It Came From the 90s: Thunderstrike #1 Review

Tuesday, Apr. 10 2007 | Author: Michael

The 90s were an interesting time for comic books. Never had the market been bigger, and never had the comics been worse. Now don’t get me wrong, there was some great stuff that came out of the 90s, but the sheer volume of comics produced created a mountain of pure, unfettered, 4-color crap. This ongoing column will look at some of the BEST and many more of the WORST comics to come out of that amazing decade…

First up…

Thunderstrike #1

Thunderstrike is a character that started out in the pages of The Mighty Thor. He was Eric Masterson, an architect who Thor ended up inhabiting the body of for a time. After that little spell was over, Thor created a weapon for Eric, called Thunderstrike, so that Eric could continue to serve as a protector for Earth in Thor’s absence. This issue is the first of his ongoing series, and featured the amazingly 90s staple of a gimmick cover.

This one has lighting effects on it, and a heavy cardstock, jacking the price up to $2.95. That may be standard price today for a Marvel book, but back in 93 that was a premium piece of comic.

This comic displays some of the worst of what the 90s had to offer comic book fans. The book is extremely poorly written, and filled with some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever read. Here’s an example from page 32.

Costume Woman: Hi, handsome! I was hoping I’d see you again! I’ve been following your exploits in the newspapers. What can I do for you this time?

Eric (Thunderstrike): I need a new costume.

Costume Woman: My pleasure! I just hope you’ll mention my show to your Avengers buddies.

(he hands her some drawings of possible costume designs)

INTERESTING! You’re obviously going for a look which combines the classic with the contemporary! But a cape is WAY too 60s — mid if I make a few suggestions?

Eric (Thunderstrike): Like what?

Costume Woman: Well… …I’ve always thought an earring can be sooo sexy on the right man!

Damn…just…damn. That pretty much sums the book up right there. Eric fights the mysterious BLOODAXE, and gets his new costume after getting his ass handed to him in a fight. (He doesn’t want to sully Thor’s name with how much he sucks…seriously…so he decided to take on a new name) He chooses “Thunderstrike” because he can’t think of anything else (again…seriously) when asked…

This 46 page waste of a tree really sums up the 90s comic scene. Lots of bad stories, pretty good art, and gimmick covers. It’s kind of sad really…but there are some gems to be found in the 90s boom…and we’ll be covering some of them in future editions of “It Came from the 90s!”