The 12 Most Amazing Thor Covers - Ever
We’ve done features on ridiculous comic book covers before, but the big problem with Thor covers is that they’re ridiculous by design. If someone isn’t exploding while Thor stands by shocked, as the blurb shouts something like, “This is it! The epic you’ve waited for! A world dies… So that Thor may live!” then you’ve designed your Thor cover incorrectly. Add in the fact that a majority were done by either Jack Kirby or Walter Simonson, two of the best comic book artists, ever, and you have a recipe for one frustrated blogger.
But don’t worry guys! I trucked through, poring through nearly six hundred covers to bring you the absolute most ridiculous Thor covers of all time. I call them amazing, and they are that. But they’re also laugh out loud funny – and if comics weren’t fun, we wouldn’t read them, right? So here they are:
12. Journey Into Mystery #91
Why It’s Amazing: Ignoring the fact for the moment that if someone threw a building on Thor now, he’d probably shrug it off and kick the guys butt, it’s the description of Sandu that gets me. He’s a “Master of the Supernatural,” but “Only a Mortal…” And also he has the powers of Loki. So not really just a mortal, right? It’s like saying, “President Obama was a regular guy… Except he was also Superman!” Or something like that.
11. Thor #95
Why It’s Amazing: Thor’s double may be a far more powerful duplicate than the original, but he’s not a more confident duplicate. Also, what’s with the pause before, “Yourself!” Who else could he possibly be a duplicate of? And last question: is he more powerful because he has two hammers? I hope so.
10. Thor #111
Why It’s Amazing: Best passive aggressive cover blurb of all time? Probably. Also, just to take a stab at it (pun intended), Thor, Mr. Hyde, and Constrictor, maybe, are having a dance party on Earth, when this princess riding on a unicorn drops her sword from the Rainbow Bridge. And Thor’s all like, “Get out of the way, my friend Mr. Hyde!” I think I nailed it.
9. Thor #156
Why It’s Amazing: Actually, this is just a totally fun cover from Jack Kirby. I included it because it’s fun to think the interior story is about the Asgardians deciding to have a giant sword parade. But it’s Kirby: dude could do no wrong.
8. Thor #181
Why It’s Amazing: Every few issues, Thor ends up wrecking the UN. Without doing any research I’m guessing it’s the same story reprinted with a different cover, which was a common practice for the newsstand back in the day. But this is by far the best one. In modern comics, the fall out from the God of Thunder killing diplomats would last for years. Here, it was clearly fine after one issue. That’s the Marvel Universe for you!
7. Thor #226
Why It’s Amazing: Can we please make Sad Galactus the next Internet meme? Thanks.
6. Thor #276
Why It’s Amazing: Another Thor duplicate story. This time, there’s the ridiculous recursive phrase “Long live the new original Thor!” Which I’m sure makes some sort of story sense (he was the Viking idea of Thor, I’m guessing, rather than Marvel’s superhero version), but it don’t make no English sense. Also, he looks like Hillbilly Thor, but that might just be me.
5. Thor #319
Why It’s Amazing: My first thought on seeing this cover was, “Uh… Zaniac? That’s the worst name ever.” And then I saw the blurb in the corner, which says, “You may hate his name—But you’ll never forget him!” I wonder if they knew they could, you know, change his name? Since they made it up? Unless there was a reader named Zaniac that won a contest or something? In which case it’s kind of insulting to the reader? Anyway, he looks stupid, too.
4. Thor #326
Why It’s Amazing: As we all well know, Thor is a master of stealth, preferring to hide out in a sarcophagus for hours to catch his quarry, rather than just flying in and conking him on the head with his hammer. Fun fact having nothing to do with this: I think this was the first issue of Thor I ever read.
3. Thor #366
Why It’s Amazing: Walt Simonson’s series of covers for the arc that turned Thor into a frog are all actually amazing – I’m a huge fan of the pun on issue #365’s cover, “This issue – Thor leaps into a new secret identity!” – but this is taken over the top by the tiny caption on the bottom. I like to imagine some Editor imagining a reader picking up the issue, reading the question up top, pausing for a second, sighing, and saying, “I guess I’ll NEVER find out,” and not buying the issue. And that Editor saying, “We HAVE to let people know the answer is inside!” Bonus weirdness for this issue, the Loki on the cover is a reuse of the Loki graphic from the cover of the previous issue; though I imagine the reverse is true (Simonson drew #366, and then someone else mocked up #365).
2. Thor #435
Why It’s Amazing: For those of you who joked how ridiculous Asylum’s mockbuster, “The Almighty Thor” was for having a thunder god with an Uzi… Who’s ridiculous now??? It’s still Asylum, but you get my point.
1. Thor #469
Why It’s Amazing: “He’s mad, and he’s gonna break your face!” sounds just like Thor. Thor’s catchphrase is, “I’m gonna break your face!” right? I’m pretty sure it is.
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