Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 3

Comic Info

Thor (2) #15

Reprints Thor (2) #14-17, Iron Man (2) #21-22, Peter Parker:  Spider-Man (2) #11, and Juggernaut:  The Eighth Day #1 (August 1999-November 1999).  As Thor deals with a health crisis and accusations against Jake Olsen, the real threat to him and Asgard begins to be revealed.  Unfortunately, Thor finds himself pulled into a crisis with Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Professor X when the Eighth Day begins…and the world could end!

Written by Dan Jurgens with additional writing by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Howard Mackie, and Joe Casey, Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 3 is a Marvel Comics Heroes Return comic book collection.  Following Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 2, the collection features art by Romita Jr. but also additional art by Mike McKone, Lee Weeks, Terry Shoemaker, Tom Grummett, and Sean Chen.  Issues in this collection were also collected as part of Iron Man by Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen Omnibus and Thor:  Heroes Return Omnibus.

I really enjoyed the Jurgens and Romita Jr. relaunch of Thor.  I never was a very big Thor fan, but this is the period where I read it much more regularly.  I liked that there was mystery and I liked the strange balance of humanity and godliness that Jurgens tries to find.  This volume starts to reveal more secrets but also hits a major wall.

Juggernaut: The Eighth Day #1

The first part of the volume is the Thor issues and it features more intrigue into Jake Olsen’s background and more reveals of why Thor’s powers have been so unreliable.  The Jake stuff is done well with questions about Jake’s moral code and if Jake being a bad person changes who Thor really is.  The Enchanters storyline is kind of clunky and isn’t as easy to follow.  Jurgens does some fun classic comic book red herrings in this volume (and the lead up to it) that really work…and it creates a mystery feel.

The second half of the book is the Eighth Day storyline that crosses over with Iron Man and Spider-Man and finishes with a Juggernaut one-shot.  While I don’t overall have a problem with the storyline, it kind of throws a wrench into the flow of the primary story.  Unlike if you are reading the comic, the story goes on a huge tangent (instead of technically just one issue which is reality).  The biggest takeaway from the Eighth Day storyline is that it feels like a classic throwback to the weirdness of Kirby’s Fourth World.  It has the Kirby flow and even some of the visuals with the character (Carnivore looks a lot like Kalibak).

Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr. is a must for Thor fans and still maintains decent storytelling in the years since its release.  It fell in a weird time where the 1990s style and feel were ending and the more developed storytelling of early 2000s was just starting to take hold.  Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 3 is followed by Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 4.

Related Links:

Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 1

Thor by Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr.—Volume 2