, Sif, and Baldur adventure and interact. The art is continues to be spectacular with the environment, but there is a strange incompleteness in the forms at time. I still really like it, though.
Great all ages comic, if you're looking to turn your kids on to comics but are worried about content, Son of Asgard is a great starting point. Also, for Thor fans, this is a clear love letter to Walt Simonson, the best who ever penned about the Odinson.
Meh. This was a re-read for me after many years, and the male-gaze heavy art just doesn't hold up, or make a single bit of sense in a comic about teenagers. The writing was fine, though, so this is more of a 2.5.
Thor: Son of Asgard by Akira Yoshida (Pseudonym), Greg Tocchini (Artist), Adi Granov (Illustrator), Jo Chen (Illustrator), Jay Leisten (Illustrator), C.B. Cebulski compiles Thor: Son of Asgard #1-12 Paperback, 296 pages Published September 8th 2010 by Marvel Comics (first published May 2004)
So you like them comic books? I have been a comic book fan for around 40 years or so, while I have read some DC comics releases, I have always been a Make Mine Marvel kind of guy. I've also been a fan of Thor, so much so that I convinced my wife to make my son's middle name Thor. Before all those Marvel movies came out. So I guess in a way I'm a Marvel Hipster.
Anyway, let's talk about this book. This trade Paperback collects issues 1-12 of “Thor: Son of Asgard” which ran back in 2004-2005. The story is of a young Thor, Sif and Balder, oh and of course Thor's trickster brother Loki and how the first three are sent on a group of tasks by Odin and how at first Loki is there (always ahead of the trio) to keep them from completing their tasks. Eventually this leads to the moment when Thor is worthy of Mjolnir.
Young Thor is attempting to lift Mjolnir, but he is not yet worthy. His friends Balder and Sif and laughing at the silly looks on his face as he strains himself, but Loki watches from the rafters. He causes three spiders to grow gigantic through magic, but by working together, the three young heroes destroy the monsters. Odin then decides to send the three young warriors on a quest to gather four elements that he will use to forge a new sword.
Thor, Balder, and Sif search the Hidden Hills for the dragon Hakurei. Their first task is to get one of his scales. Thor, Balder, and Sif then go to Jotunheim, to find Gnori and retrieve one of his feathers, as part of the quest of Odin. They are both still angry at Thor for accepting the quest without asking them first, and they are caught in a blizzard. Suddenly, they are attacked by Ice Elementals, but they manage to defeat them. Then Gnori arrives and grants them one of his feathers, along with a few wise words of warning.
The three friends find their way to the Mines of Jennia to retrieve one of the jewels and are attacked by the Jennia, small creatures that feed on emotions. Loki is trapped too, but he is rescued by Karnilla, who has been watching them the whole time.
Thor, Sif, and Balder are on their way to the Lake of Lilitha when Loki arrives and tells them of Karnilla's plan to attack Asgard. They decide that Sif and Balder will return to Asgard, while Thor continues to the lake to draw a vial of water - the final element needed. On his trek, he is attacked by Leviathan, but Thor defeats him. Thor finally arrives at the lake only to find it dried up and dead. He then returns to Asgard as the battle is going on. The Asgardians finally win the battle, but unseen, Karnilla lands on a tower and fires an arrow into Thor's chest.
Odin manages to defeat Karnilla and uses the magic sand from the Lake of Lilitha to restore Thor to life. He then has the sword Svadren forged from the four mystic elements and presents it to Balder the Brave.
That quest complete you would think Thor would be able to rest, but no. Both Sif and Amora vie for Thor's affections, when a new girl arrives in school – Brunnhilda. Fed up with the competition of the two blondes, Amora and Brunnhilda, in her quest to have Thor fall in love with her, Sif steals the Mirror of Mycha with the help of Loki. But after the spell is cast, Amora steals the mirror and uses it to make Thor love her. But hey you can't work with Loki without being tricked, right?
Sif is now enraged to find out she's been tricked. She and Brunnhilda make peace and decide to get back at Amora and Loki. During their confrontation, the Mirror of Mycha is broken and with it, the spell over Thor.
Thor goes to see the Fates concerning how to become worthy of Mjolnir, and they tell him that he must first face death. Upon his return to Asgard, the Storm Giants have attacked and kidnapped Sif. Odin tells Thor that he must remain behind and they will go rescue her. Thor decides that he is going to go as well, and find himself worthy to finally lift the enchanted hammer.
