Mighty Thor #1
Mighty Thor #1
Capsule Review
I liked about half of what is going on here, but as a whole the book fell just short for me. Writer Jason Aaron starts out well, with sensitive if grim insight into the realities of being a cancer patient, and then the book hits the gas when our lady Thor goes into action, with a daring space rescue that so exceeds the ability of lesser heroes that the Avengers are reduced to spectator status. But then the book hits a wall, with a lot of exposition about Asgardian political intrigue, punctuated by an unfortunate sequence where a bunch of senators argue with each other from floating platforms that evokes the most tiresome scenes of the Star Wars prequels. This is a beautiful-looking book — artist Russell Dauterman gives it his all — but he might more easily heft Mjolnir than make a dozen pages of talking-head exposition play, especially one laden with verbal wet noodles like “If the Congress of Worlds will not intervene IMMEDIATELY to stop these atrocities then it has forsaken everything for which it was ever meant to stand …” What’s next on Asgard C-SPAN? How a bill becomes a law? I appreciate the ambition — and the subject is handled with taste — but having cancer at the heart of this story was also a dangerous distraction. Cancer isn’t a radioactive spider — it has struck close to home for far too many of us. Jane Foster can beat her cancer by turning into Thor, but it comes back with a vengeance when she returns to her mortal form. Yet she refuses to remain Thor because the mortal work she has to do is so important that she cannot remain Thor all of the time. That’s not enough. When that bastard cancer has hold of you, you’ll do anything to beat it. Anything. No way do secret identity concerns or political intrigue move the needle when cancer is in the room. I expect I’m missing subtext here, and I do sense that I came in to this saga at the wrong moment — that I should go back and read the well-regarded series that led into this — but this is the jumping-on point for this new series, and it failed to onboard me as a new reader.
Approachability For New Readers
Poor. This was my first experience with Lady Thor — I would have appreciated a bit more insight into how she came to be, and less senatorial thundering about elvish treaty violations. Existing readers might regard this as making mountains out of mole hills, but this is the first issue of a reboot and I hold it to a higher standard.
Read #2?
No, at least not without going back and reading much of what has come before.
Sales Rank
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Read more capsule reviews of Marvel’s All-New All-Different rolling reboot.
Posted on January 4, 2016, in Reviews and tagged All-New All-Different Marvel, Jane Foster, Jason Aaron, Marvel Comics, Russell Dauterman, Thor. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
I do not read a lot of current comics but I did know that Thor was a woman now… it sounds like the mystery her identity might have been fun to read along with back when it was unfolding. I did not realize that Jane had cancer though — heavy stuff. Heck, it’s been so long since I read a Thor comic I did not even realize that Jane Foster still existed as a character?! Out of touch? Me? Um … yeah
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Yeah, when this character was originally rebooted as a female, Marvel made much of speculating about her identity.
More than most books in this relaunch, this particular #1 felt like coming in at the mid-point of a movie, and that definitely colored my impressions of the book. I’ll go back and read the beginning of the run when my Marvel Unlimited sub comes back online later this year (it expired with my credit card at Christmas, and I have such a reading backlog in other formats that I’m in no hurry to re-up).
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I forgot to shout out that awesome “Thor” title logo, with the hammer forming the “O” and the “crossbar” of the “H”. NEAT!
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Lady… Thor?
Come on, you must be kidding me!
Am I supposed to play the flippant one, again?
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Believe it, friend!
Just wait until Marvel rolls out the All-New, All-Different, All-Male Invisible Woman!
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She’s a mighty woman.
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The one and only mighty woman is my wife.
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I understand she’s great with chicken; less so with turkey.
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Can’t argue with that!
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I like the new logo. That’s pretty much the only thing I like or care about this iteration of Thor. Not to sound sexist,but even with the added pathos of having cancer, and that is an interesting wrinkle, still doesn’t do anything for me. The whole Lady Thor thing should’ve existed as a mini-series at best. Oh, and did we ever found out what it was Nick Fury said into Thor’s ear going on two years back, to make him unworthy?
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I don’t think anything has been resolved with the original Thor — in this issue, at least, he is mentioned as missing and that is that. I didn’t keep up on Secret Wars so I don’t know if it was touched upon there. I did see there were a bunch of Thor Cops running around doing Doctor Doom’s bidding; make of that what you will.
I don’t think disliking Lady Thor makes you sexist at all — this is a big change for an iconic character and it isn’t something you’re automatically expected to accept. Thor is one of my favorite characters, one of the first I bonded with … but I’m ok with someone else swinging the hammer for awhile. It worked out all right with Beta Ray Bill. Sales of the series improved when Jane took over the role, too. And as a whole I believe the run was well-received — I just shouldn’t have been required to have read it before trying to jump in with this new #1. (As a whole, this reboot has been largely indifferent to onboarding new readers … at best, welcoming new readers has been an ad hoc proposition).
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