Pretty much forgettable
Odin is worried about where his son, Thor, has wandered off to. Unknown to him, Thor is roaming around in space completely losing his mind and is attacking his friends. He appears to be under a deep influence by a figment of his imagination. His lover Sif and friend Beta Ray Bill believe he's possessed by the Warrior's Madness, and they hope to defeat and cure him before Odin learns of the illness which is punished by banishment or death. -summary
When people think of 90's comics one of the big complaints frequently mentioned are those long crossovers. Events with a small amount of story dragged on for a very long length of time. This isn't a problem in itself as long as these events actually lead to something worth noting. For example, the 12 issue series X-Men: The X-Cutioner's Song wasn't only an enjoyable story arc, but it also meant something as it revealed that either Stryfe or Cable was Cyclops son from the future, along with introducing the mutant killing disease called the Legacy Virus. This story arc effected the X-Men universe for years and even claimed a few lives. However they can be a problem, which brings me to the thirteen issue crossover Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage; it had very little story and it was just one big fight after the other which seemed like forever with little to no character development, and it really didn't change anything in the Spider-Man Universe. Thor: Blood and Thunder has everything in common with that Spider-Man story except it's kind of worse. This is the type of story one comes into only looking for a fight, and that's pretty much all you're getting here. Written by Ron Marz and Jim Starlin, this crossover contains Thor 468 - 471, Silver Surfer 86 - 88, Warlock Chronicles 6 - 8, and Warlock and the Infinity Watch 23 - 25.
The plot begins immediately with Sif attempting to calm Thor and let him know that he may be going insane. It takes little time for him to claim allegiance to his imaginary lover, Valkyrie, and from here he tries to kill Sif, then gets into a fight with Beta Ray Bill, and all hell breaks loose as Thor starts giving out beat-downs across the board. If action is your friend then this sounds fun to you.
I would like to believe there's some exaggeration on my part but no such luck. This is all about Thor viciously beating everyone stupid enough to stand in his way. One thing I will mention is this; people saw how much damage the Hulk caused in his rampages and it was quite scary. I kind of think an out of control, ready to kill Thor is scarier as he goes through powerful opponents. Some of the problem is that the first few issues are all about Thor beating down folks, despite them getting in some good licks themselves. Warlock and the Infinity Watch joins in and more fighting is the result.
The problem with this is that it feels like anyone could have came up with this plot line. It's very linear, stale, and what little bit of a subplot introduced is beyond horrible plus it's inconsistent too. The Infinity Watch find themselves on Asgard in a battle with a group of trolls and are some how taken down, but later do much better against a larger army of Asgardians, ridiculous. Then later on we have Beta Ray Bill and Sif behaving completely out of character and attacking The Watch whom are teamed with Silver Surfer to prevent a misunderstanding. This part of the story was definitely weird, because Beta Ray Bill knows Surfer very well and he knows reasoning with him is very easy. It's just another ridiculous decision to move from one point to another.
I will admit that at least the action held my attention as the Mad Titan, Thanos, makes an out of nowhere appearance. This is where things finally get interesting since it all leads to another huge confrontation later in the book; but don't expect anything the least bit imaginative to take place outside of the fighting. This is probably about as bare-bones a comic can get. For those whom remember this story in original form, you can forget about the events leading up to Thor's madness when he began to trust Valkyrie, plus his short falling out with his friends. This stuff is merely glanced upon but in all honesty it wouldn't have added much anyway.
This is a crossover so expect lots of inconsistent artwork. I usually don't have a problem with this, but there was one occasion from one crossover issue to the next I didn't even recognize Sif. Her hair color and outfit was completely different, and Odin goes from having sleeves to bare arm. There's no excuse for this lack of coordination. Plus some of these issues, mainly the Warlock titles have some horrendous artwork. I mean wow, this is really bad. If I didn't know better I would say someone with a hook-hand had drawn some of this; very inconsistent and sloppy designs, very bad coloring, bad shading, bad grouping, and even hard to follow sometimes. The Thor and Silver Surfer books look better although far from perfect, but at least there are plenty occasions when the action can be enjoyed. Thor and Thanos trade off in awesome fashion, Bill gets to land his mighty blows, and there's just plenty of high energy blasting and fisticuffs to enjoy.
I don't know what could have motivated Marvel to reprint this story of all things. It must have had a lot to do with the growing mainstream popularity of Thor because I can't believe Marvel fans would ask for this, before story arcs like Silver Surfer: The Herald Ordeal, Ghost Rider: Road to Vengeance, Spider-Man: Life Theft and Pursuit, and so many others. Thor: Blood and Thunder is forgettable. I only recommend this to hardcore Thor and action fans.
Pros: Some cool action at times, Thanos
Cons: That's really all you get, story is bland....
