That's not Thor. Not the Marvel one, anyway. The Thor I wanted to see was Jack Kirby's squarish, shiny-metal armor and squarish-chinned "superman" with a sword--er, hammer. I wanted to see plate-armored gods and sizzling "magic" emanating from what could be some sort of high-alien technology. We just can't be sure....
Asgard was clearly depicted by Kirby as having a strong Sci-Fi influence. It was all nuts-and-bolts, but it worked. And it was all powered by "Kirby Krackle".
So, when the film was rumored to be taking shape, I was hoping for a little Kirby influence on the designs. If Marvel was going to truly tell their Thor, it had to have JK's stamp. Ladies and Gentlemen, Jack Kirby would be proud:
I don't think it was at all easy to bring the King's art into the "real world," so I give high marks to Branagh and his crew for deftly walking a very fine line. I'm not even the slightest bit worried about the eyepatch on Odin, or the lack of helmets (hey, you wouldn't wear a heavy helmet indoors either!).
We'll see what the movie has in store, but I'm taking this bit of art direction as a good sign that Kirby's hand is guiding Mjolnir.
Read more at the LA Times.
6 comments:
Man, that looks hella sweet!
Promising to say the least!
Hmmm...
I would have liked to see more of an Ultimates approach, keeping the question of Thor's divinity a mystery.
Thanks for posting though!
For the record, I've been seeing comments on the interwebs that the the armor is "obviously" inspired by recent Thor artist Oliver Coipel's work.
I've not seen/heard any confirmation from the filmmakers, but after viewing some of his stuff, I'll just say while I see the influence of each artist in the designs. The Marvel-y-ness is prominent in both--and it's easy to see where Coipel got his inspiration. In fact, some of his Thor stuff looks to me like the middle-ground between Kirby (complete with krackle!) and actual, solid human beings.
While I like that it's influenced by Kirby (who rocks) and Olivier Coipel (who rocks), the screenshot looks WAAY more influenced by recent low-budget sci-fi TV--Alien-technology-as-streamlined-sneaker than anything else.
I'm worried. Hoping to be able to move from "worrying" to "apathetic" soon.
I'm sorta with Zak. While I appreciate the nod to Kirby, it also seems like that've played it a little "safe."
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