just click download | “Enter Hercules” and “Battle of the Gods” are adaptations of the comic book stories taken from Journey Into Mystery, issues #124-126 and issues #103-104 respectively. Wait, I don’t think adapted is the right term. Instead, it literally looks like it was ripped out of the comic book and poorly animated to make it look like a moving comic book.
“Enter Hercules” has Odin enlisting the might Greek champion Hercules to beat some sense into his son. Thor is in love with a mortal woman, Jane Foster, but Odin disapproves of the situation especially when Thor reveals his mortal identity of Dr. Donald Blake to her. Hercules and Thor fight each other for Jane’s affection. During the fight, Odin strips Thor of half his power and the son of Odin loses to the scion of Olympus. All of this was to test Thor in his never ending lesson in humility.
“Battle of the Gods” has Loki, Thor’s half-brother, enlisting the services of the Enchantress and the Executioner. However, their attempts are foiled. This enrages Loki and he schemes of another plan to get rid of Thor. He tricks Odin into going to Earth to personally put a stop to Thor’s love for Jane Foster. Odin does this and leaves Loki in charge of Asgard in his absence. Big mistake. While Odin and Thor are on Earth, Loki takes advantage of the situation and unleashes Surtur to eliminate the two of them.
Thor’s story has always been a soap opera of sorts in godly proportions. In trying to teach Thor about humility, Odin places his son on Earth in the guise of a lame doctor named Donald Blake. What he didn’t expect was his son falling in love with a mortal woman. This becomes a huge conflict between the two as Thor would rather spend his time on Earth (or Midgard as the Norse gods refer to it) than on Asgard (his true home). The actually story is interesting and was done beautifully in the comic books. However, taking those exact pages and trying to animate them was not a good move.
The animation is extremely limited. What was done to produce these cartoons is actually quite primitive. Images of the comic books were photocopied and manipulated for animation with minimal effect. In this case, animation mostly consists of moving lips and occasional leg or arm movement. It is so evident that these images are taken directly from the comic books as I can easily identify the art of Jack Kirby and others used for this project. I do wish, however, that they used proper images that made sense. Odin’s look changed four different times in one episode and I was confused who this character was every time he appeared on screen. But I did enjoy the voice work even though it is over-the-top at times.
The Mighty Thor: Enter Hercules & Battle of the Gods is really not a bad introduction into the world of superheroes, but this is going to appeal to the diehard, hardcore fanatics of the old stories. The stories and the art are great but the animation is questionable. Passersby who are curious about this project might look at the shoddy animation and wonder how such a train wreck even came about in the first place. Even South Park, which looks like cut paper animation, is done so much better than this. That show is trying to look crude but The Mighty Thor, hands down, wins in that department.
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