Thunderstrike Miniseries: A Review

Writers: Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz; Artists: Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema & Todd Nauck

Rating 3.5 out of 5 stars

While I have never been a huge fan of the character Thor, I did follow his ongoing book in the early 1990s, when it was in the hands of creators Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. For a period of time, DeFalco and Frenz had the real Thor exiled to another dimension. Thor's friend, architect Eric Masterson, had been bonded with Thor's physical form a short time earlier. Masterson now gained the mystic hammer and awesome powers of the Thunder God. The Thor title became an interesting read, as the brave but inexperienced Eric Masterson struggled to use his awesome powers in the service of justice, oft-times fumbling, but never giving up.

At the end of the DeFalco/Frenz run, the real Thor returned, and Eric was given a new enchanted weapon, which transformed him into Thunderstrike. He had his own ongoing spin-off series for a couple of years, with DeFalco and Frenz once again at the helm. When the series was canceled, the creators decided to end on a dramatic note, and Eric sacrificed his life to destroy the mystic threat of Bloodaxe.

I was in high school and college when I followed Thor and Thunderstrike, and I very much enjoyed them. A couple of years ago, I re-read a number of those issues -- and I was surprised to find that I did not find them nearly as compelling or interesting as I had the first time around. After some thought, I realized something: I am a rather different person in my thirties than I was as a teenager. My tastes and interests have developed and changed. What interested me when I was in high school would not necessarily have the same impact on me fifteen years later.

Of course, this does not detract from the work DeFalco and Frenz did on Thor and Thunderstrike. Looking at their work now, I can see they were writing primarily for a teenage audience. But what made their stories so appealing to me is that they weren't writing down to that audience. They respected their readers' intelligence.

The recent Thunderstrike miniseries features Kevin Masterson, the now-teenage son of Eric, who gains his father's powers. DeFalco and Frenz already did something similar back in 1998 when they developed Avengers Next. Obviously they did not want to simply copy the Thunderstrike of the future Avengers, and so have gone off in a different direction. Whereas the Kevin Masterson of Avengers Next felt a sense of duty and responsibility to follow in his father's footsteps in fighting the good fight, the Kevin of "mainstream" Marvel continuity has a very different outlook. His father's death has embittered him to superheroes in general and the Avengers in particular, who he feels failed to save his father. So when Steve Rogers gifts Kevin with the Thunderstrike mace, Kevin is less than enthused. And when Kevin accidentally activates the mace's enchantment, becoming a new Thunderstrike, he is anything but happy.

DeFalco scripts a volatile relationship between Kevin and his mother & step-father. They see the bitter chip on Kevin's shoulder, the temper boiling beneath the surface, and in response they want him to grow up, and be more like his late father. This is interesting, in that Kevin's mother Marcy had a falling-out with Eric back in the day, and the two divorced. Marcy remarried ex-football player Bobby Steele, who for a long time held a lot of disdain for his new wife's ex. So it's strange to see Bobby Steele, because he now knows that Eric was a superhero, talking to Kevin about his father in respectful terms, urging him to adopt the kind of personal responsibility that Eric always embraced. Kevin is unimpressed, regarding Bobby as a poor stepfather who has to trot out the memory of Eric every time any sort of parenting needs to be done.

Elsewhere, in Asgard, the home of the Norse gods, Thor and Sif learn that Kevin has gained his father's powers. They dispatch the valkyrie Gruenhilda to watch over and train Kevin in the use of his mystical abilities. Neither of them is happy with the arrangement. Kevin doesn't even want the responsibility of being Thunderstrike, and is less than thrilled that an Asgardian warrior has been imposed upon him as an instructor. Gruenhilda regards Kevin as a reckless and foolish mortal, and despairs at the seeming futility of trying to get him to shape up.

The re-appearance of the mystic mace is regarded as an opportunity by Adam Mann, a retired gold medal Olympic athlete turned multi-millionaire business entrepreneur. Mann is obsessed with mythology. He was raised by a single mother, and has somehow come to believe that his unknown father must have been one of the gods of antiquity such as Hercules, which he thinks must be the source of his great athletic prowess. Mann is obsessed with identifying and locating the deity that he believes got his mother pregnant and then abandoned her, so that he can exact revenge (clearly he is full of Bullfinch, so to speak). To that end, Mann is amassing mystic artifacts whose powers he intends to harness in his lunatic quest for vengeance. Mann sees the Thunderstrike mace as the ideal acquisition to aid in his quest. Unfortunately, Mann's effort to control these magical energies instead returns one of Thor's most formidable foes back to Earth.

The Thunderstrike miniseries is a decent effort by DeFelco and Frenz. As per my earlier observations, I believe I would have enjoyed it much more if I were a teenager. That said, as a 34 year-old I still found it a good read.

My one major criticism of the writing on Thunderstrike is that the subplot concerning Adam Mann and his delusions of god-born grandeur come to an abrupt end midway through issue #4. I realize that the entity he inadvertently summoned is a much more formidable menace, so I can understand DeFalco and Frenz wanting to devote the last issue and a half to it. But the character would have benefited from some closure, perhaps with Mann learning that his absentee father was in reality some all-too-human unemployed deadbeat.

