By Matthew K. Manning

Titan, out now

Behind the scenes of Marvel’s first leap to Asgard…

It’s a weird experience, thirty movies in, to go back to the original MCU ‘Big Three’ and their first movies. This one especially, given how much work was done working out what to do with Thor and how to present the massive concepts at the heart of the character on the big screen.

This book is short on the sort of process deep dives that you might be wanting, but crammed with an abundance of stunning concept art. The first Thor is one of the most visually distinctive MCU movies to date and you can see how much effort was put into that here in some very surprising ways. The hundreds of iterations of Mjolnir especially show how much effort was put into getting the design exactly right.

The book also visually explores biggest challenge of adapting these characters for the big screen. The hyper-realistic nature of Asgard, sitting on the uncomfortable edge of science and magic is the biggest challenge and one that we find out here was largely achieved physically. The reason Thor looks so impressive visually is that a lot of the sets were physical rather than CGI. Several actors, most notably Sir Anthony Hopkins, are quoted talking about how useful that was for their performances and it’s interesting that Kenneth Branagh, an actor himself, would take this approach. That practicality echoes up and down the movie, and the Frost Giants and Jotunheim especially really benefit from it. It’s always the case that a film designs more than we ever see and the work put into the Frost Giants, how they move and fight and live, is immensely impressive.

There’s a visual wit to the movie that got lost on first viewing, but that comes through here. I’d completely missed, for example, that Heimdall’s Observatory was created for the film rather than adapted from the comics. Not only does that give them a great location but it also structures Asgard in a way that can be subtly mirrored by the small town that the climax takes place in. Different realms, harmonising layouts.

This is all fascinating stuff, and if I have a criticism of the book, it’s that we don’t get nearly enough of it. Much like Iron Man, this is a character that was immensely difficult to adapt. The Iron Man 1 volume dived into that and I think spoilt me a little for this one.

Verdict: Stunningly beautiful, this is an incredible visual record of the movie’s development. I just wish we’d got a little more detail in the prose too. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart