Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition at San Diego Comic-Con

Legendary comics writer and artist Walter Simonson will appear at the IDW booth every day during the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, signing copies of Walter Simonson's The Mighty Thor: Artist's Edition. In addition to the regular edition available in July at comic stores, IDW will offer a limited Comic-Con exclusive edition featuring a variant cover, only available through IDW at the convention. Readers can now pre-order both editions direct from IDW Publishing for pick up at Comic-Con.

“I wrote and drew The Mighty Thor for Marvel more 25 years ago now, at a time when it was the fate of old comics to be deployed to the back issue bins in comic shops and at conventions.  No one had any expectations of reprints or trade collections.  Now, it’s a new day,” said Simonson. “I’m pleased that IDW and Marvel have seen fit to go back and revisit this work as they have. I couldn’t be more delighted to know Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and all their friends turned out to have a much longer shelf-life than I would ever have imagined.”

The oversized, hardcover collection will present Thor 337-340, Simonson’s first classic story arc, which introduced Beta Ray Bill, and Thor 360-362, Simonson’s choice for the second arc in the book. All the pages in the Artist's Edition have been scanned from Simonson’s personal original art to ensure the highest possible quality reproduction. While appearing to be in black and white, each page was scanned in color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art—for instance, white-out corrections and blue pencil notations.

“Walter’s run on The Mighty Thor is one of the best ever in comics—period,” said editor Scott Dunbier, “and to be able to see it now as an Artist’s Edition, printed the same size as drawn, and scanned from all the originals… well, I just can’t wait to get my paws on it!”

This will be Simonson’s first visit to San Diego Comic-Con since 2004. Joining Simonson will be his wife, Louise “Weezie” Simonson, a noted comic book editor and writer. This book will be the first in a series of Artist’s Editions featuring legendary creators and comics from Marvel.

Thor navigates a difficult path with masterful storytelling

This could have been a simple popcorn movie. Show a bit about Thor's family, some sweeping scenes of Asgard, throw in a little something about earthly Norse mythology, make Loki a typical monologing Evil Villain (tm), Thor does some flashy superstuff to make the fanboys and fangirls squeal for about half the screen time, roll credits.

This was not a simple popcorn movie. Somehow this script, with masterful storytelling by J. Michael Straczynski and equally masterful direction by Kenneth Branagh, manages to balance the depths of space with the inside of a cramped travel trailer, balance wars between worlds with one human woman's struggles and needs, balance the grandeur of Asgard against a breakfast of scrambled eggs, while also tying Thor's story into Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rest of the Avengers, including Hawkeye who does make an un-costumed appearance.

What could easily have been a confusing mess is anything but. The intricate dance back and forth between Asgard and Earth, the large and the small, works beautifully and never distracts from the complex story being told. There were only a couple of times that I felt a character suspended his or her own disbelief slightly more than was believable, and there were moments very obviously created to maximize the 3D effects (the weapon swinging into the viewer's face syndrome abounded), but they're minor flaws in the greater gem.

Thor is the hero's journey, with all the high notes of nobility, lessons learned, transformation, betrayal, love, honor and friendship rolled into one epic tale that does not disappoint in any way. Marvel films in general seem to have hit their stride after a few previous missteps (yes, I'm thinking Hulk too), and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of Thor.

Is it a perfect film? Of course not, but I'm not going to pick it apart either. It's an enjoyable movie that's well worth the ticket price, with superb acting (Anthony Hopkins in particular was brilliant), juicy visual effects, interesting production design, exciting fight scenes (the Destroyer is badass), and a story that hits all the right beats and leaves us wanting more at the end.

Speaking of more at the end, be sure to stay through the end of the credits for a bonus scene featuring Nick Fury as the franchise builds toward the Avengers, currently in production.