Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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DonCampbell
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Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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First, I recently came to the MCP to find out in which issues Eric Willis and his son Roger had appeared (as part of the Surtur Saga). Unfortunately, I was surprised to discover that neither character has a listing on the MCP. There are listings for a lot of characters who appear in those issues (Thor #345-354) but the two Willises are not among them. Why?

Second, I remember that, years ago, I posted some comments about how Thor's chronology regarding his appearances in Thor and Avengers during that period just didn't work. Sadly, I didn't bother to save a copy at the time and am now looking to recover them from the forum archives. However, I don't know where to look. Is there some sort of index for where various threads can be found? Or will I just have to guess at when I may have posted those comments and then go through the appropriate archived forums one at a time and hope I stumble upon what I'm seeking?
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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DonCampbell wrote:First, I recently came to the MCP to find out in which issues Eric Willis and his son Roger had appeared (as part of the Surtur Saga). Unfortunately, I was surprised to discover that neither character has a listing on the MCP. There are listings for a lot of characters who appear in those issues (Thor #345-354) but the two Willises are not among them. Why?
A lot of older series are underanalysed, especially when it comes to flatscans.
DonCampbell wrote:Second, I remember that, years ago, I posted some comments about how Thor's chronology regarding his appearances in Thor and Avengers during that period just didn't work. Sadly, I didn't bother to save a copy at the time and am now looking to recover them from the forum archives. However, I don't know where to look. Is there some sort of index for where various threads can be found? Or will I just have to guess at when I may have posted those comments and then go through the appropriate archived forums one at a time and hope I stumble upon what I'm seeking?
Archive 54, Thread 31, "Thor's Avenger chronology".
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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Normal "civilian" characters are often given lower priority, I've found. Especially ones that die in their only appearance, like Dr. Eric Willis. His kid Roger, though, has a few more appearances. He only appears in Thor #345-354, bar #351, though, so I'm not sure how much of a service providing a chronology for him is. It's not like he appears in an issue of Avengers or something in addition to Thor, or reappears years later.

It's usually a judgement call for characters like these at the time the book's included in the MCP. And as Somebody said, a lot of the earlier books are sometimes underanalyzed. A case can always be made to include anyone, of course.
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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Col_Fury wrote:Normal "civilian" characters are often given lower priority, I've found. Especially ones that die in their only appearance, like Dr. Eric Willis. His kid Roger, though, has a few more appearances. He only appears in Thor #345-354, bar #351, though, so I'm not sure how much of a service providing a chronology for him is. It's not like he appears in an issue of Avengers or something in addition to Thor, or reappears years later.
People being behind on their reading sometimes causes them to make funny statements ;) [And is why this IS a service!]
Col_Fury wrote:It's usually a judgement call for characters like these at the time the book's included in the MCP. And as Somebody said, a lot of the earlier books are sometimes underanalyzed. A case can always be made to include anyone, of course.
I can see not including background one-shots. But if they're a major character in one issue, important to the plot, or appear in a run of issues... then yeah, they should be in.
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

Post by DonCampbell »

Somebody wrote:
Col_Fury wrote:Normal "civilian" characters are often given lower priority, I've found. Especially ones that die in their only appearance, like Dr. Eric Willis. His kid Roger, though, has a few more appearances. He only appears in Thor #345-354, bar #351, though, so I'm not sure how much of a service providing a chronology for him is. It's not like he appears in an issue of Avengers or something in addition to Thor, or reappears years later.
People being behind on their reading sometimes causes them to make funny statements ;) [And is why this IS a service!]
Part of the reason why I was taking a look at Eric and Roger Willis is that they HAVE recently reappeared, albeit only in flashbacks. As revealed in Loki: Agent of Asgard #15, Eric and Roger are, respectively, the grandfather and father of Verity Willis, Loki's best friend and the main supporting character in the series. Plus, Verity's status as "human lie detector" turns out to be the result of her having swallowed a magic ring (given to Roger by Eric) when she was a baby.
Somebody wrote:
Col_Fury wrote:It's usually a judgement call for characters like these at the time the book's included in the MCP. And as Somebody said, a lot of the earlier books are sometimes underanalyzed. A case can always be made to include anyone, of course.
I can see not including background one-shots. But if they're a major character in one issue, important to the plot, or appear in a run of issues... then yeah, they should be in.
Agreed. I think the fact that Eric Willis was the guardian of the Casket of Ancient Winters who had lived for centuries would have made him special enough. As for Roger Willis, he played an important part in the Surtur Saga and if he hadn't restored the shattered Casket then Odin would have remained frozen in magical ice and unable to prevent Surtur from destroying the universe. So, somewhat important, right?
Somebody wrote:Archive 54, Thread 31, "Thor's Avenger chronology".
Thanks. You saved me some time on that. Do you have an index or was it a REALLY lucky guess? Or have I just drastically underestimated how quickly Somebody who knows what he's doing can get results?
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

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Ha! I love it! :lol:
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Re: Two questions from Simonson's Thor run

Post by Somebody »

DonCampbell wrote:Part of the reason why I was taking a look at Eric and Roger Willis is that they HAVE recently reappeared, albeit only in flashbacks. As revealed in Loki: Agent of Asgard #15, Eric and Roger are, respectively, the grandfather and father of Verity Willis, Loki's best friend and the main supporting character in the series. Plus, Verity's status as "human lie detector" turns out to be the result of her having swallowed a magic ring (given to Roger by Eric) when she was a baby.
Yeah, I know. That's what I was hinting at, knowing Fury won't have read that yet!
DonCampbell wrote:
Somebody wrote:Archive 54, Thread 31, "Thor's Avenger chronology".
Thanks. You saved me some time on that. Do you have an index or was it a REALLY lucky guess? Or have I just drastically underestimated how quickly Somebody who knows what he's doing can get results?
Definitely the latter :)
  1. Download (and unzip) all the archive .txt files
  2. http://wingrep.com/download.htm (Other grep programs are available)
  3. Read the instructions
  4. You now have searchable archives :)
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