Thor #1 Review - Marvel Monday

It's Raining Hammers

Writer: Jason Aaron
Art Team: Mike Del Mundo, Marco D'Alfonso, Christian Ward
Marvel Comics
Release Date: June 13, 2018
Cover Price: $5.99



If you've been a Thor fan there has certainly been a lot to celebrate over the last handful of years.  Jason Aaron's run on the title has brought a consistency and quality to the book that it's mostly unheard of in today's comic market where creative teams come and go at the drop of a hat.  With all that being said we now have a new Thor #1 here, with Thor himself back as the headliner, mostly continuing where we left off from the previous series.  To catch you up if you haven't been reading things haven't exactly been going swimmingly for Thor lately so let's see if this over-sized issue can change his luck at all.



Issue beings with Thor catching us all up to speed on his latest, not so glorious adventures, while running away with an artifact he's come to retrieve called 'Warlocks Eye'. He becomes cornered on a ledge by a cult of demon worshiping cannibals. Who's the Demon they worship you ask? That would be the Unstoppable Juggernaut who quickly disagrees with Thor taking the 'Eye' resulting in the two heavyweights slugging it out over several pages.

The fight goes back and forth eventually revealing the big surprise of the issue that Thor does indeed have a 'hammer' at his disposal.  Unfortunately for our title character it quickly breaks in the line of battle, on Juggernaut's dome, however, the treat of the issue is Thor is now able to call for more to continue the fight ... which he promptly charges up to even the odds and win the day.

Off to Old Asgard, we begin to get filled in on Thor's current status quo as he brings back the 'Warlocks Eye' for safe keeping. We run through the cast of characters Thor deals within the title as he fills them in on what he needs, all mostly a request for more hammers, and enchantments on those hammers to aid him on his journey going forwards.

There are lots of little snippets here that allow new readers to understand the vastness of the world in the Thor series Jason Aaron has set up, while reminding old readers of where they stand currently as well, without boring them. Mileage may vary at this point in the book I guess but with so much going on I appreciated it even though I've caught up recently on the title myself.

An important scene with Thor and his mother foreshadow the ending of the first part of this title (split up into two stories), as Thor heads back to Midgard, but I don't want to spoil everything here in the review. However any fan of Thor would have probably seen this coming a mile away at this point, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable though.

The second half of the issue is a story revolving around the future Thor timeline, which is definitely a shout out to the more longtime fans of the series who have been keeping up on these threads, that have been started all the way back to Jason Aaron's first run on the Thor book.  The reveal at the end is pretty jaw-dropping though, even if you are new, and I can't wait o see when this continues in the future.

Overall, Thor's adventures continued by Jason Aaron remain beyond solid and at the top of my list so far for Marvels Fresh Start lineup of books. Threads from the previous run continue here and feel seamless in catching up anyone new on Thor's status quo while moving forward just enough. I can't wait to read more because I'm certainly intrigued in the direction this title is headed.

My one complaint about the series so far is that I'm just flat out not a fan of the art team here throughout most of this issues the first story.  It's much too stylized for me and even at points really kind of hurts my eyes in spots.  Its almost like I'm fighting to see the image through a magic eye poster and Del Mundo's style just doesn't vibe with me ... I always sucked at Magic Eye's maybe this is my problem here!

Bits and Pieces:

I'm glad Jason Aaron gets to continue a long run on Thor and at this point I almost can't imagine anyone else writing the character, or the entire cast really, going forward he has the voices down so well. Aaron can make you have feelings for 'gods' in a fictional universe which is hard to pull off. Unfortunately, as a personal taste he's paired with Del Mundo, whose art might be the only negative of this issue for me right now. It's just not kind to my eyeballs and action scenes at times can be very muddy and confusing, but I know that's a matter of personal taste so I don't dock it too much.

7.8/10