This issue made me think, "You know, it is okay to say no to Joe." J. Michael Straczynski had a couple of interesting decisions in the latest issue of Thor, but in both cases, I think his ideas (while interesting) probably created more creative problems than anything.

The first bit was having Thor address the problems of Hurricane Katrina, specifically, "Why didn't superheroes come here and make a force field? Why didn't the Human Torch turn the water to steam? Why didn't superheroes come to save people?"

It is an interesting question, but ultimately, I think applying the "real world" to superhero problems is ultimately unsatisfying, as superhero comics specifically do not exist in "the real world," and attempts to reconcile the two often end up looking kinda silly, for there really ISN'T a good reason why superheroes wouldn't help save Katrina victims, is there? So why bring up a problem when you do not have a solution, and the problem only serves to make superheroes (you know, Marvel's main province) look bad?

I'd think that a Marvel editor might want to say no to this idea.

Secondly, Straczynski makes Iron Man look so ridiculously awful, you'd be hard-pressed to find something redeeming about the fellow. Most of the problem exists from something Straczynski did not even do, which was to come up with the idea of making a clone of Thor based on some hair Iron Man lifted from Thor years ago. That was pretty darn messed up, so reasonably, Thor is going to be quite pissed.

So that's not Straczynski's "problem," but how he decided to handle it, is. Iron Man comes in, and automatically, he is, of all things, PISSY with Thor for not saying, "Hi" to him. He then proceeds to act just like William Atherton in Ghostbusters.

And then Thor kicks his behind.

I don't mind the Thor kicking his behind part - after all, with what Iron Man did to his genes in Civil War, it would be reasonable enough on Thor's part, but the parts with making Iron Man act like Henry Gyrich just seemed like a poor idea, in it served mostly just to make Iron Man (you know, one of Marvel's properties, with a movie out next year) look bad.

I'd think that a Marvel editor might want to say no to this idea.