WRITER: DAVE GIBBONS
ARTIST: JOHN HIGGINS
Wildstorm/DC brought up the rights to the fabled comic wing of IPC/Fleetway in 2005 and promised a selection of new material and reprints (the main hitch in the latter being the absence and poor condition of most physical masters). The opening gambit was Albion, written by Leah Moore and John Reppion and maybe read or spellchecked or vaguely acknowledged by Alan Moore. This was a hugely clumsy attempt to "do a Watchmen" for the characters but while it was nice to see so many characters back in print after decades on the sidelines and it was nowhere near the desecration of the infamous 2000AD Holiday Special it's generally considered impolite to mention the whole thing now. Phase two was a pair of spin-off five part miniseries "from the world of Albion!" largely chosen by casting around for British Invasion creators who had fond memories and asking them if they wanted to write anything. Dave Gibbons answered the call and chose Thunderbolt Jaxon, but there were two major catches - he didn't want to draw it and apparently he didn't want to write about Thunderbolt Jaxon either. Jaxon was never quite in Fleetway's first echelon, mainly being limited to Comet and Knockout rather than the A-list and his big moment might well have been a whiny death in Grant Morrison's Zenith. He was left out of Albion and you get the impression it wasn't so much to keep him free for this mini but because the writers didn't know who he was.
Instead Gibbons handles the script like Quentin Tarantino taking a lead role in a Robert Rodriguez film. While it's nominally about Thunderbolt Jaxxon, a boy transformed by ancient Norse artifacts into the embodiment of Thor (the actual Thor, mind, not the hippy from the comics as one character broadsides, clearly unaware of the crap they're trapped in) this is treated more as a subplot. Gibbons is plainly more interested in the idea of the Norse Gods and their old enemies the Jötunn living in a small modern Northern town as gangsters, part of the deal to seal their survival against the rising tide of Christianity. While theoretically a sound idea this is given zero plausible thought - they've been alive fighting their little gang-war like this for centuries? And no-one's noticed how Mr O'Dunne (noyce) has been around for so long or what have you? It reeks of a device to take the reader by surprise with no further thought given, though even this gets fluffed by being revealed almost immediately. Once it's out there it's out; there's some vague handwaving to the police being in both factions' pockets but that's about it.
In amongst all of this are three friends - standard lad Jack Jaxon, nerdy chemo survivor Brian and Indian Saffron (Gibbons to his credit plays down her ethnic origins besides a few contextually justifiable mentions of Hinduism; only problem is that this is clearly too subtle for artist John Higgins, who renders her as a blonde Caucasian) who randomly find Thor's magical accouterments (a belt, a torque and a cross) buried out in the countryside with a metal detector - Thor having opted out of the whole thing and having his devices buried on consecrated Christian ground as part of the truce. When Jack wears them he becomes Thor and has to struggle to retain his personality, therefore rarely doing it even after his violent step-dad turns out to be another Norse God, Heimdall, who's also Thor's brother. All of the Gods involved are vicious thugs who seem entirely focused on killing the other lot despite this being impossible because they're all immortals, so what the point in that is I don't know.
It's then just the two gangs trying to get the things back while the kids hare around town trying to get them back to hallowed ground until God literally turns up in the final issue, tells both sides they're causing too much hassle on Earth and that this is Ragnarök, so hop it to Valhalla. This causes Odin to morph instantly from psychotic local gangster to hail-fellow-well-met grandpa and everyone's pretty happy, especially after a fairly straightforward appeal to God from Saffron means Jaxon gets to stay on Earth and Brian randomly decides he's now called... wait for it, wait for it... Thunderbolt Jaxon! Top work Bri. They then board the same bus that took them on the metal detecting and no-one says anything about the giant Norse warrior standing with the kid who's still weak from his chemo but can leg it over snowy fields as long as you like and the white blonde Indian girl because everyone in the town is a fucking moron.
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