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  1. #1
    Astonishing Member your_name_here's Avatar
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    Default Jason Aaron’s run on Thor

    Okay, I have seen many comments on this board and know what a lot of people think already. However, a lot of it tends to come down to a dislike of Jane.
    I haven’t actually read the whole run. I read God Butcher storyline and stopped but always knew the main beats (unworthy, Jane Thor and death of Jane Thor)
    I understand people’s opinions will differ but I also know that just because their are lows doesn’t mean the run as a whole is bad. So how does Jason Aaron’s run hold up in its entirety?

    And am I right in thinking Aaron will have written exactly 100 Thor issues when his run concludes? Because that is pretty cool.
    God of Thunder 1-25
    Thor 1-8 + Annual
    Thors 1-4
    Mighty Thor 1-23, 700-706
    Unworthy Thor 1-5
    At the gates of Valhalla
    Thor 1-16
    War of the realms 1-6 + epilogue
    Old King Thor 1-4

  2. #2
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    i have read everything here is my review


  3. #3
    Extraordinary Member Raye's Avatar
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    I really liked it, a few quibbles here and there aside. (which can be said of any run, really. Can't think of any run where i haven't had some kind of problem with it at some point. Just a matter if i feel the good outweighs the bad) The thing is, a lot of people that do like it are not interested in wading into the 'debate' because they will get shouted down, so it looks more disliked around these parts than it actually is.

  4. #4
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    I think Aaron's run is great. It's another high point for Thor after Kirby/Lee, Simonson, and JMS. Thor titles have been in a largely consistent place since JMS' run (barring Fraction's run there which was ill-suited) so Aaron's achievement isn't on the same level as Simonson (who took a title that had been in a funk post-Kirby and elevated it singlehandedly). Yet Aaron's run made Thor feel, how do I put it, 21st Century if that's the word. It made Thor's Asgard and so on feel like something that can address the 21st Century and its concerns. That's a harder thing to do with Thor than any Marvel character, at least on paper.

    The 12 issue God Butcher/Godbomb storyline which kicked off the entire thing is awesome, and the themes in that arc reverberate across the entire run. Are gods worthy or are the people who believe in gods what make them worthy and so on. That's such a basic and deep question to ask of Thor and for Aaron to do that and make it work in superhero comics is great. Jane Thor is wonderful. There's a small club of girlfriends who become legacies and sidekicks...most prominent example being Hawkgirl (people forget that in her first appearances Shiera Hall was just the male hero's civilian girlfriend but later Gardner Fox made her into Hawkgirl). I also love Dario Agger and the whole idea of Gods versus Corporations.

    So yeah a huge huge fan of everything from The God Butcher to At the Gates of Valhalla, through The Unworthy Thor. That alone is enough for Aaron's run to be in the...pantheon, or since this is the Norse, Aesir (which means the same as it does in the Graeco-Latin).

  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
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    Aaron took a lot of his plot ideas from Jurgens run. A godkiller, female Thor, Thor being unworthy all those things Jurgens did in his run before Aaron.

  6. #6
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    I really enjoyed the first volume of Aaron's run, and in isolation and as it's own thing I think the Jane run is really good and fun comics. But I also felt that Aaron had a big issue with mischaracterizing certain Thor characters (including Thor himself) to serve Jane's story and his own muddled and inconsistent themes that I feel may have damaged the mythos in the longterm. The worst part is that even when Thor got his bloody name back he still felt like a different, more Hercules-esque, character compared to how Aaron wrote Jane, and I'm worried that will continue moving forward.

