The God of Pronouncement

Artist Neal Adams had brief runs on both Thor and The Avengers, but left his own unique take on each title, as he tends to do on every project he works on. I've always found his work to be a mixed blessing--dazzling in scope and layout, but also the occasional panels where I find myself wincing a little at his choices. For instance, when he was working on X-Men, he was in the habit of putting aside the Beast's talent for agility and use of his feet in favor of giving the character a more trim look and having him settle nearly all of his skirmishes with a sock to the jaw. On the other hand, he raised the Beast's profile in the book considerably. Like I said, a mixed blessing.

As for Thor, Adams' first rendering of the character in print didn't exactly thrill me with this scrawny depiction of the Thunder God:

Adams spent a couple of issues on Thor, and four issues on The Avengers. His work on the latter was, in a word, breathtaking. But there were also panels in Thor where he showed great promise:

By contrast, in The Avengers, Thor's action scenes were far less dynamic than you'd find drawn by, say, one of the Buscema brothers. Adams seemed to favor Thor in a more imposing style with limited mobility, showing plenty of chest and ready to make bold pronouncements:

Interestingly, there were characters whom Adams seemed to be more comfortable with--Iron Man, for one, and the Vision in particular. And it probably goes without saying that he was a natural with Skrulls. Regardless, Adams continues to be a favorite of mine, and likely fandom in general. When you open an issue by Adams, you know you're in for something special--something above the norm and a little outside the box.