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When you think of Thor, or at least when I do, there are two seminal writer/artist pairs that come to mind that really defined the character. The first is obviously Lee and Kirby. The second is the unbeatable duo of Walter Simonson and Walter Simonson. Walt took Thor by the reigns and really took the character back up to levels of fan appreciation that hadn’t been seen since Lee and Kirby’s heyday. This is one of his character re-inventions and it focuses on one of Thor’s right hand men, Balder the Brave. This 29th edition of Marvel Premiere Hardcover Classics collects three issues of Thor (#’s 360-362) and the complete Balder the Brave 4-issue mini-series. These were originally published in late 1985 and early 1986. The Thor issues were all Walt while the Balder mini-series featured art-work from Sal Buscema.
-Thor #360- This gets things kick-started and there are some past storylines we need to get caught up on. For instance, Odin and Surtur have both fallen to their doom and now Asgard is without a leader. Thor, ever the doting son, wants to travel to Hel to see if Odin is there. The only person he knows that has gone through hell and lived to tell the tale was Balder and he’s summoned.
-Balder The Brave #1- Balder is still in the throes of Karnilla and he doesn’t even know Odin is gone. Agnar comes to tell him of Odin’s death but Karnilla doesn’t want Balder to go and so she imprisons Agnar. Well, Balder finds out and he leaves for Asgard and Karnilla is a little bitter, so bitter she won’t give him an enchanted sword that would help him in his journey’s. The sword is basically like the one ring in LOTR though it doesn’t make its wearer completely insane.
-Thor #’s 361-2- This documents Thor and Balder’s travels into Hel and how Balder doesn’t fall to temptation and Thor personally defeats Hela. Unfortunately, there’s no news on Odin. This had a really cool mythological epic feel to it and I really love how Walt nailed this mythology. You can see how other epics (like the LOTR) borrowed from other mythological hero stories. This was a really fun two-issue story.
-Balder The Brave #’s 2-4- Balder returns home from Hel to find that Karnilla and her mystical sword have been kidnapped by the Frost Giants. So Balder and Agnar set out to save Karnilla and in the end, they do. The pacing is done really well here and it had that same epic feel as the previous Thor stories in here. It’s great having these together in a collection so that you can read the story cover to cover and really get a feel to the flows of the story.
-The Bottom Line- This is just a really awesome collection. I really think that Walt was able to delve into the character of Balder in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Tales of Asgard back-ups in the early Journey into Mystery and Thor titles. There aren’t many extras to speak of (besides the usual assortment of trade covers used and a Handbook entry for Balder) so let’s look at the price. This has a cover price of $25. The issues in here have a guide value of $24 ($12 for the Balder mini and $12 for the three Thor issues) so when you take this into account it is a no-brainer. Is the stuff in here worth the extra buck? Definitely. The story was excellent and mythology lovers will definitely enjoy it. Even though it was sparse on extras the convenience of having this in one set and having the nicer pages is enough to make this recommended in term of value and content. Man, Walt was just awesome and I wish I paid more attention to him when he was on Thor. Highly recommended.
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