    So I have very mixed feelings about the run.
    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    I think Aaron's run is great. It's another high point for Thor after Kirby/Lee, Simonson, and JMS. Thor titles have been in a largely consistent place since JMS' run (barring Fraction's run there which was ill-suited) so Aaron's achievement isn't on the same level as Simonson (who took a title that had been in a funk post-Kirby and elevated it singlehandedly). Yet Aaron's run made Thor feel, how do I put it, 21st Century if that's the word. It made Thor's Asgard and so on feel like something that can address the 21st Century and its concerns. That's a harder thing to do with Thor than any Marvel character, at least on paper.
    Well, the Asgardians sometimes talk more like 21st century normal people then actual Asgardians, so I can see it.
    The 12 issue God Butcher/Godbomb storyline which kicked off the entire thing is awesome, and the themes in that arc reverberate across the entire run. Are gods worthy or are the people who believe in gods what make them worthy and so on. That's such a basic and deep question to ask of Thor and for Aaron to do that and make it work in superhero comics is great. Jane Thor is wonderful. There's a small club of girlfriends who become legacies and sidekicks...most prominent example being Hawkgirl (people forget that in her first appearances Shiera Hall was just the male hero's civilian girlfriend but later Gardner Fox made her into Hawkgirl). I also love Dario Agger and the whole idea of Gods versus Corporations.
    The Hawkgirl comparison is very apt with Jane's Valkyrie look .

    (Although the character who really fits those disclaimers in my opinion is Sif, who has not really been relevant all that much since this run started, which bums me out a lot).

  7. #7
    Mighty Member Sunny's Avatar
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    I liked the Godbomb/Godkiller stories. The current run is sort of hit or miss with me. Some of the issues were ok, some I didn't care for. I really don't like the art, especially at the beginning of the run. The art lately is a little better, but still not my fave.

    War of the Realms was ok. For me it wasn't the epic everyone says it. I actually enjoyed the tie ins better than the actual book.

    I'm not a fan of Jane so I didn't read any of that run.

    When I started back reading comics, for Thor I read JMS run and enjoyed that one. I liked that one better than this run. As stated before, a lot of elements in this run were done before and (for me) made more sense.

  8. #8
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zero Hunter View Post
    Aaron took a lot of his plot ideas from Jurgens run. A godkiller, female Thor, Thor being unworthy all those things Jurgens did in his run before Aaron.
    the jurgens run
    is not good
    some might dare say
    it's mostly bad
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  9. #9
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    the jurgens run
    is not good
    some might dare say
    it's mostly bad
    Dude your are so wrong. Jurgens run is probably one of the top 5 Thor runs of all time.

  10. #10
    Incredible Member regg215's Avatar
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    His run overall is among the worst Thor runs ever. First 12 issues are great, then it takes an absolute nose dive and has not returned. Jane Thor as a character could have been ok, it could have been an interesting way to reexamine a mostly forgotten love interest/side character while forcing Thor to confront what his life is like without the hammer. It could have been a great character study, and an interesting way to examine a shift in the power dynamic of a standard comic lover interest and the superhero they are involved with and what happens when roles are essentially reversed. But instead we had notoriously tough villains like Titania literally surrendering because Jane is "so impressive", Jane beating the crap out of Odin with little to no effort and Thor turning into a drunk bumbling oaf who is so ashamed of himself he gives up his own name. Odinson has been challenged before and never fallen into complete idiocy but that was essentially all this run was. Honestly the whole run could be titled "girl power and gods suck" and it would be pretty accurate.

    Even when Odinson returned to be the lead in the book he was written terribly, I mean its a far cry from who Thor is normally seen to be when in the first issue of this current run he is yelling the he is the "god of F*&^%#g thunder". I don't mind Jane at all and really hope her Valkryie series does well but this run was basically 12 good issues followed by about 80+ issues of stupidity, out of character writing for multiple character and forced drama.

    As some others have said a lot of the elements in this run are rehashed from Jurgens far superior run but jurgens handled them far better and didn't need to completely tear down Thor in the process.
    Last edited by regg215; 08-06-2019 at 09:17 PM.
    "You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy: "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged"- CAPT. Picard

  11. #11
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zero Hunter View Post
    Dude your are so wrong. Jurgens run is probably one of the top 5 Thor runs of all time.
    tom defalco and ron frenz would like to know your location
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by regg215 View Post
    First 12 issues are great, then it takes an absolute nose dive and has not returned.
    Thor God of Thunder #13, that one-shot which shows Thor meeting people, including that prisoner on death-row is a pretty great issue. As is the rest of God of Thunder. So it's a pretty weird choice to select as the location of a nosedive. I mean Thor still had his hammer in that issue, and the rest of God of Thunder for that matter.