One thing I have noticed about DeFalco is that throughout his career he has been very generous in his collaborations with artists. The majority of the comic book stories he has written have been co-plotted by the artists he's worked with. This seems to be very much in the tradition of the so-called "Marvel method" of writing perfected by Stan Lee, where the writer either gives the artist a rough plot, or the writer and artist sit down and work out the plot together. At this point the artist then goes off and pencils the story. Once the penciling is done, the writer scripts the dialogue and narrative captions.

While this definitely led to many exciting, innovative comic books under Stan Lee's aegis, it eventually became a major bone of contention with both Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. They understandably frowned upon Lee crediting himself as the sole writer, when in fact they were responsible for half (if not more) of the plotting. Kirby and Ditko each had to lobby extensively for a "co-plotter" credit, finally gaining it on the later issues of Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange they worked on. Although not the primary reason why first Ditko and then Kirby decided to leave Marvel, the question of receiving plotting credit probably helped contribute towards each of them departing.

Keeping this in mind, it is very gratifying when a writer such as DeFalco comes along, involves the artist in the plotting of the story, and makes certain that he receives credit for his contributions. Whatever the precise method of collaboration, in the case of DeFalco and Frenz it must be a very amicable relationship, as the two of them have successfully worked together on several different titles over the past quarter century.

Frenz is one of those artists who I believe does not receive enough recognition for his talent. A number of people have taken him to task for having a style too similar to Kirby's. It is true that Frenz often pays homage to Kirby, especially back when he was penciling Thor. But he always did it extremely well. I have seen various other artists over the years attempt Kirby pastiches of their own, usually with variable results. In the case of Frenz, he does not merely take inspiration from Kirby. Frenz is a solid storyteller who draws very clear, dynamic pages. Certainly his work on the Thunderstrike miniseries is of a high quality.

Oh, yes, Frenz draws beautiful women very well. In the past he has illustrated breathtaking renditions of Mary Jane Watson, Sif, the Enchantress, Karnilla, Lois Lane, and Lori Lemaris. In the Thunderstrike miniseries, his Gruenhilda is a strong but beautiful figure. Sharon Carter of the Secret Avengers also shows up, and she looks quite lovely.

The only thing I didn't care for was Frenz's costume designs for Thunderstrike. When Kevin first transforms, he becomes a doppelganger of his deceased father. Once learning that he can alter his appearance by concentrating during the transformation, in issue #3 he turns into what resembles a parody of a "grim & gritty" 1990s superhero, with a spikes, a giant mohawk, and blue lightning-bolt tattoos. Obviously we are not supposed to take Kevin's reinvention seriously, and by the end of #4 even he realizes that he looks ridiculous. So he comes up with a new, more restrained outfit. I wasn't especially keen on it, truth be told. Actually, the majority of it is okay. I just thought the pair of goggles and the mask covering his mouth & nose made him look silly. If he didn't have them on, he would be just fine. Hopefully if the new Thunderstrike does show up again, next time he'll ditch the mask & goggles.

Inking Frenz's pencils is one of my favorite artists, comic book legend Sal Buscema. As with Frenz, I think Buscema is sometimes an underrated talent. Over the years "Our Pal Sal" did a lot of quality work as both a penciler and inker. His pages were coherent and comprehensible. He could always be counted on to keep a deadline, even when he was drawing more than one monthly title at a time. In other words, Buscema's style may not have been flashy, but he came in, did his job well, and got it in on time. And he did that for almost four decades.

That said, when Buscema was not rushed for deadlines, valiantly penciling three or four entire issues in a month, and he was able to put the time in, his art looked wonderful. He did amazing work during his lengthy stints on Captain America, Hulk, Rom: Spaceknight and Spectacular Spider-Man.

In the last few years, Buscema has been in semi-retirement, doing the occasional inking assignment, usually over Frenz. The two go together very well indeed. I enjoyed them as the art team on Spider-Girl. I met Buscema at a convention several years ago, and complimented him on his collaboration with Frenz. Buscema stated that he was inking the pencils very faithfully, and that if the artwork looked good then the credit should go to Frenz. I think Buscema was being unduly modest. I often spot some of his stylistic flourishes in his inking of Frenz's pencils. It is probably more subtle than some of Buscema's past inking, but if you look, it is there.

Another artist also contributes to the Thunderstrike miniseries. The first issue has a back-up tale where Sif recounts Eric Masterson's history to Gruenhilda (a good idea, since those stories were published more than fifteen years ago). This eight page segment is illustrated by Todd Nauck, and he does a lovely job. Nauck's style is very different from Frenz and Buscema, being somewhat Manga-inspired in tone. But like those two gentlemen, Nauck is a solid storyteller, and he also utilizes some interesting layouts.

On the whole, I liked Thunderstrike. On occasion DeFalco and Frenz do try too hard to emulate the "old school" style of the classic Stan Lee / Jack Kirby collaborations from the 1960s. Some of the dialogue is labored or corny, some of the art perhaps too Kirby-esque. But, in an era where the majority of the writers & editors at both Marvel and DC Comics are concerned with telling overly sophisticated, complex stories that unfold at a padded-out, glacial pace, Thunderstrike is a breath of fresh air. It is a reminder that superhero comic books can be both intelligent and fun.