Thor Epic Collection: In Mortal Flesh (Thor (1966-1996))

The Thunder god has gone through a whole mess of changes over his long career; replaced by an alien, turned into a frog, etc. And so it proves again in this, the seventeenth volume in the overall complete chronology. Incidentally, these stories from 1989 and 1990 continue on directly from those in the already released volume 16, War of the Pantheons, which is also very worth picking up.Anyway, back to goldilocks; the particular complication that hits him this time around involves him sharing a body with his good friend Eric Masterson, a single father and architect who finds his life thrown into turmoil when he has to split his life with the god of thunder. It's a great way to bring new human complications into the often cosmic-level plots of the Thor book, with Eric's custody battle over his son having to be juggled with supervillain battles on Earth and abroad.Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz continue their amazing work from the previous volume, making the hero at home both on the streets of New York and in the depths of space. Over the course of these stories, they pitch Thor into battle against threats as diverse as Annihilus, the Juggernaut and a space vampire. Included here are the god's particular portions of the Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance crossovers, too, although they do not match up to the high quality of the regular book.As is often the case, each issue is accompanied by the Tales of Asgard backup stories, covering early tales of the young god as well as stories about the rest of the Asgardian cast and even alien hammer-wielder Beta Ray Bill. Again, while often not quite up to the standards of the main stories, they act to showcase a great range of artists, including a pre-Hellboy Mike Mignola, and I am glad of their inclusion.Extras include original art by Frenz, art from relevant Offical Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries, script outlines and character designs for the New Warriors (introduced in these very pages!), and pinups from Marvel Fanfare. This is another great run of Thor comics, and fans would do well to pick this and the previous volume up for a brilliant stretch of immortal adventures.