Hammer of Thor

Issue 1

Writers: Robert Hand and Scotty Babbit

Artwork: Robert Hand

Inker: Michael Bair

Publisher: Hand of Doom

               Two things before we begin: One, there are spoilers aplenty in this, as I essentially lay it all out. Two, as with all of these pieces, this is an opinion piece; your mileage may vary. Are we all set on that?

               I try to look around in my Westfield order form each month and pick up a couple of new items. Sometimes they're from fresh start-up publishers. One of the latest of this type is Hammer Of Thor No.1. Hey, through the miracle of the Internet I often find myself filling out my monthly order at some unholy hour, so in this case I thought the idea of the sons of Odin and God mixing it up might be fun.

               This one's a series of gives and takes with more takes than gives. If yuo're anything like me you'll forgive my "spoiling" it for you.

               It's a full-color comic, which is nice to see from an indy company (Hand of Doom Publications), but the coloring is very primary, though I'll give the colorist credit for attempting to produce some texture by playing with the shades/intensities. At $3 for 16 pages of story it's a bit pricey. Setting it at the time of the Crusades, so that a group of militant Christians could come up against a kin-group of Vikings was a good touch. Having the Christians begin the hostilities as they attempt to convert the Vikings, then notice the golden T-hammer one of the Vikings is wearing and interpret it as an inverted cross - were also nice moves, though some might see it as a bit of Liberally-motivated, PC mainstream bashing, not that I'm concerned with the opinions of anyone who wants to defend the Crusades.

               Anyway, the Christians move against the Vikings, killing the patriarch, whose daughter prays to Thor as her brother launches into battle. Thor, complete with proper red beard, hears the prayer and comes to their aid, riding in on his goat-drawn chariot - another nice mythological detail thaat's twice as nice since they don't have Thor make any unnatural exposition to drive home the point by naming the goats. Thor electrocutes two and tosses Mjolnir through at least two more of the Christians before they call on Jesus, and he appears staff in hand.

               From this point it drops off, and truth be told the slide started much earlier. See, central to the Christian party is an overt Scooby Due... hommage, with those meddling kids and their great hound forming the core of the group; all the others are the equivalent of Star Trek "red shirts", existing only to be killed. Thor, of course, blows apart the others leaving us with "Skoube" and the gang. Co-writers Robert Hand (who also did up the artwork his computer) and Scotty Babbit must have been taken with the Scooby Doo element, as it predominates so much of the rest of the tale, with cliche over-riding reason.

               Jesus, who is presented as a Black, appears with a staff in hand and moves to protect his avowed followers. Casting down his staff (they had to reach into the Old Testament to find any real action, apparently) and it becomes a serpent. Well, a dragon-serpent... who turns out to be Jormundgand, the Midgard Serpent, who pauses before attacking Thor to go after two of the Vikings as a little pre-battle snack. Thor moves to protect them, and Jesus wonders aloud "This demon protects... the helpless?" Jesus recalls the serpent before things go much farther, finds out that it was his followers who started it and pleads with Thor to accept his apology.

               At that stage a green-skinned witch appears and admits to having led the Christians there, telling Thor that he should destroy Jesus as Jesus would surely destroy him. After all, the Christians burn witches. Jesus banishes her to Oz, but not before she says "And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!" complete in its lack of punctuation, though as with all the lettering in the comic it's all in caps and in a monotonous font lacking even any italics or boldface for emphasis. That the "kids" had nothing to do with her failure seems to make no difference at all, since I'm just being a bad sport don'chaknow.

               Thor chases off the Mystery crew, though Skoube comes back to befriend the male and female Vikings, the woman saying to him "Here Skoube, have a snack." which is probably hilarious if you happen to be 9 years old and/or drunk. Thor and Jesus head off to Asgard, Thor to have some mead while Jesus expresses more of an interest in wine.

               Aside from the ample problems above, we're faced with a Viking party of four who've apparently come in a fair-sized boat (there are at least six round, metal shields on the side that we can see), which we see (presumably anchored) close to shore but with its sails full despite their having left it to come ashore. After slaying some man-like dragon on shore in the first two pages, they set up camp nearby in what's plainly just a section of woods. However, once the serpent shows up to battle Thor they must have decided having a big, stone tower for them to crash into while fighting would be nice, so there it is! A miracle, o' Lord!

               That I spent the money (albeit a discounted price) on it is most of my motivation in taking the time to write something about it. If, after all this, you're somehow still interested in this one… well, you've been warned. Maybe this will turn up in a quarter box at some convention.

                                                              MJN

Any comments?