Thor Epic Collection, vol. 21: Blood and Thunder

Date Completed: 30 Mar. 2025

Grade: B-


The "Blood and Thunder" crossover is something that I remember encountering when I was young and first getting into comics. I never read the whole thing, but I had a couple of the comics which had the distinctive cover images which denoted them as being part of this long epic crossover. I decided that I would try to find all of the issues that belong to the crossover before reading it. Of course, this never happened, so while I was familiar with the event, this is my first time reading it.

I was honestly a little surprised with how much this volume went back to the well of earlier Thor issues. The "Blood and Thunder" event even went back to what I thought was one of the more ridiculous parts of the Lee/Kirby era, which was the idea of "Warrior Madness" which Thor (supposedly) contracts. As such, Thor was actually the villain for most of the event, which instead focused on the Infinity Watch trying to stop him. After the event, Ron Marz left as the writer, and Roy Thomas took over, which saw a return of the High Evolutionary and his New Men (now Ani-mutants). I'm actually a little surprised with the mapping for this book, as Marz began setting up "Blood and Thunder" with the introduction of the dark Valkyrie in the previous volume, and then Thomas' Wundagore stuff seems like an odd appendix. Either way, it was still a fun event and series of books, that clearly is starting to show some of the 90s excess.



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