COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Thor 341 Modern
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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0743586003
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Owner:
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Thorseface
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 341: “The Past is a Bucket of Ashes”
Publication date: March 10, 1984
Census: As of 6/20/23 there are 116 copies in 9.8 (up by 5), of which 5 are signed (up by 1). There are 7 Canadian copies in 9.8, none signed.
Writer, penciler: Simonson
Letterer: Workman
Colorist: George Roussos
Favorite line and some thoughts:
“Here! Put these cheaters on! They always worked for that other guy!”
-Nick Fury, lending Thor some specs to complete his new secret identity of Sigurd Jarlson. My pic this time doesn't show the quoted text but what follows, when "Sigurd" literally bumps into "that other guy" at a press conference. Walt’s really having a good laugh here.
The splash that opens this issue, with Thor returned to the Manhattan skyline after his rather weird sojourn in Chicago, is beautiful and somewhat bittersweet. The Twin Towers get me every time I see them in pre-2001 comics.
On p. 3 Thor makes his way into Avengers mansion and the subsequent three panels are blank...Walt tells us to "watch this space" next month to find out just what the "the most surprising adventure of [Thor's] career" will be. In the letters page of Thor 342 Walt supplied the missing panels, which correspond to events in Avengers no. 242 and the beginning of the Secret Wars. Notice that when Thor shows up at Shield HQ later in this issue it is "a couple of weeks later," meaning the events of the Secret Wars transpired in the meantime. I think those three panels in the letters page contain the only example of a Walt-pencilled Captain America in the entirety of this run, which for some reason I find interesting.
A deep pull here with the full return of Fafnir, who hadn’t been seen since Thor #134. I reckon Walt wanted to put his own spin on the dragon, another character Stan and Jack pulled from Norse mythology. And it's surely no coincidence that Fafnir is the first serious foe fought by "Sigurd," if you know your Edda.
The coolest scene in this issue, however, is Odin etching runes into the claws of Hugin and Munin. Nowadays Thor scribes take it for granted that Odin’s ravens can zoom around the universe / reality at will, but the technical details of this ability we owe to Walt. Hugin ("Thought') and Munin ("Mind" or "Memory"). The Lay of Grimnir (in the Poetic Edda) says "I fear for Hugin / that he may not return / but I worry more for Munin." And isn't that the case in life...thoughts are fleeting but memories ever more so. I wonder if Walt had this verse in mind here, since only one of the ravens will make it back safely to Odin. Turns out it was Hugin that Odin should have worried for most in this instance!
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