There’s never been a better time to be a Nordic warrior.
The History Channel’s Vikings is the closest thing to a weekly episodic Thor series; Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder is enjoying the character’s finest run since J.M.S.; and Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World hits theaters this fall.
Not to mention the Odinson battles the mighty Apocalypse (!!) in this week’s best-selling series Uncanny Avengers, with issue #9.
That’s quite a load of Asgard.
Yet, while not much is known about The Dark World other than some location pics of Chris Hemsworth tossing around his Mjolnir…
…there’s plenty of hammer-wielding warriors and corrupted god-bombing coming from Ragnar Lothbrok. Uh, yup, you guessed it: Ragnar-ok.
Except the Vikings‘ principle lead is no Project Lightning. Over the course of 6-episodes, Ragnar has lead a band of brothers and a far less dysfunctional family than those Odinsons. Oh no — the wife (played by experienced martial-artist Katheryn Winnick) is a crazy warrior woman who has Rags offer her “services” to a Christian monk slave; his son is ever bit the brat Loki is, and perhaps all the more manipulative (he makes the same priest.. drink!); and his brother-in-arms, Rollo, wants all the glory for himself — as if Balder the Brave was ever evil.
The show is clearly bad-ass. And don’t worry, Vikings (10pm EST) is the perfect show to come on directly after Game of Thrones (9pm EST). Cause we all know one-hour of sorcery, swords and slutty ale-maids is just not enough.
Ragnar — played by Travis “Twice as Moody” Fimmel — is also said to be a direct descendant of Odin, as well.. so it all makes sense why he can’t help but play a god amongst men. Thankfully for viewers, Mr. Lothbrok is also quite vulnerable, suffering a deathly injury before pitting himself in epic battle against Earl Haraldson. He’s also, quite possibly, the biggest dickhead protagonist since Anakin Skywalker. I mean, the guy is a walking Darth Vader — a protagonist so bad you have no other reason but to root for him. Hey, Ragnar takes care of his slaves and takes the time out of his busy day to arrange wondrous funeral processions for those he slays.
Dude means well!
Also, be on the lookout for Episode 8 airing April 21st, where the series will fully explore the viking religion — meaning there’ll be more Thor and Odin references than a Marvel comic book. Good, because History Channel recently announced it has picked up Vikings for a second season.
Feed me more.
And more you should have.. if you’re not too lazy to pick up a comic book every now and then. If you’re a Vikings fan, love the first Thor flick and need something else to bide your time, then you should be reading God of Thunder, penned by Marvel superstar Jason Aaron. Don’t worry: if you haven’t been reading, this week’s #7 is the “perfect jumping-on point.”
Ahh… I’ve always wanted to never say that.
But it’s true. All you need to know if that a creep named Gorr the God-Butcher has been living up to his perilous moniker, slaughtering gods all over the galaxy and Thor and Thor…and Thor are out to lay out the prevent D.
Uh-huh. That’s THREE Thors for the price of one! Aaron’s typically humorous dialogue comes in handy here, too, when present-Thor is straight owned by future-Thor.
Think: Looper.
This “King Thor” sort of resembles a cross between an ancient Nick Fury and Odin, offering no solutions to many of 616-Thor’s various inquiries, since, you know, it’s hard enough to button those trousers. The humor blends well with Aaron’s intense layers of danger.
There’s some hope for a win against this Butcher when you realize the elder God of Thunder is able to relive his youth once again. All the while, the Thor we all know and love even stops to drop an X-Men reference. X-Men references in Thor! Say it isn’t… Yes. When you include the fact that artist Esad Ribic does a bang-up job designing the science fiction of a distant Asgard — with a killer reveal that develops yet another threat — the Thor ongoing appears to be in great hands.
Now, if we can just get that Thor vs. Ragnar one-shot…