    Jane Thor as a character could have been ok, it could have been an interesting way to reexamine a mostly forgotten love interest/side character while forcing Thor to confront what his life is like without the hammer. It could have been a great character study, and an interesting way to examine a shift in the power dynamic of a standard comic lover interest and the superhero they are involved with and what happens when roles are essentially reversed.
    We did get that, a lot, like right throughout Thor 2014 and The Mighty Thor storyline after that.

    But instead we had notoriously tough villains like Titania literally surrendering because Jane is "so impressive",
    Even if that was the case, how is a jobbing fight has anything to do with the character beats you said should have been there.

    Honestly the whole run could be titled "girl power and gods suck" and it would be pretty accurate.
    Actually, that would be a pretty good title...and I think Aaron would take it as a compliment.

    Even when Odinson returned to be the lead in the book he was written terribly, I mean its a far cry from who Thor is normally seen to be when in the first issue of this current run he is yelling the he is the "god of F*&^%#g thunder".
    Do you know Norse poetry and mythology, the original Norse gods and the Viking folk were for their standards, time and place, quite cuss-heavy. Read up about Flyting. I

    It's way more accurate to show the Norse gods as earthy, swear-happy, and so on then have them speak Faux-Shakespearean drapes. For one thing Shakespeare in all his plays never once made a single reference to Norse myths, he lived in an era and place where the Vikings and the Norse religion were completely forgotten and were it known would be seen as primitive trash next to the sublime heights of classical Greece and Rome. Norse Myth has always been bigger with pop culture than high culture. Marvel Comics was the best thing to happen to them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Snoop Dogg View Post
    tom defalco and ron frenz would like to know your location
    What's your top 5 if you don't mind me asking.

  13. #13
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Thor God of Thunder #13, that one-shot which shows Thor meeting people, including that prisoner on death-row is a pretty great issue. As is the rest of God of Thunder. So it's a pretty weird choice to select as the location of a nosedive. I mean Thor still had his hammer in that issue, and the rest of God of Thunder for that matter.
    Back when Thor still felt relatively in-character and (from what I recall) didn't talk about mead almost every issue.

    Good times .
    Do you know Norse poetry and mythology, the original Norse gods and the Viking folk were for their standards, time and place, quite cuss-heavy. Read up about Flyting. I

    It's way more accurate to show the Norse gods as earthy, swear-happy, and so on then have them speak Faux-Shakespearean drapes. For one thing Shakespeare in all his plays never once made a single reference to Norse myths, he lived in an era and place where the Vikings and the Norse religion were completely forgotten and were it known would be seen as primitive trash next to the sublime heights of classical Greece and Rome. Norse Myth has always been bigger with pop culture than high culture. Marvel Comics was the best thing to happen to them.
    Granted, the Asgardian's have always been talking in the latter style, so it's a jarring shift for some, especially if it doesn't seem to fit the characters as previously depicted.

    I've never felt Aaron had a good grasp of Asgardian voices.

  14. #14
    Kinky Lil' Canine Snoop Dogg's Avatar
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    lee/kirby
    jason "godcucker" aaron
    simonson
    langridge and samnee
    oeming and divito

    shoutouts to jms/coipel and defalco/frenz
    i have to reread thomas/buscema
    I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Back when Thor still felt relatively in-character and (from what I recall) didn't talk about mead almost every issue.

    Good times .
    I think Aaron in God of Thunder wanted to do the traditional Thor as right as he could for as long as he could before he could deconstruct it. That way when you read it, it does feel tragic to see Thor brought low and it feels satisfying when he rises again, while also showing that Thor's true legacy is his relationships and bonds and the example he inspires. Stuff like the League of Realms, Roz Solomon, Jane Foster and others, whose lives Odison touched and who carry his legacy even when he is unworty. It's showing that Thor is special as a person.

    Besides after Chris Hemsworth's Aaronesque turn as "Fat Thor" in Endgame which was a big hit with audiences, it feels right on the money, vis-a-vis Thor and mead.

    Granted, the Asgardian's have always been talking in the latter style, so it's a jarring shift for some, especially if it doesn't seem to fit the characters as previously depicted.
    JMS was the first to modernize the Asgardians way of speech which he did in his run, moving it away from the faux-Shakespearean thing. Aaron has colloquialized it. Another writer might do things a little different following Aaron.

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