COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Thor 352 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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0966810012
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Owner:
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Thorseface
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 352: “Ragnarok and Ruin!”
Publication date: February 10, 1985
Census: As of 6/20/23, 53 copies in 9.8, of which 6 are signed (up by 6!). There is 1 Canadian 9.8, unsigned.
Writer, penciler, inker: Simonson
Letterer: Workman
Colorist: Scheele
Favorite line and some thoughts:
"Hold still! Must I sit on you to make you hear me?"
-Volstagg, beneath whose impressive girth truly beats the heart of a lion. Here, unexpectedly, the doughty old warrior beneath the buffoonish exterior re-emerges when Bill needs him most. Like Balder and Sif, Walt imbued Volstagg with a new depth, an improvement capitalized on by later Thor scribes.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this issue is the complete absence of Thor. I'd have to double check but I'm fairly certain that this is a first in the continuity going all the way back to 1962. Without Thor, Bill, Sif, and especially Odin are allowed to shine. I've also always liked the mission Johnny Storm undertakes with Roger Willis to reassemble the Casket of Ancient Winters, which we learn in this issue contained "the fury of Niflheim, the first realm of ice!" (Surtur). Surtur is able to summon this cold from Midgard to Asgard and, after a titanic clash with Odin, freeze the All-Father and the Realm Eternal.
Earlier in this commentary I mentioned Walt's trademark demon hordes, which are of course on full display in the battle that swirls about the World Trade Center. Similarly, take a close look at the flying Einherjar host. Here you get a good sense of how with only a few impressionistic brush strokes Walt conveys the ridiculous speed of the armored horsemen / soldiers. This approach remains a salient aspect of his style today.
The cover of this issue appears to show the X-Men's Colossus in the background, though he does not make an appearance elsewhere in the book. A de-powered Storm, however, can be seen fighting in the streets of Manhattan alongside the other heroes. The presence of the X-Men seems to be a mistake, since according to X-Men 188 both Storm and Colossus were in Dallas at the moment (see Ann Nocenti's editorial comments in X-Men 188, which connect the strange Dallas winter to events in Thor). As Walt, Weezie, and Chris Claremont have long been friends I wonder if there was some sort of communication misfire here. In any event, it would make sense that the X-Men would join the Avengers and the FF against such an existential threat. That seems to have been Walt's aim, even if the continuity ultimately did not work.
Bill's participation in the Dire Wraith War that unfolded in contemporary issues of Rom poses a similar continuity problem, for which see https://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/thor_351-353.shtml
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