Roxxon Presents: Thor #1: The Shilling Joke

In comics, few things are worse than brand partnership promotional issues, which coat a series of corporate talking points in a vague semblance of story. DC has shown readers a multiverse-worth of Colonel Sanders, Robin resisting Poison Ivy with Claritin, and Batman teaming up with esports team FaZe Clan to defeat Mr. Freeze. Meanwhile, Marvel has brought us the superheroes Combo-Man—a Frankensteinian hero who gets his power from Combos snacks—and Captain Citrus, the brainchild of the Florida Department of Citrus. These comics are content first. They are art without art. And they’ve finally met their match in Roxxon Presents: Thor. 

At the end of Immortal Thor #9, Minotaur (CEO of evil conglomerate Roxxon) and classic Thor baddies Enchantress and Executioner were brainwashing Thor with a Roxxon-brand Thor comic after secretly buying the rights to his likeness. This is that in-universe comic. In the opening scene of Roxxon Presents: Thor, readers learn Roxxon Presents: Thor is now the character’s name (yes, really) and this one-shot is picking up where the absurdly-named Absolute Absolution: Thor: Tournament of Esports #0 (which doesn’t exist) left off. Every possible surface from Mjolnir to a surfboard is plastered with Roxxon’s logo and the comic buckles under the weight of constant ads for Roxxon-brand products ranging from apps and body gel to VR headsets and drones. The issue also includes full-page Roxxon ads, drawn by the issue’s artist Greg Land. Like the brand partnership comics it satirizes, Roxxon Presents: Thor’s dialogue is cheesy and the plot hamfisted and incoherent as Thor runs around quashing protests and being a beach bum in the name of corporate greed. Via the ads, writer Al Ewing takes punches at a variety of companies including Exxon (Roxxon’s namesake), Apple, and most memorably, Tesla. Like a Tesla Truck, Roxxon’s Thor Truck has no handles and sports a boxy silver silhouette. Unlike Tesla’s vehicles, it hits cyclists intentionally! Ewing reserves his only earnestness for a deliciously sickening fourth-wall break/villain monologue/thesis dump mid-way through the issue. 

The satire of Roxxon Presents: Thor is made all the more clear by its art. Back in 2017, BookRiot contributor Anthony Karcz asserted that artist Greg Land represents “the worst side of Marvel—the cash-grab, crossover summer event Marvel.” Whether or not Karcz is correct, Land’s art feels right at home in this satirical take on “cash-grab, crossover summer event Marvel.” Inked by Jay Leisten, Land’s art is chock-full of his typical mix of inaccurate anatomy, inconsistently drawn faces, varying degrees of realism, awkward compositional choices, and female objectification. Lots of objectification. Land’s women, whose heads are bigger than their waists, coyly bite their thumb-tips and one tugs down the straps on her bikini, much like the Playboy and Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition models Land famously references. Of course, given Ewing’s direct inclusion of a beach scene and how these women are written entirely to swoon and cry over Roxxon Presents: Thor (the character), Land is almost certainly in on the joke. 

Land’s work is colored by long-time collaborator Frank D’Armata, whose heavy use of soft-shading in this issue gives everything the formlessness of Play-Doh. At times, D’Armata’s coloring feels careless: for example, real Thor (the audience surrogate) loses his cape in one panel and has it back in the next. One off color choice leaves Roxxon’s Thor looking like he wears nude nail polish (skin usually appears lighter under nails, not darker) and another panel’s garish background makes characters difficult to focus on. All of that said, this schlocky satire would be worse off were the art much better. Paired with an artist whose work is painterly or boldly experimental, Ewing’s script may not have worked at all.