Thunder God Thursday

Reasons to love Thor: Ragnarok

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Thor: RagnarokOK, before we get into discussing why you should see Thor: Ragnarok, we’re going to ignore for a moment that the title of this post misspells “ragnarök” as “ragnarok.” I’m sure if it were a section of Taika Watiti’s Thor movie, there would be a “devil’s anus” joke to riff on here. And I’m a bit disappointed that a movie willing to use Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” not once, but twice, didn’t get an umlaut in its title.

But such petty concerns are beside the point. I loved this movie. It was exactly as fun as I hoped it would be.

And, in its many departures from Norse mythology, it actually uses them to make a point. Unlike the first two Thor movies (which I enjoyed in their own right), Taika Watiti’s Thor: Ragnarok finds a way to make the Marvel superhero Thor both epic and funny. (In Thor, he was funny, but not epic. In Thor: The Dark World, he was epic, but not exactly funny.)

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Thunder God Thursday: Walter Simonson’s Ragnarök

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simonson-ragnarok-teaseShould you be interested in Walter Simonson’s Ragnarök? If you’re already familiar with the writer-artist’s work, particularly his acclaimed run on Marvel’s Thor, you can probably skip to the line below.

TL;DR – Shut up and take my money. Yes, it’s that good.

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Vikings: A TV series worth watching, by Thor

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Stop me if you've heard this one before: a crew of vikings walks into a monastery... (History Channel)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a crew of vikings walks into a monastery… (History Channel)

Perhaps we can thank the success of lavish historical dramas such as Rome or the high-fantasy overtones of Game of Thrones for the newest kid on the swords-and-intrigue block, Vikings. The series premières March 3 at 10 p.m. (ET) on the History Channel.

An Irish/Canadian co-production, Vikings tells the story of ambitious Norseman Ragnar Longbrok (Travis Fimmel), who, in the year 729, defies Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne) by secretly refusing to go raiding to the east in Russia. Ragnar tells his brother there’s no point pillaging the same settlements who are just as poor as they are. It’s based loosely on the exploits of the real Ragnar, who became a renowned chieftain.

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Why you should read Walt Simonson’s entire run on Thor

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MightyThorOmnibuscropIn the 1980s, superhero comics were in the process of reinventing themselves for a more sophisticated audience, and one of the creators who took advantage of that was writer/artist Walt Simonson when he took the reins at Marvel Comics’ Thor.

Chris Clarememont and John Byrne had made their mark on The Uncanny X-Men; Frank Miller and Klaus Janson had overhauled Daredevil into something epic. (Byrne and Miller, of course, later revolutionized Superman and Batman, respectively.) But Simonson, who had worked on The Mighty Thor in the late 1970s, already had mythic material to start with, and when he returned to the title he built it into a world-shattering story.

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Thunder God Thursday: Trust Odinn

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OK, fine, we all know Odinn (Óðinn) isn’t the god of thunder; that would be his son, Thor. But I have loved this meme pic since I first saw it on Facebook. Not much to add, other than: this is clearly an Allfather you can trust.

Trust Odinn

Thunder God in New York

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Jon Mikl Thor in his early career. (Photo courtesy of Steve Scott / THOR management)

Jon Mikl Thor, born in Vancouver, BC, started out as a bodybuilder in the 1970s and moved into the theatrical world of heavy metal. His shows featured feats of strength to the adoration of screaming fans. But as he tells it, taking the God of Thunder as your stage name doesn’t grant you immunity from trouble…

“There are many dangerous parts about being Thor in New York. One time I did a TV show and had the make-up on and long blonde hair. My wife likes Bojangles chicken, right? So I went to a Bojangles in a sort of shady area of New York City and then I was calling her, ‘Hey, I have some Bojangles chicken!’

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