Thor #414-417 (1990)


I’m gonna jam through a bunch of issues in a row because, frankly, it feels like the writing is rushed so the reading and blogging might as well be too.

Let’s start with #414, in which Thor beats the crap out Ulik after Ulik beats up Hercules and then, at the end of the issue, Eric Masterson’s ex-wife shows up to take custody of his kid.  I wish they’d drop this Masterson identity already.  Nobody cares about it. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just…Boring. DeFalco’s Thor run is mostly boring.

On to #415…

The “losing my kid” cliffhanger doesn’t get picked up much in issue #415, except that Masterson is feeling weepy and nostalgic.  Herb Trimpe steps in for the art chores in a re-telling of Thor’s Don Blake origin as Eric Masterson wrestles with having to turn his identity/body over to the Thunder God all the time.

Filler.

Although I suppose if you’re going to re-tell a classic tale, bringing in Trimpe makes sense.

Then a “stalker from space” comes and Herc and Thor fight it in issues #416-417, along the way having another Thor vs. Herc fight that doesn’t matter because of mind control.

And remember that subplot about Masterson losing his kid? The one from a few paragraphs ago, which I said nobody cares about?  Apparently I was right, because it’s now four issues later and not a word about it.

Kinda ponderous.

There are some Tales of Asgard backups in these issues that aren’t worth a mention. Not bad but, again, not interesting either.

I do like Ron Frenz’s art though.

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