By the Bristling Beard of Odin! The Thor Thread - Part 1

[plushbug]

It's better than pretty much any of Fraction's other arcs, if that helps. I mean, I wouldn't absolutely recommend that you skip it if you really want to read it. The rest of them, though... even if you want to, I'd personally come over to your house and smack you 'til you stop. Fraction's run is that bad.

Just wandered through, read #813 through #823, and laughed real hard at this point. t: So relieved to see this run over. With no experience at all of Aaron's previous work, will be tradewaiting a while on the new regime, but am already amused to see that it appears to be going its own way, with no nods to recent 'continuity' (using that term very loosely).

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Aaron's first issue was good. Literally everyone I've recommend it to agrees, and most of them don't even have much of an attachment to Thor. They just read it on a whim and were thoroughly impressed.

Fraction was wierd though as his ages of thunder one shots were pretty good I thought, then he took over from Gillen and was dreadful. Marvel must have known it wasn't working with fraction pretty much right away as they relaunched Thor within 8 issues of him taking over and even with that by #18 his sales were about 15k lower than when Gillen was writing it. Thats with fear itself (also sucked) to help promote the book, they were very quick to bring Gillen back to Thor's world with JIM too. Ding, dong the witch is dead!

Fraction's problem is that he couldn't distinguish between his Ages of Thunder Thor and the modern version. Even though a distinct change in character is kind of central to Thor as a modern-day superhero.

 

[cthulhu]

Thats true there wasn't really any difference as fraction ignored all the character development from previous runs and just forged his own version, which was the same as his arrogant early self. Apart from fractions whole run not having any cohesion or central theme it was, in general, very poorly written and pretty insulting to the fanbase. The thing I was frustrated by was characters being written in a manner that was unrecognisable from previous portrayals and the random making it up as he went along. It was the same on Punisher war journal too so I was expecting his Thor run to be a disaster. I pity the FF fans but Im kinda glad he got that as I have no interest in reading them. What a hack.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I was enjoying Hickman's Fantastic Four comics, but I'll gladly trade them for good Thor comics again.

 

[cthulhu]

Has Hickmans Fantastic been any good? I really only have read his indy stuff like Nightly news but I skipped it as FF never really appealed to me. What makes it worth reading?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It was good, although it dragged in parts. It's a very big, epic story with a lot of stuff to keep track of, but most of it was worth reading. He also introduces the Future Foundation, a consortium of super-smart and/or powerful kids including the Richards kids, Alex Power, and a child clone of the Wizard, which looks like it'll be important for the long term, as it's continuing into Fraction's run.

 

[NDX]

I enjoyed Hickman's F4 and FF stories, but you really had to start from the beginning to really get the story as a whole, he weaved some many sub plots together. I had to backtrack to his Dark Reign book and start from there, but it was worth it. A great read. Hoping it gets a series of omnibuses or at least OSHCs for them.

And I'm not normally a F4 fan.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I loved the family stuff he did. The five cities part was kind of boring to me, but everything with Nathaniel, Franklin, Reed, Ben, and Val was awesome.

 

[Keyser Soze]

NOW's the point where I opportunistically say, "Hwy! If you loved Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder, you should try Aaron's definitive comic, Scalped!" Because any excuse to get more people reading that comics masterpiece is worth taking.

 

[herakles]

He's moved over to the FF now. FF fans have my sympathy.

Thank GOD I removed FF from my pull list!

 

[Keyser Soze]

Holy crap, guys, how FREAKING AWESOMETASTIC was Thor: God of Thunder #2? I loved the first issue, but I think this one was even better. I've seen some people talking about how this God Butcher character is a bit of a retread of a past Thor villain, but still, Esad Ribic absolutely killed it with the character design, helping to seal his status as an instantly gripping new villain for me. That whole fight sequence was fantastic, one of the best I've read in a comic in some time. And the characterisation of Thor, particularly around his narration monologue about the mad god.... GAH! My thoughts on this are so garbled, I'll probably go off and write a more coherent review once I've had a chance to settle down and reread. But wow... Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic are just giving us some brilliant comics here.

 

[Slick]

Yeah this issue was amazing that battle in the sky was epic!!! Loving this book right now.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Desak hunted down and killed gods too, but the God Butcher has a different approach to it. Desak was just a guy who wanted revenge. Easily understandable and quantifiable. The God Butcher, as of #2, seems much more mysterious and creepy, like a veritable bogeyman for gods. Really, the only tiny drawback to him so far is that he looks like Voldemort's more naked brother, but that's a nitpick at most. I'm really enjoying God of Thunder so far.

 

[squeekness]

Yeah this issue was amazing that battle in the sky was epic!!! Loving this book right now.

Seconded! I am glad I picked this up. Great story and art, not the usual combo these days, lol.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Hopefully this issue corrects all those people who thought Thor's weather control was wholly tied to Mjolnir, too. It was nice to see a creative team remind us that the weather mastery is Thor's innate, divine right as the god of thunder, not a parlor trick from Mjolnir. I don't think that's been shown in decades.

 

[Swordmaster]

Haha, Thor actually said, "By the bristling beard of Odin!" in this issue. I love relevance.

 

[chamber-music]

Thor God Of Thunder is great and I've never been all that into Thor before. I love this type of Storytelling. Wish Marvel did more stuff like this these days

 

[runawayboulder]

Aaron is in WATXM/PunisherMAX mode and not The Incredible Hulk mode so this is gonna be a real treat.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Aaron's ability to change tones is impressive to me. Most writers tend to have a stock style that they'll apply to everything: Brubaker's probably gonna give you some crime thriller overtones, Waid can never really hide his earnest love of pure, simple superheroics, Bendis... is Bendis, etc. Aaron's God of Thunder is vastly different from his WatXM and Scalped, which are all I've read from him. Granted, over time I may start to notice some similarities coming through, but so far they each have their own very distinct voice.

 

[runawayboulder]

Aaron is versatile. I've read his PunisherMAX, Wolverine, WATXM, Hulk and now his Thor. They all have their own feel going on. He's able to get in touch with what the characters are and what they're all about. Remender is like that as well, he just lays on the shock value a little thicker and is really good with dealing a heavy emotional punch when needed.

It's why they're my 2 favorite writers at Marvel right now.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Gillen's still up there for me. Bunn should be, but his Marvel work hasn't been quite up there with his indie stuff. Parker's pretty high, although I've made my peace with the fact that he'll probably never make the big leagues. And, of course, Waid. Mark Waid's up there with the absolute all-time greats for me.

 

[runawayboulder]

Waid and David I consider HoF's that have nothing left to prove as far as their writing ability, they're all about telling the fun stories they want to tell.

I'd rank Slott a little higher but he's a special case since he's latched strictly to Spider-Man and because of the shipping schedule, he's not writing multiple big franchise titles like the other guys. He's still a helluva talent though.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Slott is dead to me because Spider-Man is dead to me. DEAD!

I wish Slott would write something else now and then.

 

[NDX]

I like Slott on Spidey, but I agree, he needs to branch out a bit and use his skills with other characters, preferably some B- or C-Lister.

 

[chamber-music]

Well Slott did write mighty avengers which was made up of B and C list Avengers