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Marvel Graphic Novel #33
The Mighty Thor: I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy
Imagine you're the mighty Thor. Part of the time, you're an immortal god. Part of the time, you're a mortal doctor. Each life comes with its own problems, and you've got the problems of both! And to top it all off, what do you do when you fall in love with a mortal woman?
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
63 people want to read
About the author
Jim Shooter
1,028 books85 followersJames Charles Shooter was an American writer, editor and publisher in the comics industry. Beginning his career writing for DC Comics at the age of 14, he had a successful but controversial run as editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, and launched comics publishers Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 9, 2017
Meh. No strike that. Make it a resounding meh! Perhaps one of the more interesting things, to me, is the title; "I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy" which reminds me of the line "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and to a certain extent the plot seems to follow that theme.
This is when Thor was imprisoned in the body of surgeon Donald Blake. Odin had trapped him in the body of a mortal to teach Thor the meaning of humility. But Thor has been a mortal a long time and seems to prefer the humans to being an Asgardian. Odin is not happy and sends the Lady Sif to give Don Blake Mjolnir, disguised as a cane. The actual prose is quite good. It is well written in the sense that the writer's use of vocabulary and style did bring to mind the tone of an Agardian and some of the sentences are a good turn of phrase.
Sadly this tale has some issues. Let us start with the whiny and annoying Dr. Blake. He's sad because he lost a patient, then proceeds to mope around lamenting his life, meets some utterly random woman and after some drinks blurts out he is the son a god and is imprisoned in Don Blake's mortal form. So much for the secret identity thing. But hey..this woman, upon meeting a depressed drunk in a bar decides to give him a ride home. This is the point were the depressed drunk posits his potential godhood and his "daddy issues". But utterly random woman is very taken with this utter nutter and decides to sleep with him, naturally. In the middle of this tripe we have Sif running around trying to give Blake his cane. Sif is wearing some absurd dress that makes her look like a purple clad Rockette. Blake/Thor acts like a dick to her. But Blake/Thor relents and decides to show the Lady Sif why it's so awesome to be mortal and they go on a date as humans. Sif, being normal, hates it. Blake/Thor laments the inability of immortal gods to understand what it means to be a man. After a lot of chest bashing, hair pulling and teeth gnashing-generally behavior I expect in some idiot hipster but not a surgeon- Blake decides to fly up into space and throw away Mjolnir and become human. He does so, but is saved by Jim Shooter's utter lack of what exposure to the frigid void of space does to normal human physiology. Then Blake returns to Earth to be a dick to Sif some more and then has a small panic attack before having to operate on some ill brat. After some soul searching, being lectured at by Sif, some juxtaposed Odin scenes with him lamenting how the best laid plans of mice and Asgardians oft go astray and Don Blake acting like a 1st year Med student running out of surgery to whine some more- he pulls it together and saves the brat. He is at peace with his dual nature, he has his stick, he's stopped being a dick to Lady Sif, Daddy Odin is happy and Blake/Thor can operate again without bankrupting the Hospital's Insurance policy.
That's the story. It was supposed to be self-introspective and ended up being annoying. Don Blake's verbose utterances really are an extended rant/whine about his doldrums being a dual person. It's rather irritating to listen to him whine like a 14 year old. So this was supposed to be a deep Graphic novel. It could have been if not for the overarching cheesiness of the plot. It's very 80's writing. Sadly it doesn't translate well. It is obvious by the make up of the sentences that Shooter is a talented writer when it comes to sentence structure and vocabulary. Sadly the plot never measures up. The continuous whining of Don Blake interspersed with his dickish behavior towards Lady Sif was truly annoying. But this is the whole story- no action, no real villains, just a lot of bitching and moaning pretty much all of it by Don Blake.
The art is typical 80's. It's not horrid, and was likely quite stellar for its time. But much like the plot, it fails to inspire. So I can not recommend this. It only earned two stars because I can see where Shooter was headed and the basic outline of this story could have been something good. It could have really explored the dichotomy of being a god and human. It does try to do this, but the cheesy plot drags down the higher minded concept lurking in the background. Scenes like Blake and Sif entering a mall and being confronted by cops for bearing her sword, only to have the mall manager stop by to clear it up. Uh what? A mall manager can tell cops to put away their guns when faced by an armed woman? yeah? Or were those mall cops? If so..uhh who gave the mall cops guns? Anyways..it's stupid cheesy things like this that make me cringe. It destroys the deeper point of the story. Much like trying to talk about Plato's Allegory of the Cave while dressed in a clown outfit- the gist of your lecture will be overshadowed by the unnecessary accoutrement. A good underlying premise ruined by cheesy plot scenarios. A shame really and 2 stars. Can not recommend unless you're also a whiny 14 year old with identity problems or you really,really dig 80's comics.
This is when Thor was imprisoned in the body of surgeon Donald Blake. Odin had trapped him in the body of a mortal to teach Thor the meaning of humility. But Thor has been a mortal a long time and seems to prefer the humans to being an Asgardian. Odin is not happy and sends the Lady Sif to give Don Blake Mjolnir, disguised as a cane. The actual prose is quite good. It is well written in the sense that the writer's use of vocabulary and style did bring to mind the tone of an Agardian and some of the sentences are a good turn of phrase.
