COMICS: Dave's Marvel Rant: Thor, Ka-Zar

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Marvel Rant:

Thor v2 #2 "Not Quite Himself"
Ka-Zar #16 "The Importance Of Being Frank"

Spoilers....

Thor "Deal With The Devil": This wasn't as bad as Iron Fist #1, the
Jurgens effort from last week. But, then again, the dizzy spells I had this
morning due to lack of sleep (got an early call to fill in for a sick T.A.)
weren't as bad as last time I had the flu.
The Avengers weren't quite as badly out of character this time out,
mainly because they were unconscious most of the time. Thor ends up in Hel
with Hela (which generally shouldn't happen, since he's not a *dishonored*
dead, Loki's Thor-in-a-bag from around #450 notwithstanding), and a "brand
new" character named Marnot shows up to throw his weight around, humble Thor,
mutter about cosmic balance and then merge Thor with the paramedic from last
issue. I say "brand new" in quotes because of the faint hope that Jurgens
wouldn't just create a character out of whole cloth who's able to push Hela
around. I'm inclined to think this is a new and subtle use of Loki (although
even he hasn't made it up to nine wives). But I may give too much credit.
Anyway, Thor returns to the land of the living, kicks the Destroyer
around and uses his all purpose baddie beater, the dimensional vortex.
Through pretty much the entire issue, it was clear what emotional
responses Jurgens was going for (awe, shock, sorrow, etc), but he never got
them from me. At *best* I was mildly bemused in places. Jurgens went for
the surface features of the grand old days, but seems to be completely
missing the heart (or he's so close to his own work that he can't step back
and see how others might not be as impressed by it).
The Final Page Shocker is that while Thor now turns into the body of the
paramedic, he apparently doesn't have the guy's memories (if he had ANY of
those memories, you'd think he'd remember his fiance). It might be
interesting to see Thor admit who he is and try to fit into the life he has
taken over...but somehow I doubt that'll happen. Jake's memories will either
resurface suddenly, or Thor will fake amnesia or something.
No, I don't have a whole lot of faith in Jurgens as a writer these
days. You try to read Iron Fist #1 and then cut the guy any slack, eh?

Ka-Zar "Punished": This is a MESS. Even with Punisher and Kevin having
distinct narration boxes, their sequences were confusing has all get-out.
Part of this is the backstory...Punisher has some memory problems which
aren't covered in the inside front cover and while the narration seems to
assume the reader knows all about. But a LOT of it is the really horrible
layout by Martinez, which, while it doesn't jump about in large ways, jumps
about in ways that are just enough to muddle the narrative flow. I'm pretty
good at following Priest Plots, and as far as I can tell, this was meant to
be a pretty simple one, once you get past the information issue. But I kept
shaking my head in befuddlement, re-reading pages to try and figure out what
order the panels and the narration boxes should be, which scenes were
flashbacks, if any (what the HELL was the deal with the out-the-window
sit-ups, and where did it fit into the narrative? Before or after?).
Shanna's side of the story was a lot more comprehensible, with her
learning that maybe she's been a lot more arrogant and condescending towards
the "savages" of the Savage Land than she thought. And she's using the knife
Kevin gave her (provided Kenny wasn't just drawing the same knife for his own
reasons), so the one Kevin found in Murdoch's pad wasn't it. (Side note to
editor: baby Matt has spoor, not spore. Unless he's a fungus boy, which
would be an interesting plot twist on its own.)

Dave Van Domelen, "And, I hate to bring it up, but -- how come I'm not
dead?" - Ka-Zar after being shot with a Mercy Bullet and falling through a
fire escape