Thor's Day 1: Mighty Thor 337

All right, so here’s the deal. I am going to start back on classic runs of books that I have and haven’t read, and share my thoughts on them issue by issue.

My first choice for this project is none other than Walter Simonson’s Mighty Thor. So every Thursday you will be able to look forward to a new installment of “Thor’s Day”. We start with his first issue, Mighty Thor 337.

Like so many of Simonson’s works, his run on Thor starts with an epic scope with massive panels showing something being forged. What it is is still unclear, though the final anvil strike does come with the sound effect “DOOM!”.

Is that the Dreaded Deadline version or just the regular?

From there we go to Dr. Donald Blake (secret identity of Thor if you didn’t already know) as he walks through Grant Park. Apparently, Don was based in Chicago at the time. His time in peace is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Colonel Nick Fury, head of SHIELD. It seems that a threat from outer space is on the way and it’s up to the Mighty Thor to stop it.

Before we can reach space though we get a brief digression. In Asgard, Sif laments her loss of Thor, but moreso her loss of action.

...as long as Walt is drawing me.

Back to Thor on his way in to space. I love Simonson’s skewed angles when we go in to flight mode, especially in to space. Anyway, Thor goes to confront the offending space-craft. After an attack from the automated defenses, he smashes his way inside, only to be grabbed by a massive hand.

Back in Asgard, we focus on Loki this time. He meets a young woman named Lorelei, clearly a sign of things to come.

Back in space, Thor’s attack reveals himself, and he is a figure clearly recognizable to long time Marvel fans.

This costume is strangely similar to his later Star Masters look.

Beta Ray Bill and Thor do battle. Thor looses his hammer after a particularly mighty blow. After a minute, he reverts to his Donald Blake form and is knocked out by Bill.

Bill goes in search of Thor’s hammer, but it has reverted back in to Blake’s walking stick. Angered, Bill slames it in to a wall. In the process, he is tranformed in to the more common image we know of Beta Ray Thor. He moves to defend his ship, but his battle takes him against Fury and agents of SHIELD.

But the battle is interrupted by a message from Odin. The king of Asgard summons Thor back to his home... only he summons the wrong Thor! And Donald Blake is left powerless among the mortals as the issue comes to an end.