Sadly this tale has some issues. Let us start with the whiny and annoying Dr. Blake. He's sad because he lost a patient, then proceeds to mope around lamenting his life, meets some utterly random woman and after some drinks blurts out he is the son a god and is imprisoned in Don Blake's mortal form. So much for the secret identity thing. But hey..this woman, upon meeting a depressed drunk in a bar decides to give him a ride home. This is the point were the depressed drunk posits his potential godhood and his "daddy issues". But utterly random woman is very taken with this utter nutter and decides to sleep with him, naturally. In the middle of this tripe we have Sif running around trying to give Blake his cane. Sif is wearing some absurd dress that makes her look like a purple clad Rockette. Blake/Thor acts like a dick to her. But Blake/Thor relents and decides to show the Lady Sif why it's so awesome to be mortal and they go on a date as humans. Sif, being normal, hates it. Blake/Thor laments the inability of immortal gods to understand what it means to be a man. After a lot of chest bashing, hair pulling and teeth gnashing-generally behavior I expect in some idiot hipster but not a surgeon- Blake decides to fly up into space and throw away Mjolnir and become human. He does so, but is saved by Jim Shooter's utter lack of what exposure to the frigid void of space does to normal human physiology. Then Blake returns to Earth to be a dick to Sif some more and then has a small panic attack before having to operate on some ill brat. After some soul searching, being lectured at by Sif, some juxtaposed Odin scenes with him lamenting how the best laid plans of mice and Asgardians oft go astray and Don Blake acting like a 1st year Med student running out of surgery to whine some more- he pulls it together and saves the brat. He is at peace with his dual nature, he has his stick, he's stopped being a dick to Lady Sif, Daddy Odin is happy and Blake/Thor can operate again without bankrupting the Hospital's Insurance policy.
That's the story. It was supposed to be self-introspective and ended up being annoying. Don Blake's verbose utterances really are an extended rant/whine about his doldrums being a dual person. It's rather irritating to listen to him whine like a 14 year old. So this was supposed to be a deep Graphic novel. It could have been if not for the overarching cheesiness of the plot. It's very 80's writing. Sadly it doesn't translate well. It is obvious by the make up of the sentences that Shooter is a talented writer when it comes to sentence structure and vocabulary. Sadly the plot never measures up. The continuous whining of Don Blake interspersed with his dickish behavior towards Lady Sif was truly annoying. But this is the whole story- no action, no real villains, just a lot of bitching and moaning pretty much all of it by Don Blake.
The art is typical 80's. It's not horrid, and was likely quite stellar for its time. But much like the plot, it fails to inspire. So I can not recommend this. It only earned two stars because I can see where Shooter was headed and the basic outline of this story could have been something good. It could have really explored the dichotomy of being a god and human. It does try to do this, but the cheesy plot drags down the higher minded concept lurking in the background. Scenes like Blake and Sif entering a mall and being confronted by cops for bearing her sword, only to have the mall manager stop by to clear it up. Uh what? A mall manager can tell cops to put away their guns when faced by an armed woman? yeah? Or were those mall cops? If so..uhh who gave the mall cops guns? Anyways..it's stupid cheesy things like this that make me cringe. It destroys the deeper point of the story. Much like trying to talk about Plato's Allegory of the Cave while dressed in a clown outfit- the gist of your lecture will be overshadowed by the unnecessary accoutrement. A good underlying premise ruined by cheesy plot scenarios. A shame really and 2 stars. Can not recommend unless you're also a whiny 14 year old with identity problems or you really,really dig 80's comics.
September 11, 2021
I'm not terribly familiar with Thor, but as a one-shot this worked decently enough. I could see his predicament and feel it. I guess the takeaway here is that none of us are ever happy with what we have.
Still would be nice to have what he has, though. I'm sure it'd take me a few hundred years at least before I got tired of it.
Still would be nice to have what he has, though. I'm sure it'd take me a few hundred years at least before I got tired of it.
January 28, 2019
Not 80 pages so it can't be on my all time list. This is another excellent Marvel Graphic Novel from the 80s. Exploreing Thor's humanity verses is God hood.
February 8, 2016
Good Thor story. Nice art and story. Recommended
January 1, 2021
Jim Shooter does a reasonable job with the writing. Unfortunately, he did a terrible job with the plot. This graphic novel was written well after Thor's double identity as Don Blake had ended, so the graphic novel contains a note to indicate that it was set before that. Unfortunately, it seems that Jim Shooter never bothered to read the Thor comics from before that time because I do not recall any time when Thor was so completely consumed with self-pity. To be fair, there are times when he is not completely consumed by self-pity - those are the times when he is being a complete arsehole to everyone around him.
The artwork by James Owsley is very nice though.
The artwork by James Owsley is very nice though.
August 20, 2021
nothing really happens here but it is still pretty enjoyable imho
April 10, 2014
Non è l'opera migliore di Jim Shooter, da sempre quasi ossessionato dalla descrizione di esseri dagli enormi poteri e dalla loro interazione con i comuni, fragili mortali, nonché con i loro affetti. Resta una buona lettura, nonostante un Keith Pollard che a me non è mai particolarmente piaciuto.
June 23, 2013
Pretty solid, but emo Thor is kinda grating after a while.
February 13, 2016
Nice old school story.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews