I recently went to see the new Thor movie which I didn’t really care if I saw or not, but my son insisted. Thor was not one of my favorite characters when I was first reading comics. I had come to Thor well after Jack Kirby had started and departed the character. All of the weird magic and fantastic Asgardian vistas were gone and I read hack stories written by guys trying to use useless literature degrees liberally sprinkling the script with Shakespearean sounding language (instead of Norwegian which would have made sense) and drawn by guys who were also drawing a war, Western and another second or third string character in that same month. I couldn’t care less about Marvel’s Superman stand-in, but I went, and I’m glad I did. It’s one of the better Marvel movies.
Being a lapsed comic collector and hopeless nerd, I stuck around for the little epilogue that they’ve been throwing into these movies to tease the next movie that will launch a million backpacks and lunchboxes. I’m usually underwhelmed, but this time I was startled for I recognized the character.
If you’re a comic book fan, this potential spoiler has long since been spoiled for you, and I doubt if you read my site anyway. If you just know the characters from the movies, your response is probably going to be, “Yeah. So what?”
When I saw the character with the shock of white hair, I recognized him immediately from a comic I got when I was about ten years old and still have! I must admit that I got a major geeky thrill from seeing a character that is etched into my mind with acid.
It was The Collector!!! My older brother had bought this from a newsstand or convenience store for 20¢; read it; chucked it to me and forgot about it. I won’t forget it. I can’t!I am looking forward to seeing this guy in action in the movies, but sadly, I doubt if The Vision (The Avengers version of Mr Spock) is going to phase through a ceiling to kick his ass.
