Thor: The Dark Gods [Paperback]

Dan Jurgens (Author), John, Sr. Romita (Illustrator), John Romita Jr. (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785107398
• ISBN-13: 978-0785107392
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,051,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A review from marvelmasterworks.freeservers.com: GREAT TPB!, July 10, 2002

By 

singmebackhome (Macon, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thor: The Dark Gods (Paperback)

This book seems to have gotten some mediocre reviews up till now. One thing people need to remember is that this is a TPB collecting issues #9-13 of Thor, but there is alot of context to this story that isn't found in these pages. Reviewers are holding writer Dan Jurgens to a standard of creative precision that this format doesn't permit.

Thor #13, the final issue reprinted in this TPB (an anticlimax to some, it appears) was thrilling to those who, through the first 8 issues were wondering who the heck this Marnot fellow really was! I thought the revelation was deftly handled and played to Thor's grounding in mythology.

Marvel's rendering of Thor, as most people should know, is not strictly from the mythological background. That's just the backdrop to his heroics. One person complained he was too much like Superman. Well...that's what he was created to be! Thor was Marvel's answer to DC's Superman- an ultimate monolith of a super being. Thor is as close to untouchable and unbeatable in Marvel's universe as Supes is in DC's universe. Marvel's Superman has a lineage in Norse mythology though, not a far distant planet he is the sole survivor of.

And here's the main reason this collection gets 5 stars from me, and it's something no other reviewer has yet touched on: the art of John Romita, Jr. Absolutely breathtaking...astounding...I was motivated to turn each page to see what next amazing artwork he would conjure up to tell the story. And tell the story he did! I am a somewhat jaded comics reader by now, but his battle scenes were gripping- I just couldn't put this book down! His visuals of the Dark Gods are stunning, and the first battle between Thor and Perrikus is some of the finest battle scenes this comics fan has ever seen on printed comics page. There is a scene where Perrikus does something to Thor that one would have never thought possible, and it is so shockingly rendered that I felt the despair and heartbreak and shock Thor and the rest of the Norse Gods must have been feeling at that moment.

I'll not go into it more, but leave the glory of reading this particular run of Thor comics to you. It's some wonderful stuff.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Poor writing..., July 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Thor: The Dark Gods (Paperback)

I really did not care for Jurgen's Superman stories, his writing on Thor is not much better. Here he builds the story all the way up to what is supposed to be an explosive climax, and it falls flat in the last ten pages of the story. I really miss the days when Walt Simonson worked on Thor. He treated Thor like a mythological character. Something the current writer does not do.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Attempt to Recapture the 60's. So-So Results., February 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Thor: The Dark Gods (Paperback)

It is clear to this reviewer that Dan Jurgens has attempted to revisit the earliest roots of Thor, journeying back into mystery and attempting to revive the grand and epic tales that Jack Kirby with an assist from Stan Lee wrought during Marvel's heyday. Does he succeed? Well, almost but not quite. There is an honest attempt to recall the glory that was Asgard, but ultimately it falls just short and reminds the reader of how far the mighty have fallen. Still, by attempting to recreate the essence and persona that Jack Kirby instilled into the Thor mythos and not merely rehashng the hackneyed plots that have permeated this title for the past 30 years - the story remains a worthwhile if vaguely unsatisfying effort. The art similarly tries to recapture the techno-style of Jack Kirby and manages to compliment rather than distract from the story, but it won't fool you into thinking that the King has returned to pencil the book.