Thor

Mythological Thor

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is one of the three sons of Odin, the chief god of Norse paganism. He yields the mighty hammer Mjolnir to fight off Giants and has to wear Megingjord, a magic belt, and Jarn Griepr, the iron gloves, to be able to lift the hammer. The short-handled hammer has become one of the most iconic signs in Norse paganism. Adding to that image of a Pagan God is his chariot that is pulled by the two goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr. With a lot of ruse and cunning, Thor solved the challenges posed before him (he once had to dress like a woman to trick the king of the Giants). But at the end, when everything else failed, he could rely on his strength and his mighty weapon.

Thursday was named after Thor, along with other Norse gods whose names were used to form the days of the week. Friday is named after Freyja. Wednesday is named after Odin (Wodanaz / “Wotan” in German).

With all the heroic stories of mythological gods, it is not really a coincidence that Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby got the idea to turn Thor into a comic character and superhero.

Graphical Thor

Marvel Comics first introduced Thor in Journey into Mystery #83 in August 1962. After that he continued his journey in “The Mighty Thor”, a 13-page feature.

The young god Thor is sent to Earth by his father, Odin, to learn how to be humble and therefore is placed in the human form of the partially disabled medical student, Donald Blake, with no memories of his divine abilities. Thor later on discovers his powers and discovers his compassion and loyalty for the human race. He sees himself as the protector of Midgard (Earth) and has to fight all kinds of supervillains, like the Destroyer, the Midgard Serpent or Mangog. His nemesis remains to be his adopted brother Loki, who has hated Thor since they were children. In his fight against his enemies, Thor manages to find allies and becomes part of the group called “The Avengers”.

Thor’s adventures have later on, after discovering his true identity and powers, been of epic proportions and therefore his enemies were in a different league than those an earthly hero like Spider-Man, Flash or Iron Man had to face.

That is exactly what I really like about the Thor comics. Thor being a god, you could not just send the Green Goblin or the Mandarin after him. He would crush them in the blink of an eye. A god needs devine enemies, like the God Eater, Thanos, Mephisto, Ego the Living Planet and the Dark Gods are much scarier foes than we are usually used to in the Marvel universe. The Thor’s battles against these adversaries are often epic- the ideal material for a blockbuster movie in the times of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight.

Thor – The Movie

It took nearly 50 years to bring Thor to the big screen and I hope it will not disappoint. In 2010, the blond Norse god and his hammer Mjolnir will have their feature film. There is not much information available on this project. And the discussion about the actor to play Thor has already started. Next to Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Karl Urban, actors who have played a mythological hero, the dark knight and a Norse fighter (all very important characteristics of Thor), the wrestler HHH (brute vampire in Blade:Trinity) was considered to play the main character.

I personnally would have liked a young Vladimir Kulich to play Thor. I have never seen a Norse clan chief die with such dignity on his own throne as Kulich in “The 13th Warrior“. But with his 52 years, he might already be too old for the part. I guess that depends on what part of Thor’s life will be shown. Or why not have Til Schweiger (King Arthur), the German Hollywood actor, have a crack at it. We’ll see…

Malik

Spawn

When Spawn first came out in Europe I had been convinced by a friend to see if I might enjoy it and become a collector. So I went and bought the first issue of Spawn in German. It was the beginning of a long friendship that was ripped to shreds by all kinds of different factors.

But let me start at the beginning of the series. “Spawn”, to me, had always been a fascinating character. Al Simmons was the kind of man that would do anything for his wife. He was a secret government hitman with military background, before he decided to quit the force. But the military would not let him quit… they killed him during his “last” mission and send him to Hell. And somewhere on the lower planes of Hell, Malebolgia heard him scream his wife’s name and decided to offer him a deal; one of those deals that usually don’t end well. Al Simmons was offered to see his wife again and in return would become the leader of this particular demon’s army against the forces of Heaven during Judgment Day. He accepted, but of course there was a catch. Al Simmons arrived on Earth as “Spawn”, a demonic figure with evil powers, five years after his death. His beloved, Wanda, was already married to Al’s best friend, Terry, and they had a little girl, Cyan. When he realized this, Spawn became a desperate and miserable figure and hid in the shadows of the backstreets of the city. His only friends became the bums and the rats. He tried to avoid everything and everyone around him, but was constantly confronted with evil and pain. He tried to hold on to the last good thing that still breathed somewhere deep inside of him… the memory of his loved ones. However, the forces of evil came after him, as he was supposed to train and evolve his powers, so that he could be a perfect leader to the armies he had signed a contract with his blood for.

Well, so much for a little storyline. Don’t worry, for those that have never read Spawn, this wasn’t really a spoiler, because all of this can be read in the first issue or seen in the movie “Spawn”, one of the first main stream movies about a non-Marvel/DC character, after the Crow and Crying Freeman. Although it never became a big blockbuster, I did enjoy it, especially the hilarious performance by John Leguizamo, playing the Violator.

Spawn has a solid base story, but over the years, it seemed that the writers had a lot of trouble keeping the story interesting. I guess this was mostly due to the fact that the Spawn story can be divided into an introduction (creation of the superhero/villain), a middle part (discovering what he can do, dramatic turn of events) and an end (Judgment Day). But as far as I could read, before they changed the publisher in Germany, they never really got to the end. Instead, they just kept on trying to continue the line of events, even introduce several side stories (Violator, Angela, Curse of Spawn, Spawn – the Dark Ages, Bloodfeud…) or put heaps of merchandise, especially action figurines, on the market to keep people interested. I myself bought a very fine looking Spawn figurine with angel wings (Redemption Spawn). My sources from beyond the grave (Wikipedia) though tell me, that the story did continue by taking epic proportions and culminating in a raging and devastating climax. I will try to acquire those last issues that never made it into the bookstores in Luxembourg and hopefully find a more satisfying ending to Spawn’s story than the one I got.

I think you could compare the success behind the Spawn comics, to the success of the Batman comics. Spawn lives in a city full of misery and pain, the kind that you can mostly find in Film Noir, and he himself is a questionable hero, having been created out of a personal tragedy. He seems to be a good man underneath his demonic appearance, but he is still supposed to be the leader of Hell’s armies, so his destiny is unknown and he is constantly challenged to turn evil. But in that lies the controversy: Does “not being bad” means “being good”? Does the absence of darkness equal the presence of light? Spawn has given up on his life, his destiny, his very existence. He wants to be left alone. It is only out of mere self defense that he fights. So can he really be a superhero? Does he have to be, to be interesting?

I don’t think so. Antiheros are much more interesting nowadays than shiny cape-wearing heroes (although Spawn is wearing a cape, and a pretty long one too). So, if you are the kind of person that likes to see a broken man, trying to mind his own business but always being pushed to his limits and if you like the mysterious and terrible depths of Hell depicted in a great style by the genius of Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo, go and get Spawn, the first comic I ever collected and one very fascinating bad/good guy.

Malik