Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Also,

Sunday, May 4, 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3729 - Why Do I Still Read Comics - pt.1 of 828


A Sense of Doubt blog post #3729 - Why Do I Still Read Comics - pt.1 of 828

Jokingly, I claimed in the title that this post is one of 828 simply because I know I will not exhaust this topic in one post, and I think I should refrain from MONSTER posts that prompt TLDR from my audience.

I have been thinking about my lifetime of reading comics, and why I still read them at my advanced age. I have settled on several reasons that I would like to explore in a series of posts.

Here's what I think right now, and I may have to add to this list as I think of more reasons or hear from friends who are fans:

  • Comics Have Grown Up With Us
  • We Have Grown Up With Comics
  • Investment (both collecting but also investing in characters and stories)
  • Love of the Episodic Narrative (What happens next?)
  • Nostalgia
  • Sense of Belonging/Identity
  • Comfort - Enjoyment

Today's exploration: Comics Have Grown Up With Us

When I started reading comics, at the age of four, as a kid, I was into kid stuff. It was 1966.

In the 1960s, comics were having a resurgence. 

After the initial boom of superheroes in the late 1930s and through the 1940s (known as the Golden Age), comics were one of the most popular entertainment media. When EC Comics surged onto the scene in the 1950s, sales exploded. However, national hysteria, Satanic Panic, the Red Scare, and all that fear-mongering came to focus its grotesque investigations on comics after the publication of Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent claiming a direct cause-effect relationship between reading comic books, primarily EC's horror and crime comics, and "juvenile delinquency."

Around the time I was born, Marvel Comics re-invented itself brainstormed mainly by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. DC Comics scrambled to compete in this new Silver Age of Comics.

When my Dad bought and read me my first comic (explored in My Oldest part One linked below) Detective Comics #351 featuring Batman, TV supported many superheroes: Spider-Man and Fantastic Four cartoons, a Justice League cartoon and an Aquaman cartoon, and of course the hit live-action Batman TV show that introduced Batgirl to fans, who then appeared in the comic books. It was a thrilling time for comics as they were revitalized and popular once again. Duet o Stan Lee's direct appeals, college students were reading comics. Those who grew up with them in 1930s-1950s were buying them for their kids, and many were still collecting and reading. New fans of all ages were drawn to the art form.




ON THE SATANIC PANIC OVER COMICS IN THE 1950s

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Friday, February 2, 2024


MY OLDEST COMICS

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Friday, July 7, 2017


And there were more and more comics to read. They were not very expensive and could be found in racks and shelves in many places.

I was hooked.



And though I could not buy every comic I wanted to read, and though I waxed and waned in my interest because I was a kid, I never stopped reading comics entirely. More about my comic journey when I explore how I grew up with them (a future post) because this post is about how they grew up with us.

Comics didn't evolve with readers all at once.

But the shift started in the 1960s with socially-relevant stories and challenging of the self-imposed Comic Code Authority and the threat of the censorship under which comics suffered in the 1950s.

The best example of the social relevance and the shift to attract and keep older readers proving that comics are not just kid stuff were the drug abuse stories of 1971 by Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

I posted about these stories last year:

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Sunday, May 5, 2024



The 1970s saw the return of horror comics at both of the big companies.

There were more and more socially relevant stories about racism, sexism, politics, and other adult themes.

Marvel seemed to be one step ahead of DC throughout this period with its capstone achievement: the introduction of the new X-Men in 1975.

DC countered with the New Teen Titans, and the 1980s saw an even greater carrying along of the readers from the 1960s and 1970s who were now in college or beyond but kept reading or were drawn back in by offerings at the big two, like Howard the Duck and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil as well as outside offerings, such as Cerebus, American Flagg, and Mage.

And then the comics that changed everything.

DC overtook Marvel.






In the first of many reboots, DC wiped out over 40 years of history and multiple "universes" consolidating all into a single universe and a consistent history in a twelve-issue maxi-series called Crisis on Infinite Earths, helmed by the top talents of its popular New Titans series: writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez.

