Then we have fantasy armies invade New York. But it’s covered by the fact that when Marvel does this as a convention when going to England. Which, like Marvel Britain (especially England), generally is when written by American writers, is basically not anything like actual Britain,** but is – as Simonson pretty much says at the beginning of 348 – Castles-and-King-Arthur-Land.*** So we really are entering the world of fantasy.

the device of the food, so that superficially reassuring authority figures such as the police,* are really servants of otherworldly fantasy creatures.Īnd then we go to the Cotswolds. But that space gets invaded and subverted by Malekith (note esp. With this arc, you start with that Marvel New York and a prominent role for the Willises, superficially ordinary people. There’s also a lot of emphasis on Marvel New York as a setting. (It’s really interesting how, when Simonson comes back to Sigurd Jarlson, he has Thor note how perfunctory and minimal Jarlson’s pretense at a “life” really was.).

(After all, Thor began as a character with an alien-invasion story.)įafnir is a return of a character from the past, and the story emphasizes the Sigurd Jarlson secret identity – again, these compensate for the more fantasy elements. In hindsight, the science-fiction elements of the Beta Ray Bill arc balance the fantasy/myth stuff, and by implication keep you in the very mashed-up Marvel universe. Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I’ve been reading ahead to prepare, and one thing I really like about what Simonson does is how carefully he edges you by degrees out of the superhero genre, and specifically the Marvel version.

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