You Best Not Miss

Another week, another comic by me out, another quickfire newsletter round. Here's what's out today...

WHAT'S OUT TODAY?

Immortal Thor #23, that's what!

In which Thor battles to the center of NRGL's maze for the soul of Heimdall, and finds him in the clutches of Kemur, Elder God of Kings, the embodiment of ordained rule. And how can a king - even All-Father Thor - fight the concept of kingship? Jan Bazaldua brings every snort and sinew of the raging bull-god roaring off the page, with colors by the ever-incredible Matt Hollingsworth - as Thor takes yet another step closer to his inevitable doom. Can the thunder god escape his final fate when we're advertising it at the top of the cover?

MARVEL COMICS PANEL BY PANEL

Once again, we return to NOWI'LLTELLONE, the ur-text of all Marvel Comics, appearing on the inside cover of Marvel Comics #1 and containing within it as it does the building blocks of all Marvel now and forever. We've already seen that this is a world of heroes with problems, a world of continuity and lore, a world of marketable mutants. But what does Marvel bring to the medium itself? You, a small child in the year 1939, were not short of comics to buy with your shiny dime. What is it that makes Marvel Comics so different, so appealing?

In this panel, the secret is revealed, decades before it'll be revealed again in book form, for money. Here, we learn the Marvel Way.

When you draw comics the Marvel Way, you're drawing extremes. Either the punch is right at the point where it's about to be thrown, or in the absolute state of thrown-ness - anything in between is not Marvel-worthy enough to reach the page. Here we see the boxer on the left providing the latter example, the punch delineted with maximum motion, about to connect. Keeping up this intensity takes it out of an artist - and we see that too, with the boxer on the right. He's mastered his art – he's caught his fellow pugilist at the peak of power, truly captured the action unfolding right in front of his vulnerable nose in the mightiest Marvel manner. Oboy, indeed! What a shot!

And now, he will die.

There's no coming back from a punch delivered with a SWISH of such magnitude. I've seen Black Bolt scream with less force. Worldbreaker Hulk, when his hour comes round decades hence, will not threaten to shatter the Earth with as much implied power as this cartoon punch. Boxer #2 came too close to the sun, and like Icarus, he must fall. This is the latest and most terrible lesson of NOWI'LLTELLONE - while the Marvel Way will deliver maximum thrills, the comics industry will take its fee from the makers of the art in blood. The Mighty Mills of Marvel grind slowly - but they grind exceeding small.

SO IT GOES

And on that sombre note, we leave it until my next comic hits the stands. Love, strength and justice to all who need it, and I'll play us out with "Southbound Jericho Parkway" by Roy Orbison.