Trade paperbacks are really the way to go when you want to read a story as a whole. There were times when I would get frustrated waiting month to month for the next issue. Once I discovered if I had patience I would be rewarded with a TPB to add to my collection. I recommend the same to anyone. However there is still no replacement for going to the local comic book store every Wednesday when the new books arrive and grabbing a handful.
Starting to follow a guide on Marvel comics. Don't really know if I should add entire series or just per volume. Figured I'll just add the series when I'm planning to read them all, and a single volume when I get it in between complete series but don't plan to read it all straight ahead.
This was ok. Wasn't a fan of the art style particularly. My favourite part was Sif. Really got involved with her and her emotional development. I don't know if she will continue in the story like this in Journey Into Mystery #83 (which is when I'll see Thor again, according to the order I'm following: https://comicbookreadingorders.com/ma...) but I hope so.
I really like the idea of Thor. I'm not a fan of where his character went in the movies. I liked him at the beginning though. So I'd like to see where he goes from here. In these volumes he's very young still, and we get to see how he becomes worthy. It wasn't very convincing for me because..
SPOILERS
...they say he has to encounter death again to be worthy. But he gets to lift Mjolnir before he does that. I mean he gets it on his way, but didn't make much sense to me. Also, Hella says she's never seen someone so honourable (when he says he'll exchange his life for that of Sif's) but we just saw Balder try to exchange his life for Loki's a few issues ago and Loki was his enemy, not even his lover. So, with this logic, Balder is far worthier than Thor.
Between those misunderstandments and that I wasn't completely sold on the art style, it's three stars for me. Sif really saved it from being fewer.
This is my first impression of Thor comics and I have to say I’m pretty disappointed. The art is ugly and the storyline is sort of boring.
In all honestly though, I started this series in an attempt to binge read some Loki comics and get to understand the character (while I wait for the next episodes of the Loki show). Loki himself in this is the bad guy (obviously) but he makes one somewhat nice decision? His constant betraying is maybe sort of fun but that’s about it really.
I’m not happy with the romance in this. The whole, ‘two girls fighting over a guy’ thing is annoying and over-used, and honestly feels sort of sexist. Also, some of the male characters are obviously meant to be sexist (to show Sif’s struggles) but all the other men just say that he’s joking and it’s okay (which makes them complacent, and so makes them jerks). Sexist jokes aren’t funny to anyone. I’m disappointed none of the other male characters have any sense to defend Sif. She deserves better.
Anyway, this was a sort of rant. I read these comics for Loki and suffered through ugly art and sexist storylines. Hopefully other comics with Loki are better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Oh my word, that was bad. The characters felt two-dimensional and flat, especially Sif, who they built up to be a strong and empowering female character, only to knock her down 50 pegs by making her fall in love with the main character and become a Damsel in distress...if that was meant to be empowering, it only comes off as embarrassing for the author. Unfortunately, it's not just the portrayal of gender that gets a terrible shot either. Thor is as bland as he's ever been, and Loki just does evil, back-stabbing shenanigans for the lols? The art looks like it comes out of a Christian novella too, it's just bad... and at no point does the comic know whether it wants to be an epic origin story, a dodgy Disney knock-off or an anime Harem. This is an awful introduction to the character and I'm glad it has been retconned in the coming issues. Skip this one.
Following the lives of Thor and his two friends, Sif and Balder, and Thor's mischievous half-brother, Loki, this collection of comics is a great origin story of the young avenger. What I loved most about this comic series wasn't just the development of Thor's character though, but also the attention to detail of Sif's character; a character little explored in the Thor movies. Although her character in this comic is continually over-presented as a love interest for Thor, there is still time to empathise with her situation as the only girl in warrior class, her feelings of loneliness, and her worry over the future and what other women's places will be like in Asgard. Having read this set of three stories, I am excited to know more of their journey together and continue reading more of Thor's comics!
Wow this was such a fun read, omg!! Thor has always been one of my favourite Avengers, so I was up for it. Sif is queen. And Loki is the God of MISCHIEF, people!
Here are some of my favourite lines:
“Sif, allow me to introduce our newest student…Brunnhilda.” “And she had to be blonde…”
Girl BYEEEE 💀😭
“Shouldn't the only boy in sorcery school share some kind of secret bond with the only girl in a class of male warriors? I'd have thought you and Sif got together for tea to commiserate about your hatred of the opposite sex?”
I think I am supposed to hate Amora, but god is she sassy as hell!
“Love is an emotion even the most experienced warriors are forced to yield to, Sif. It makes victims of us all.”