Weird Comics #1 - pt. 1

It's been some time since we read the debut of a "brand new" comic book together, but here we are with the inaugural issue of Fox's Weird Comics, plus the first appearance of a version of Thor in comics -- unless the character named Thor in Top-Notch Comics was the real Thor, and I've still reached no decision there). 

Already we're getting an unusual take on Thor...apparently he waxes, runs around in shorts, a cape, and a hat, and lives in Valhalla instead of Asgard. Say...is that acknowledging that Ragnarok already happened, and Thor is dead? That actually makes this truer to mythology than the Lee/Kirby version started, if I'm right.

Although Thor appears to be shooting an energy bolt from his hand, I believe that's meant to represent the path of his hammer.

Another interesting development: Grant Farrell could have just been given Thor's hammer and his powers, but instead he's "transformed into Thor's being," which seems more complex, like how Don Blake and Thor were merged into one person? 

How does he recognize them as spies? Grant isn't a spy himself. Is this some kind of Thor sense? Or are the Editor and player meta-gaming, where the Editor just tells the player what everything is he encounters?

The spies' motivation here is pretty suspicious. Could they really find no one to pose as a tourist for them willingly? 

"Andurian" makes me think of Peruvian. Peru is the 2nd largest world producer of copper and silver, 8th largest world producer of gold, so that does sound like something international spies would want to get their hands on.

Riding on a lightning bolt is a curious way for Thor to get around, but the Marvel Thor seldom used his goat-drawn chariot either. It could be the Teleport through Focus power, since electricity is technically everywhere, or this could be flavor text for a slower Race the power; after all, he doesn't really need to be faster than Race the Plane to catch up to the spies.

Forcing a plane to land I could see as a freebie result with a Control Weather power. 

So, Plan A was to sneak spies into the country to look for the mines, but Plan B was to roll tanks into the country and crush everything but the mines. It seems like a lot of escalation is happening there and maybe there should have been a plan in between?

No one in Hideouts & Hoodlums should be able to smash five tanks at once. I think I would cap Mass Wrecking at three tanks. Five...that's just a lot of tanks.

Speaking of plans...it's hard to imagine what Grant was thinking to accomplish, changing back to normal and just waltzing up to the mines. Was he planning on asking how they planned to defend the mines? Was he trying to flush out any spies around the mines? Couldn't he have done both as Thor? The story hasn't told us yet that there's a time limit to how long Grant can be Thor, but if there was one that would explain why there needs to be scenes like this. 

It's also worth pointing out that the low ceilings in the mine are pretty realistic, more so than how spacious mines usually look in the movies.

I didn't show you page 9, but Grant stays in the same spot throughout, which begs the question -- where did that lightning come from? Can Grant summon lightning even when he doesn't appear to be Thor? Did the real Thor send it? 

  

Again, it's difficult to get a sense of Thor's plan. Carrying the spies back to their home country seems more like doing them a favor then deporting them...unless Thor wanted them to get shot by the anti-aircraft guns? He must have been expecting it, because he buffed himself with Invulnerability before taking off.

 

Lastly, Thor must have eight brevet ranks, going into this adventure. 

 

Moving on, we meet the Sorceress of Zoom in her magic floating -- and mobile! -- city. I wish we could see more clearly the monsters in panel 4. When it says she created them with her magic spell, I don't think we should consider this an ordinary magic spell, like Mobster Summoning, with a duration. Rather, I think we can hand wave this as flavor text explaining where the monsters came from.

 

 

 

The monster in panel 1 reminds me of Spider-Man's future foe, the Jackal. It also looks kinda goblin-like? Even more interesting is the monster in panel 2 -- I really wish I had a clearer picture of it. It looks like it has webbed feet, one glowing eye, attacks by strangulation, and is wearing a cape? I want to stat it, but I don't even know what to call it!

 

The floating city "speeds off into the distance"? How fast can a magic floating city move? Fast enough that planes can't catch up to it? 

 

If I thought the Thor story was confusing, the narrator here is of little help whatsoever. I don't understand why the Sorceress wants to take over the city by force, but then gets upset when one single boy is knocked out. 

 

Ohh...carefully looking at the page numbers, I see two pages are missing. Now I may never understand what spell "hundreds of us" were under, or how the mysterious figure knows to single out Tom to help him.

 

There's our goblin friend again. While before I thought the red dots on his undies were gems, now they just look like polka dots. 

 

Hmm. I didn't actually have anything game mechanics-related to say about that page. I think I just wanted the excuse to mention his undies. 

 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)