Thor Appreciation 2023

[numberthirty]

Ewing on Thor is an automatic on my subscription list.

Yep...

..........

[WAKANDA FOREVER!]

The "Superior" Thor? Hmmmmm. Aaron might like that

[Hypestyle]

I hope for lots of power stunts with mjolnir (and hopefully now the hammer will consistently.. obey?)
and also invent some new monsters and villains.

BTW-- I'd rather not see Don Blake again if... that.. version is what's in store. (RIP to the good DB of old...)

[K7P5V]

Thor's old look is the best.

Agreed. Truly Classic, especially in the right hands (artistically/creatively speaking, of course ):

[PlatinumThorns]

Ewing did an interview with Polygon for those interested:

Naming an Al Ewing project “immortal” is no subtle thing. Speaking to Polygon via email, Ewing said the book’s title is his version of throwing down a gauntlet. If he has his way, Immortal Thor won’t just equal Immortal Hulk, it will surpass it.

“Putting [Immortal] on a book I’m writing is a promise to the reader, and to myself,” Ewing wrote. “I was the one who pitched the title — not editorial, not anyone else — and it was basically a self-challenge. Can I do a book like that again? Can I do my end of it better this time? I have to try, because the alternative is just lie down and let the grass grow where I fell.

“I want to take another swing at that ball, and this time, I don’t just want to knock it into the outfield, I want to hit it right out of the park and stroll calmly around the bases. I want to write something that goes as far and as hard and as powerful as the other book did, to give a similar experience to the people who supported that book and supported me through it and took something deep out of it, but with the benefit of experience.”

“In Norse myths, they called him Thunderer,” says Marvel Comics’ official solicit for Immortal Hulk #1. “Vuer has he been called, and Hloriddi. The Gods know him as Asgard’s King, keeper of Mjolnir, hero of the tales. When injustice grips the Earth and ancient powers bring down the sky, he fights for those who cannot — and when the tale is done, we will know what that cost him. This is the story of THE IMMORTAL THOR.”

“Doors are indeed opening,” Ewing wrote, when we asked if he could share anything about the story of Immortal Thor that didn’t make it into the solicit, “buried secrets are waiting to be unearthed, and ancient gods — elder gods, if you will — are coming to bring trial and sorrow to Earth, Asgard and Thor personally, and he’s going to need to be his absolute highest self to face them. And even then, he might not make it through. The omens are sinister. The storm is at the gate.”

Ewing wants readers to grok that Immortal Thor will be a book of a similar tune to Immortal Hulk, but sung in the key of Thor.

“Hulk was horror and tragedy,” he told Polygon, “but Thor tacks more toward fantasy and hope. Bruce Banner is fractured by his origin, going through a hell of his own making to gain the power of a monster — Don Blake becomes the person he truly is inside, and in so doing, gains the power of a god. (An unconventional god! Long hair in the early ’60s was more of a flex than we might credit, though I do remember Jane fantasizing about giving him a haircut.) To put my biblical hat back on for a second — if IMMORTAL HULK was the Old Testament, IMMORTAL THOR is the New Testament.”

“Alex really wanted to connect with the energy of Jack Kirby’s original design,” Cóccolo told Polygon via email, “and he also thought that revisiting Kirby’s costume was fitting with the concept of Immortal Thor.” The artist couldn’t say much about what he’d been working on without spoilers, simply saying that he was enjoying turning the pages on Ewing’s script without knowing what would happen next, to “let Al cook.” He wanted to assure readers that he was “making Al’s story as beautiful and as powerful as I possibly can.”

Readers looking forward to Immortal Thor will want to pick up Marvel’s Thor Annual #1, hitting stands on July 5. That issue will have a bridging story, linking the end of the current Thor series — written by Torunn Grønbekk (Mighty Valkyries) and drawn by Juan Gedeon (Jurassic League) — to Immortal Thor’s starting point. That said, Ewing noted that new readers will find it easy to pick up Immortal Thor #1 and start reading.

“Thor has risen to the role of All-Father of Asgard,” Ewing told Polygon, “so in addition to his own power, he now has the Odin-Power of his father, which he’s learning his way around. (Odin had a lot of time to practice, and the “Thor-Force” has its own rules that Thor’s learning.) In recent times, he questioned his worthiness for the role, and the role of God of Thunder, and that made for some amazing stories — but those stories have been told, and we’re telling a new one from where they ended. Thor holds the hammer. Thor is the King. Now we see how the King of the Gods responds to king-size challenges.”

https://www.polygon.com/23727109/imm...wing-interview

[Frontier]

Sounds good. I especially like Ewing touching on "hope" for Thor and recognizing he didn't 100% stick the landing on immortal Hulk's ending.

[Sif]

“Thor has risen to the role of All-Father of Asgard,” Ewing told Polygon, “so in addition to his own power, he now has the Odin-Power of his father, which he’s learning his way around. (Odin had a lot of time to practice, and the “Thor-Force” has its own rules that Thor’s learning.) In recent times, he questioned his worthiness for the role, and the role of God of Thunder, and that made for some amazing stories — but those stories have been told, and we’re telling a new one from where they ended. Thor holds the hammer. Thor is the King. Now we see how the King of the Gods responds to king-size challenges.

Now, why i can NOT dislike this quote, and argued for this path a few pages back, we need to see Thor's Asgard, and nukes the poor arguments that Thor as a mantle makes sense.

[Mr. White]

Ewing did an interview with Polygon for those interested:







https://www.polygon.com/23727109/imm...wing-interview

Looking forward to this.

Last Thor book I enjoyed was God of Thunder.

Hope this can match up/exceed that.

[K7P5V]

Looking forward to this.

Last Thor book I enjoyed was God of Thunder.

Hope this can match up/exceed that.

Likewise. The last time I enjoyed anything with Thor was The Mighty Avenger

[Marvel Wars]

Ok I thought they would never be able to bring back the epic Thor that we had before Aaron but with Ewing, hope is totally allowed !
Can they clone Ewing and put him on half of the Marvel titles and Mckay on the other half plz ? XD

[Steroid]

Ok I thought they would never be able to bring back the epic Thor that we had before Aaron but with Ewing, hope is totally allowed !
Can they clone Ewing and put him on half of the Marvel titles and Mckay on the other half plz ? XD

This is the single greatest idea/wish I have ever seen on CBR.

[WAKANDA FOREVER!]

"... In recent times, he questioned his worthiness for the role, and the role of God of Thunder, and that made for some amazing stories — but those stories have been told, and we’re telling a new one from where they ended. Thor holds the hammer. Thor is the King. Now we see how the King of the Gods responds to king-size challenges"

Finally.

[Steroid]

"... In recent times, he questioned his worthiness for the role, and the role of God of Thunder, and that made for some amazing stories — but those stories have been told, and we’re telling a new one from where they ended. Thor holds the hammer. Thor is the King. Now we see how the King of the Gods responds to king-size challenges"

Finally.

I know Al will bring it with the story but I really hope that he brings the action with it.

[Doombot]

To be fair, King Thor and Odin-Force/All-Father Thor are also "stories that have been told", and making Thor All-Father is not some necessary progression for the character. That being said, I'm still hoping for Ewing to do something great with it.

[Frontier]

"... In recent times, he questioned his worthiness for the role, and the role of God of Thunder, and that made for some amazing stories — but those stories have been told, and we’re telling a new one from where they ended. Thor holds the hammer. Thor is the King. Now we see how the King of the Gods responds to king-size challenges"

Finally.

Well, from a certain point of view.