But imagine if instead of just having a Secret Invasion mark slapped on the cover, every last tie-in was given a “Part x of 80” numbering, no matter how tenuous the connection to the story? That’s what War of the Gods did. It’s not far off from the typical crossover structure of today - look at how Secret Invasion unfolded across its own title and the Avengers books to tell its “core” story. Continued belowĪnother problem keeping War of the Gods from marquee status in history is the sheer amount of superfluous stuff floating around in its nearly thirty-part structure. While the new Wonder Woman storyline might be an attempt at such a reinvention, it’s still working with inherited parts. Consider No Man’s Land or E Is for Extinction. While people have certainly written good Wonder Woman stories since Perez, no one has really written anything that’s felt in any way completely new. This is why Wonder Woman’s events are never as big as, say, Batman’s or the X-Men’s (we’ll leave the gender-related line of questioning to other blogs for now). While writers have occasionally branched off into variations on the theme, everyone from William Messner-Loebs to John Byrne to Gail Simone has embraced the Perez model, where Diana the Warrior Princess, both down to Earth and not of this world, interacts with Man’s World while solemn-faced mythological machinations bubble around her. How many times has Matt Murdock’s soul been shattered? Karl Kesel’s brief stint is about the only notable exception I can think of, and Scott Lobdell’s even briefer one the only non-notable (and with good reason). Think about Daredevil pre- and post-Miller after Miller’s exit, every long-term Daredevil writer has largely been content to sit in his shadow and perpetuate the themes of his run. In this respect, George Perez is Wonder Woman’s Frank Miller (Make your own “WHORES WHORES WHORES” joke here, since I got nothing).
He also made her hair curly, although I was still a toddler when this happened, so I don’t know if it caused as much of a flap as putting some pants on. Perez made it okay for a comic book to be completely ambitious and self-serious (even pretentious, at times) despite being about a grown woman who dresses in a shining gold bustier and blue panties with stars on them, so that she can fight crime with her magic rope. But Perez took the opposite tack, and used the Greek-myth aspect of Wonder Woman as a means of giving her adventures weight and scope, rebuilding her entire world without it’s once-signature high camp. And he could have left it at that, played fast and loose, and taken what we might call “the Incredible Herc approach,” where action and humor leaven a mythology that is often pretty ridiculous. Over the course of five years, Perez took an inherently goofy character and reduced her to core components: Diana, Princess of the Amazons, empowered by the Greek pantheon to go be the Amazons’ emissary (yes, I’m aware that I’m simplifying). While all of these powerful attributes and exciting happenstances aren't all leveraged in the plot of Thor: Love and Thunder, the summer blockbuster does use these two loud and excitable goats to impeccable comedic effect.I choose to lay blame at the feet of George Perez. At another point, Thor also instructs Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder to guard Mjölnir. Loki does, at a certain point in the comics, also magically resurrect Toothgnasher after War of the Realms. So, they can be reborn if killed under very particular circumstances. They can also each be reborn if they've been eaten, that is unless a bone has been broken in that process. Powerful enough to damage Mjölnir at will. Primarily stationed at the helm of Thor's chariot, traveling him across realms, Toothgrider and Toothgnasher are insanely powerful beings. They first appear in 1976's Thor Annual Vol. Known in the comics as Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher, these mystical goats are based on Tanngnjóstr and Tanngrisnir of Norse mythology. They were originally introduced in the Thor comics. One of the funniest elements of the movie, though, is Thor's ( Chris Hemsworth) gigantic screaming goats! But these raucous giants aren't unique to this movie.
From Bao gods to Thor-powered kids, this movie splashes Taika Waititi's creative genius all over the screen at every turn.
Thor: Love and Thunder is a kitchen sink full of imaginative delights. Editor's Note: The following contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers.