A tragic tale of three Thors! Jane Foster, mighty wielder of Mjolnir. The fallen and unworthy Odinson. But who will be the War Thor? No longer fit to lift his hammer, the Odinson’s desperate quest for redemption takes him into the cosmos — where the ultimate weapon awaits! But he isn’t the only one vying for it… The new War Thor must be ready for battle when the Queen of Cinders sets the Ten Worlds ablaze — and even the combined might of all three heroes may not be enough when final judgment arrives in the form of the Mangog! Meanwhile, what of Jane Foster’s cancer? The heroic story of the Goddess of Thunder reaches its heartrending zenith!
COLLECTING: Unworthy Thor (2017) 1-5, Mighty Thor (2015) 20-23, Generations: Unworthy Thor & Mighty Thor (2017) 1, Mighty Thor (2015) 700-706, Mighty Thor: At the Gates of Valhalla (2018) 1
Jason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.
In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.
Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.
After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.
The last five issues of the main series constitute the "Death of Mighty Thor" storyline, and it's a great conclusion to Jane Foster's story as Thor. A highlight of Aaron's run for sure. I was a little surprised as to how it actually ended, but this is comics after all, and no story is truly over (plus we still have the whole War of Realms to get to). In any case, it's a well-written five issues with stakes, heart, and emotion.
As for the rest of the book... well, it's the same wheel spinning I've sadly come to expect from Aaron's Thor. First we get "The Unworthy Thor" miniseries, where we finally hear what Nick Fury whispered to Thor during Original Sin. It's a good reveal. The rest of the story is Thor and Beta Ray Bill trying to prevent The Collector and Thanos' cronies from getting the Ultimate Mjolnir. Lots of predictable fighting and posturing. Eh.
The War Thor plotline is worse, a dumb distraction from the main story with, again, lots of predictable fighting and posturing.
So, some great, some not so great as usual, with the War of Realms still hanging in the background. I remain conflicted on Aaron's Thor, and don't agree with all the praise it received. The art is pretty terrific though.
There are not enough words to get across how perfect this run is here!! Dauterman joins a very select few of the best comic artists ever, in my opinion here (after over 10 years of hardcore comic reading)! And yet every other artist who shows up in this book also does an amazing job trying to compete with him! Jane Foster Thor is truly immortalized in this run and will leave you thinking of her forever on! Also don't worry if you are here for the original Thor, the directions he goes on in this are truly wonderful to behold! Could not possibly recommend this enough!
This volume cemented Thor as one of my favorite Marvel characters (a thing I never thought would happen). The emotional hits are so perfect in this stunning graphic novel and I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW THERES MORE TO PUT THESE CHARACTERS THROUGH OKAY JASON????
This was a lot of fun. Jason Aaron's run on Thor is consistently A tier. There are a bunch of great epic moments, but he does a good job of giving the characters space to shine in more interpersonal moments too. Good stuff.
This series really improved over time, but I’m still confused as to how Jane Foster just decided to go pick up Mjolnir like that, like I still don’t understand how it worked, what compelled her to pick it up? Regardless, Mighty Thor was actually a lot more bearable this time around and I liked that Odinson finally got to be part of the story, and his miniseries, The Unworthy Thor, was actually pretty good and it even had some poignant moments like how He explained about how worthiness was meant to be earned. The artwork in that miniseries was fine, but the geography of the Collector’s space ship(?) was confusing as there weren’t any decent establishing shots. Also, there were references to Thor-adjacent events that I haven’t caught up with like the Angela: Queen of Hel series. As for the main series, The War Thor storyline was awesome, so much kick-assery, in fact the rest of the series was filled with so much action-packed moments that I feel kinda tired after reading it all. The final 2 issues or so were amazing in an emotional way, but I have to say, I feel like I should’ve been reading this series when it was being released, because a lot of things from this series got spoiled for me as time went on (biggest spoiler that Jane Foster was gonna make it was when I learned of the Jane Foster: Valkyrie series).
The one thing I genuinely liked the most about this series was how little it interacted with the overall Marvel Comics Universe. Sure, there were some guest-appearances from Sam Wilson (who’s Falcon now), and Stephen Strange (who’s a veterinarian now!?) towards the end, and Loki mentioning he’s the new Sorcerer Supreme (I kinda hate how much comics remind me of how far I’m behind on stuff), but mostly this series practically stood on its own, but as it stands, there’s still more to come with Jason Aaron’s Thor shenanigans which makes his run across all these titles truly an epic saga.
As for artwork, I liked that Russel Dauterman wasn’t always illustrating, but I kinda got used to his artwork anyway. The other artists did a good job.
Overall, I feel burnt out after reading this series, but it was an interesting journey nonetheless, even if it still ain’t over by now. I do think whatever controversy this series sparked was all for nothing, but there were times, especially early on in the series, where the whole thing felt kinda tone deaf, and there was even a cover in the series that had Mighty Thor be like, Step aside and let ME do the work! Which was kinda dumb, honestly, even if the issue itself didn’t have that kind of tone at all (In fact you had Mighty Thor actually be a voice of reason when she was fighting the War Thor).
EDIT: One last thing I forgot to add, the Unworthy Thor miniseries actually revealed why Thor became unworthy and it was pretty interesting, even though I kinda got spoiled for it, but I didn’t know that I was spoiled(?). Anyways, very interesting reasoning, and something that I think could’ve been added to Thor: Love and Thunder (Imagine Thor becoming unworthy by the end of that movie, that could’ve really shook things up in the MCU. Given the plot of the movie, and Gorr’s role, it would’ve all made perfect sense).
4 stars for overall run). Read as single issues. (Double-posting this to the current volume of the Cates run.)
As someone who's been reading Thor consistently since the 70's, I've seen some stellar runs on the title over the years....
And Aarons is right up there, based on his overall run. (But so is Donny Cates.) And that speaks to the enduring power and flexibility of the Thor character, mythos and supporting cast.
THE AARONS RUN: While Aarons run was more cerebral overall, focusing on some of the supporting cast leading into the War of Realms, he also introduced some major elements into the mythos that hopefully will enduren and be fully integrated by future authors. (Lady Thor, War of Realms, Gorr the GodButcher, Punisher Kill Krew [which TOTALLY needs a follow-up!!] etc.)
I loved the Jane Foster-Thor storyline right up until the end; a large part of the story focused around Janes battle with cancer, which kept the title grounded in reality as the plot with the Nine Realms escalated.
Early in the story, she refused magical healing, choosing to retain her humanity. She then proceeds to make the ultimate sacrifice to defeat the Mangog, only to be IMMEDIATELY brought back as Valkyrie. Now, while I love the Valykries (and their current mini-series is WONDERFUL!), this compeltely undermines the conceit of that entire arc. leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
THE CATES RUN: Cates is a much more bomabastic writer, great at sweeping storylines and set pieces; he's also a much more charismatic presence in the comics scene, and brings a large following and enthusiasm for whatever he does.
In some ways, this is a boon to the Thor series/mythos; Cates is not afraid to make sweeping changes and introduce characters and plots that take time to play out properly. In some other senses, it can be a detriment as "Spectacle" takes over from "Plot and Character". (To use another example, the main Venom title stayed consistently excellent under Cates, while his "King in Black" was pure overblown spectacle.)
The first arc gave me doubts, as Thor interacted with threats like Galactus and Black Winter, while this 2nd arc boosted my confidence, and returned to focus more on Thor and bringing some forgotten elements of his mythos to the forefront once more.
W tym tomie widać sporo analogii do MCU, ale jak zawsze – kontekst inny. Jakby tytuł Śmierć potężnej Thor nic nie spoilerował to mamy finał Jane jako Thor. Pewne rzeczy są stracone, pojawia się Hercules. Niezbyt dużo, ale nadal więcej niż w MCU XD. Poza tym konfliktowy Odyn na pełnej, irytujący jest.
"Nie nadawałabyś się nawet na moją nałożnicę, a co dopiero na doradcę" ~ Odyn Tymczasem w innym uniwersum (porównaj What if Jane Foster podniosłaby młotek).
Poza tym kontinuum komiksów Marvela wchodzi powoli coraz mocniej. Shield znowu rozwiązali w 2017? Ludzkości. Jak z jezuitami. Chyba im bliżej wojny światów tym więcej potencjalnie przydałoby się czytać. Teoretycznie nie trzeba, ale jestem przykładny. Męczące to.
Potężny spoiler – Jane jako Thor bez hełmu jest jeszcze bardziej hot. 🎶Te czarne oczy oh te czarne oczy🎵 nie wiem któro konkretnie mam w głowie, ale nie ma to chyba znaczenia.
Fajny list na końcu, choć nie trzeba ich czytać, to czasem dają wgląd, inne interpretacje i tym podobne.
Отличный ран, но в концовке Аарон droped the ball. "Нет, нельзя лечить мой рак магией (по невразумительным причинам), но да, можно меня воскресить после того, как я умерла от рака". Понятно почему магическое исцеление от рака было бы издевательством по отношению к реальным людям ведущим борьбу с болезнью, но надо было бы уж придерживаться этой линии до конца.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This volume of Jason Aaron’s phenomenal Thor series explores the motivations that drive Thor to be mighty while expanding on Volstagg’s characterization in the buildup of Malekith’s War of the Realms. I continue to be impressed at how consistent the quality is in this run. None of the issues I seem to have with Original Sin or Avengers vs. X-Men have yet to pop up in these books.
Another ok thor comic by jason Aaron. I'm beginning to think this run is overhyped- the first volume was amazing and the rest of these have just been ok.