From April of 1985 to March of 1986, this series rocked the comics world with devastating changes. The Flash and Supergirl were both killed among hundreds of other characters. Apparently, the Flash (Barry Allen) was killed simply because DC as a corporation thought the character was "dull."

Marvel's SECRET WARS series at the same time received a following but nothing compared to what Crisis achieved.

Even though Crisis on Infinite Earths received almost no promotion, it cemented its legacy as the greatest cross-over and really the start of the idea of an event that would ripple through the entire line of a company's comics, it's "universe" (crossing over to all titles).

A series like CRISIS also allowed the company to re-envision, re-invent the characters, starting with Superman, helmed by John Byrne who had jumped over from his success at Marvel.

Simultaneously with Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC launched three the ground-breaking and highly regarded series that would be collected as graphic novels, a relatively new concept in comics: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87), The Dark Night Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley (1986), and Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (1987).


One of the very first "graphic novels" by the big two was the 1982 X-Men story God Loves, Man Kills. It was a single issue, in oversize format, square-bound, around 100 pages. But it wasn't really a "book." Though released as individual issues, Watchmen, The Dark Night Returns, and Batman: Year One were all books, published in hardcover forms first once the single issue runs ended and then in paperback and ran over a hundred pages if not hundreds of pages.

Marvel struggled to compete. Though the 1980s featured standouts like StrikeForce Morituri, the launch of a Wolverine solo comic, Power Pack, New Mutants, and strong story arcs for the Avengers, X-Men, Doctor Strange, and more, Marvel was not doing anything like what was coming out of DC. Its own creator-owned Epic line was excellent but not quite on the same level as DC's Vertigo line that started with Sandman (1989) joining Swamp Thing and later adding spin-off Hellblazer among others.

Comics had officially grown up to meet its now adult readership where they were and to attract new adult readers. More and more, the comics dealt with adult themes and controversial storylines. The writing quality and art work leaped by exponential levels from the work of previous decades. And with the advent of the graphic novel, the products vied to be in the conversation with serious literature, such as with Watchmen being featured in top 100 best of all time lists of novels, not just graphic novels: NOVELS.

Marvel would catch up with amazing books like Marvels (Busiek and Ross) in the 1990s among many other excellent books and stories.

Still, it would be a while yet before comic nerds like me could be more open about love of comics. The advent of the Marvel movie blockbusters was still far away. But that's a story for another time.

MY TO READ GRAPHIC NOVEL SHELF AS OF JUNE 1st 2023:


The top shelf with the skull is not included. Those books have been read both left and right of the skull.

But compare this shelf configuration above to this recent photo of how I have trimmed it yet added to it as well.

My to-read graphic novel shelf as of April 30th, 2025:


As you can see the top shelf is much the same, though I added the Cocteau Twins box set. The finished books are a little different though.

However, in the to-read part, the main stack I draw from, the left, is lowered substantially and some books that were in the middle stack have moved over. The far right stack is the same.

When you take away all the big books that have been added in the middle (Lubiek and above), you can see that I have made great progress in lowering the left and middle stacks.

It's good progress. I am hoping to make more progress as I tend to read more in the warmer months as I take time to rest in the hammock on the porch a few times each week.

But in considering how graphic novels have transformed the art form and have "grown up with us," much of that growth is exhibited here.

So back to discussing content.

Fast forward to 2025. 

Now, there is a much higher expectation for comic books than when I started reading them in the late 1960s.


I am still buying and reading comic books, something that has been a central element of my entire life. I no longer hide being a comic book nerd. Comics have come of age; they are recognized as a separate art form of storytelling (not a subgenre of fiction). New distribution networks and comic-specialty shops have ushered in a renaissance of creation, proliferation, inventory, and purchasing.

And so this bring me to my central example of how comic books have grown up with me: The Immortal Thor by Al Ewing and Jan Bazaldua, specifically the start of a new (and the final??) story arc in issue #018 [Legacy #781].

When I had a drop in my income last year, I dropped titles that were in my "back log," and sadly, one of them was The Immortal Thor. It had shuffled down not because I dislike Thor or didn't like what Al Ewing was doing with the title, but it was a slow read, lots to digest.

When my income picked back up, I re-read the entire run from the start and now it's one of my favorite Marvel comics and ranks high in my reading order.

I had not done the re-read when I recently posted my reviews of comics from January 2025:

Since then, I have re-added the title to my subscription list. Since it is a locally bought comic, it does not rank in my reading list from Michigan. But when I bring an issue home, it gets added to the top or near the top of the stack right away.

Part of why Immortal Thor is a good example of how comics have grown up with their readership is that Thor has always attracted an older audience. Marvel did not try to attractive the youth market as it did with Spider-Man or X-Men. Thor was presented as an adult and a God. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original run on Thor featured cosmic threats, Asgardian intrigue, and romance as Thor spent much of his time subsumed by Doctor Donald Blake, in order to teach him humility.

Those who followed Lee/Kirby, notably Walter Simonson, carried on the emphasis on the fantastic, the intrigues of Asgard, and the cosmic, apocalyptic threats.

I recently posted a great essay by Tom Brevoort on Lee/Kirby Thor:


In recent years, Thor had moved away from the grand scale of cosmic threats, of the intrigues of Asgard. He was no longer bound to Donald Blake. Romance waned. Jane Foster, his first love interest in the Lee/Kirby era, developed cancer and took up the hammer for a time as the first female version of Thor. Asgard was destroyed, moved to hover over Kansas,. destroyed again; the Rainbow Bridge was destroyed. Heimdall was killed. Balder was removed from the canvas. Little attention was paid to the Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg). Sif took over as the watcher on the Rainbow Bridge once it and Asgard were restored.

But with the popularity of Loki in movies and his own TV show, as well as the popularity of Thor and Avengers movies, Thor was due for a make over in the comics.

With the death of Odin, Thor had to assume the mantle of All-Father.

Thor's true mother -- Gaia -- as well as Odin' connection to the Phoenix were revealed.

In 2012, Jason Aaron came aboard and started to do very interesting things with the title and the character first with stunning artist, Esad Ribic, and later the equally amazing (though very different in style) Olivier Coipel.
Thor once again fought threats to the entire universe and the Gods themselves in the God Butcher, and he spent a time as "Unworthy Thor," while Jane Foster wielded the hammer.

When Aaron left the book in 2020, it experienced a downturn with Donny Cates and Nic Klein (in my opinion).

Thus, when Ewing took over in 2023, I was still putting Thor books near the bottom of my stack. Even though a "number one" issue will usually hit near or at the top of my stack, Immortal Thor #001 ranked 16th out of 33 comics in August of 2023, not counting 11 Knight Terrors comics from DC.

By issue three, it had fallen into the back log of comics that were not read each month and often issues would pile up in the back log until I had a half dozen or more. So, I dropped it in April of 2024 when I had to cute comics down to save money.

As I said, in February of this year (2025), as I was looking to catch up on titles, and hearing more and more positive press about Ewing's Immortal Thor, I read it from the start up to the current issue and was shocked as to why I had let it fall and had dropped the book. This is great stuff!!

Ewing is renewing Thor's involvement and connection to Asgard in the ways that made the book so intriguing and enthralling from its start as Journey into Mystery by Stan and Jack. Thor went up against the Toranos. the Utgard-Thor, ancient being of immense power from the time before the current gods of Asgard. Loki's trans-gender nature from previous works, notably Kieron Gillen's solo Loki book, was preserved.

Stunning covers by Alex Ross, the return of the letters pages, an epigraph quote at the start of each issue, some meta-fictional storylines with the Enchantress, the return of Skurge, Balder, and so much more. 

All of this worked to renew my and the adoration of many readers/fans to Thor. Aligning with what made the book great in the past and engaging in new stories that push his story and mythos into the present day make Immortal Thor one of the top five best books in the current Marvel canon along with Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Amazing Spider-Man not counting Ultimate books, and of course, just in my opinion.

Now having crafted two new magical artifacts -- an axe and a belt -- Thor is facing his greatest challenge (and possibly the end of Ewing's run), a story that is being promoted as his last: "even an immortal can die" read the advertisements.

Issue #020 on which I am focused here is that first episode of this (presumably) final story arc.

According to COMIC BOOK ROUND UP, Immortal Thor has an overall rating of 8/10 from critics, and 8.3/10 from readers, which seems low to me. I might not give the entire series a 10/10, but surely it rates in the nines, maybe 9.7/10.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/immortal-thor-(2023)

This issue received only two reviews, one a 9.2 and the other a 7/10, averaging to 8.1/10, which seems very low.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/immortal-thor-(2023)/20

It's the review that gave a seven that skews the results. And as usual the criticisms are lame: "it's not exciting." "It's not great; it's just okay," "it's talk heavy," "it's too much tell and not enough show."

It's really difficult to brand comics as too much tell and not enough show because, well, THEY ARE COMICS. Unlike prose fiction, there's pictures, so it's all shown.

However, comics can bog down in exposition, especially if delivered in narrative captions, a style that really went wild with popularity in the 1970s. However, that's not what we see in this issue. There's a small number of narrative captions. Most of the content is delivered through dialogue, which is far better than "telling" the reader with the narrative voice.

Tying off loose plot threads from the previous run (by Donny Cates), especially before Thor embarks on what the cover tells us may be his final adventure ever is hardly unimportant. It may not be as exciting as battling Galactus, and it may be "talk heavy," but maybe that's what a lot of Thor fans want. I surely do. I liked it.

Applying a standard of what is "exciting" to all comics equally is a foolish critical method. What qualifies as "exciting" is completely subjective. And not all comics need to be "exciting" in the same way. Stupid.

The other review, the 9.2/10, seems much more reasonable and spot on. The main comment in which is

"Immortal Thor #20 is a thoughtful, visually devastating work that asks us to consider what the series’ title really means."

A summary of the review that seems much more in line with the comic and its goals.

Often, I find that reviewers, ESPECIALLY OF COMIC BOOKS, as I recently wrote about here:

Sunday, April 13, 2025

have axes to grind, weird expectations, or some other very subjective (and not in a good way) point of view in their criticisms.

For me, Immortal Thor #20 was the issue that inspired me to write about this topic of why I still read comics, a topic so big that I have to break it up into multiple posts.

In terms of this post's topic on that larger idea, this is not the Thor of my childhood.

This Thor is far more complex and has evolved. One element of why comics have grown up with us is character growth and evolution as well as the more sophisticated story content and themes, writing quality and complexity, and artistic talents.

That's why Superman is a much more interesting character to long-time readers and adult fans given that he is married and has a son. If we were reading the same old-same old of how he cleverly fools Lois Lane into not guessing that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person while Jimmy Olsen is in trouble every other story, then the character would be much less interesting. That's really the flaw in Spider-Man and Batman. Though these comics do not forget the history of their characters, in a lot of ways, the stories are the same old-same old: Batman is the obsessed dark knight of justice who must always be alone, and Spider-Man must always be the broke, failing, lovelorn hero who sacrifices everything for what he does as Spider-Man.

That's why it is more refreshing to see characters grow and leave past incarnations behind rather than sticking with the same tropes and configurations for decades. You can probably guess that I thought Spider-Man should have remained married and later rich in running his company of progressive inventions.

There's two strengths that Thor comics have, one of which is shared among most others, and the other is not.

Most long running episodic narratives have developed large casts of supporting characters who are the life blood of new stories and the continued evolution of the main character. Poor creators neglect these casts or do little with them; great creators not only remember the reasons for these characters but work to build and develop these characters and their relationships even more. Thor has a huge cast of characters just in the Norse pantheon let alone beyond. These characters must be used and used well to tell new stories that tie in with the long history of the stories that have come before.

