Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Volume 1 TPB (New Printing): Walter Simonson v. 1 (Marvel Visionaries) [Paperback]

If you're even slightly interested in Thor as a character, I *highly* recommend Simonson's famous series. He writes & draws the 1st three paperbacks, and then mostly just writes the last two. My favorite volumes are the 1st three, but the entire run is really well done.

Highlights here for me...
*Issues 337 & 338- Introducing Beta Ray Bill! Thor meets his match, and we learn the origin of this exciting new character.
*Issues 339 & 340- Introducing Beta Ray Thor? Bill's new identity is solidified, as Thor & Sif help him fight for his people's survival.
*Issues 341 to 343- Thor begins his new life in New York, adopting a new identity with the help of Nick Fury. Taking the name Sigurd Jarlson, Thor finds life in NYC to be a lot like Asgard, as the creature Fafnir appears & fights! Scenes switch between Asgard & New York, and many different Asgardians appear throughout.

As much as I like it, the artwork is a little sketchy here; it gets better in volumes 2 & 3. This new '08-'09 printing is *greatly* improved over the 2001 printing. Here we get newly reconstructed colors, bonus sketches, and the 3 missing panels from issue 341, which were included in a letters page in issue 342.

Included in this volume:
*Issues #339 to #341- Walt Simonson writes, pencils & inks
*Issue #342- Walt Simonson writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks
*Issues #343 to #345- Walt Simonson writes, pencils & inks
*Issue #346- Walt Simonson writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks
*Issue #347- Walt Simonson writes, pencils & inks
*Issue #348- Walt Simonson writes & pencils; Bob Wiacek inks
*sketches from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition

-UPDATE 2011- The newly reconstructed colors here represent the typical cleaning up of the original 80's colors, like Marvel does with all of their 80's paperbacks these days. These colors are *not* the same as the even newer colors in the 2011 Thor Simonson Omnibus. The omnibus colors are a whole different kind of 'new', specially made for that release.

I was never a big Thor fan. Never read the comics, never really took too much note of him in the pages of Avengers. Mark Millar's interpretation of the character in "The Ultimates" intrigued me, and with all the hype over his demise around the "Avengers Disassembled" story lines, I decided to pick up this volume, although I was extremely skeptical. I couldn't really imagine the Norse gods being brought to life and interacting with the modern world.

Well this book truly blew me away! What is so powerful is the writers' unreserved, thorough, and convincing immersion in the original Norse mythos. He really takes it seriously, and seems to have done a pretty major amount of research, as countless minutiae of the Asgardian world are incorporated in the comics. I found myself completely engrossed in the mythology, swept away by the epic scale of the tales, and thrilled by the might and magic of the proceedings.

Mr. Simonson's art is vigorous and lusty. I had previously only seen his work on X-factor, and was never a fan. Now I realize that the X-Factor work was a later, more rushed and tired version of this earlier, more crafted and finished style.

I unreservedly recommend this book. It brings home the power of good old-fashioned Marvel Comics from an era that was completely untainted by irony of any kind - a vigorous and exciting kind of story-telling that is pure, innocent fun, but paired with enough complexity of plot and depth of character to distinguish it from the more simplistic tales of the sixties and seventies These books truly readable and enjoyable over 25 years after they were written!

Well, this is the definitive Thor run. This new printing fixes all the quality screw-ups from the earlier edition. Great story, great art, all the Asgardian goodness missing (in my opinion) from later Thor runs. Highly recommended.