Marvel's new mega-capitalist Thor shows the worst case scenario of what corporate superhero comics can be

April 17's Roxxon Presents: Thor #1 is a tongue-in-cheek satire that offers up an exacting look at what the absolute worst case scenario of corporate comics can be, with the evil Roxxon Corporation, led by the vicious minotaur Dario Agger and powered by the Asgardian villain the Enchantress, having bought and warped all of Thor's adventures into the corporate synergy comic to end all corporate synergy comics.

In other words, it's exactly what was promised when the frankly hilarious initial announcement of Thor's reinvention as Chad Hammer went out a few months ago. But does the satire have teeth when the call is coming from inside the house?

First off, this comic is funny as hell. Writer Al Ewing, artist Greg Land, inker Jay Leisten, colorist Frank D'Armata, and letterer Joe Sabino, who are all credited as "Roxxon's Al Ewing, Roxxon's Greg Land," etc, all understand the assignment, as the kids say.

Right off the bat, Ewing's increasingly Roxxon buzzword-addled script itself is what truly sells what Roxxon Presents: Thor is going for, right down to his keen use of references to the modern AI and app-driven nature of today's tech landscape. 

Thor, whose secret identity is "Chad Hammer," drives an ugly Thor Truck (a reference to a certain widely-memed vehicle you can probably deduce quite easily), his "big hammer," as Odin calls it, is actually a Roxxon "smart hammer" (Mjolnir Premium) which requires a fingerprint and a bluetooth pairing to activate, and nearly everything he owns, uses, and references is somehow branded by or connected to Roxxon.

Roxxon itself is sufficiently painted as the absolute worst kind of greedy, profit hungry corporation, bent on making pollution look cool, and painting anyone concerned with pesky topics such as the environment or civil rights as a foolish clod with selfish, deceitful intent.

In the Roxxon Age of Marvel, as this reality is billed, anyone who protests Roxxon or Thor himself is all bound into a spell of liberal idiocy by Loki,