The other element of strength for Marvel's Thor comic is one not shared by all or most other comics, though a few come to mind, and that is the universe in which it is set and still unexplored. Thor lives among the many realms of the world tree and the Norse pantheon as well as its connection to other pantheons featured in Marvel comics, such as the Greek and Egyptian gods. Much of Asgard and other realms has been explored and yet so much more is unexplored. Some of those new areas and features of the mythology and its realms have been explored in Ewing's run and specifically in this issue.

As I wrote above, Thor is no longer sharing existence with Donald Blake. Thor is the All-Father now. He has had many relationships since the start of Marvel's comics (which is why the kiss with Sif in this issue is significant). He was unworthy of the hammer for a time and lost it. Others have taken on the mantle of the God of Thunder. Thor has seen his future and his children and grand-children. Thor found out who his mother really is. Thor was even a herald of Galactus for a short time (which was a twist I did not like at all). So many changes, and so long-time readers are rewarded for following the character through the years. And now, he may face the greatest challenge of all, which is fitting and needed to further evolve the character.

It is fitting that two bridges are featured in this Thor comic because its function is as a bridge from previous story arcs to what we're being told is Thor's FINAL story.




Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, is featured, but so is the Black Bridge, which we have not see before to my knowledge, and that's where Thor's final journey begins, from one bridge to the other and beyond.

This issue served as a necessary bridge for Thor to convey news of a "grand child" (now a man, Magni) to the goddess whom until recently he believed was his mother. This conversation serves not only to help us further understand Freyja and her role in this universe, but also for Thor to share his frame of mind about recent events and those about to unfold. there's also a little comic relief, which is always welcome amid darker and turgid events. The need for comic relief, especially of a sophisticated kind worthy of the stories and characters (as opposed to a super powerful imp or alien from another dimension playing pranks, though that too serves a function) is something many creators forget. It's the rule that X-Men established so well: after a space-spanning adventure of a dozen issues, the team plays Basketball or Baseball to let off steam and show us that they are regular (and young-ish) human beings, showing us that they are having and can have fun, and giving us much needed comic relief and humanity.




Ewing adds this needed humor to Thor's conversation with Freyja, and it provides an excellent counter-point to what is to come, even within that conversation that takes a dark turn. Also, as we see next with Thor's interaction with Sif, he is on a farewell tour as he suspects that this next adventure may be his last.

But before Thor and Sif have a similar farewell or not farewell with a kiss, Thor must kill Toranos, the Utgard Thor, an elder god that Thor defeated at the beginning of Ewing's run by infusing him with compassion, which is now the reason he was crucified on this giant wheel: see the awesome double page spread!


Awe-inspiring, grand-scale, cosmic visuals and concepts are the strength of a comic like Thor and must be maintained. It's why bringing Asgard to earth to hover over Kansas was a mistake in my view, even though I support new things and avoiding the same old-same old.

Toranos also bring Thor a message from the Utgard gods about what he must next do, where he must journey, and what must result: "That gate will soon open Thor... and someone must pass through it."

Responsible for Toranos' plight, his message delivered, Thor executes him out of mercy, something he could not do at the start of the Ewing-led run of Immortal Thor stories.
At this point, before Thor embarks on his adventure, he and Sif talk, and she kisses him, reminding us of their love and couplehood so far back in the history of the comic.

And the final cliff-hanger (just look below, as I have copied the entire comic).

So much great character stuff in this comic, so much great stuff about the world and the mythology, it may not be "exciting" in that one reviewer's estimation, but it is fascinating, thought-provoking, and enthralling. It is just the bridge that story needs, which anyone who is a storyteller themselves (and I like to think I am one) understands.

It's a sophisticated story that shows how comics have grown up with longtime readers to deliver stories that will retain their interest and readership.

It's one of my reasons for still reading comics and gaining so much enjoyment from them.

And I have six more reasons to write about in future installments.

Thanks for reading!

The entire issue of Immortal Thor #020 Legacy 781 is shared below.

Please don't sue me Marvel.

Thanks for tuning in.

OH, and May the Fourth be With You!!






















NOT!!


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2505.04 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3594 days ago & DAD = 249 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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