Thor by Jason Aaron & Russell Dauterman, Vol. 3

Thor by Jason Aaron #9-11

by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman (Artist)

Death comes for the Mighty Thor! But first, she must survive the Asgard/Shi'ar War! Plus, as Malekith's manipulations threaten all there is, Jane Foster recruits Angela and Sif to her new League of Realms - and leads them on a deadly mission into Dark Elf territory! Then, when the hammer of the Ultimate Thor resurfaces, its new wielder becomes a thundering Thor for dangerous times. But who is this new War Thor? As Malekith's dark army grows, the Queen of Cinders threatens to engulf the Realms. But worse is still yet to come! When the Mangog returns just as Jane's cancer takes a turn for the worst, the end approaches - will the Gates of Valhalla open for Jane?

COLLECTING: MIGHTY THOR (2015) 13-23, 700-706, GENERATIONS: THE UNWORTHY THOR & THE MIGHTY THOR 1, MIGHTY THOR: AT THE GATES OF VALHALLA

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction, Fantasy

528 pages, Hardcover

Published May 14, 2019

About the author

Jason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.

Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.

In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.

Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.

In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.

In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.

After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread 6/7/22 - 6/10/22

Gonna have to bump this up to 4 stars on the reread. This time around the Shi’ar stuff didn’t bother me. I was actually into. Weird. But this was epic! Loki pulling tricks, the War Thor, The Mangog and Jane dealing with the cancer. Lot of emotions flying around. I had forgot how much this starts off the War of the Realms. Hel, it’s basically already happening in here.


3.75 stars. Man this was a big book!! 20 issues in this thing. There is a lot here to cover.

3.5 stars for the first arc or first 7 issues. This brings in the Shi’ar empire. Now the whole god challenge thing was silly I thought and these Shi’ar gods were a weird couple. But I did enjoy seeing Gladiator, kid Gladiator and watching Asgard vs the Shi’ar.

4 stars for the second arc. Here someone is beckoned to the hammer from the 1610 universe and becomes the War Thor and is on a rampage bringing war to all those who want it. Jane has to intervene and try to talk them down. Plus the Generations one shot I thought was pretty cool. ( man I need to read that Uncanny Avengers)

4 stars for the final arc. This is it, the big battle with the Mangog. A lot of people get their asses handed to them here. My mind was torn here tho. Half of me enjoyed the hell out of this final arc and maybe felt a touch of emotion. The other half of me keeps wondering how Thor, his dad Odin and Freyja together couldn’t even get as much as a lick in on Mangog but Jane beats him easily. I’ll probably never agree with myself on that one so I just enjoyed the story for what it was. Great art all around. Now I can finally say I’ve read Jason Aarons Thor run.

[Desa · Rating 5 out of 5]

She has thunder in her veins!

This was epic (the writing, the art...) and I am crying. Thank you, Jason Aaron and Rusell Dauterman.
Long live the Mighty Thor ⚡️❤️

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's probably better I read this after reading "Volume 4" (which I assume takes place after War of Realms "mega-event"? Or during that event itself?), otherwise I would have rated the next volume a 1 star. As it is, something clearly happened in terms of Odin during the War of the Realms that returned him to the status quo of the author attempting to make him worse the the previous issue he had appeared in. Up until the Mangog was reintroduced, I would have said this was one of the best run of stories that Aaron produced, and most of the the artwork was really good, overall, as well. The character development was decent, overall.

It is funny - while this collection moves at a good pace, because of all of the "War of the Realms" teasers and side stories, it still feels like it is just treading water and marking time until the War of the Realms "big event" really begins. Which is sad. I don't read comics as faithfully as I used to, so maybe this is a new trend for Marvel and DC, to tell "throwaway stories" or ones that should have some bearing but don't because of the "big event story" (that usually turns out to be pointless and ineffectual, anyway [or had been; maybe that has changed, too]).

This next part will be a mixed bag of what I liked and didn't like. I enjoyed seeing the new version of the League of Realms. The mountain giantess was awesome; I loved her. I loved her crack about the arrows being used against her as she fired her "missiles" back in return. I also loved the one-page of the League standing behind Thor; that was a beautiful shot. It was interesting seeing a "new Kurse" and that this new Kurse wanted Thor to kill her. I did not expect the Dark Elf from the original League to be replaced by Algrim and then turned into the new Kurse; that was a nice twist on the author's part (especially as I did not think it was a reversible process). I found myself wishing the giantess was a part of the rest of the stories, but, alas, that was not to be. It was also good to see Angela in the story; I became familiar with her mostly because of her appearances in the Guardians of the Galaxy, so it was nice to see her working with Thor and the League like she did (even if for a short time).

The War with the Shi'ar storyline was a mixed bag. I thought it was interesting how the two "big gods" for the Shi'ar issued a challenge to Thor out of . . . jealousy? . . . insecurity? . . . a mixture of both? They might be feared but they are not loved like Thor, even the female Thor, which causes them to issue their challenge. I will have to look at some of my older Thor comics; I would swear the Asgardians do have energy weapons of some kind despite their preference for using swords, shields, and bows and arrows. So it was amusing to see the Shi'ar unable to use their shields to defend their vessels and the disdain the Shi'ar officers showed until the Asgardians actually boarded their vessels. Granted, it also calls into question why the Asgardian longboats were never destroyed, for that matter, but whatever. It was still a fun juxtaposition of "lo tech v. hi tech" in seeing the Asgardian vessels attacking the Shi'ar. I loved Thor smacking Gladiator in the face with her hammer; I alternate between "hating and loving" Gladiator, but that was a righteous moment.

Volstagg's filibuster was amusing. I have to admit, I have liked what the author has done with Volstagg as Volstagg tended to be comic relief in the form of being a buffoon and braggart in prior comics. It's like he's the same character but much improved; he's no longer quite the clumsy fool that he was before, and that is great development for his character. I miss seeing him as a member of the Warrior's Three, but he does seem to have found "his place" and be in a stronger role as a member of the Congress of Worlds.

Probably the best part of the book was when Sif confronted Cul and called him a coward before challenging him to show himself to be worthy of sitting on the Throne of Asgard as Regent instead of allowing the Shi'ar to laugh at how they invaded Asgard and left with nary a loss to their name. That was truly a great moment in the book, and I could totally see Sif doing such a thing. I have always loved her character and have been trying to find her stories after she took Loki's place in Journey into Mystery for a short time. I felt like somebody was finally doing Sif "justice" in how she was being presented in the comics, in how "her story" was being told. I still think either Sif or Wonder Woman are perfect for Thor, but I don't think it will ever happen, sadly.

Volstagg's story became painful, especially after the way he suffered at losing those light elf children and then becoming War Thor. Another "great moment" is when Jane comforts a weeping Volstagg; that was a powerful picture. That was a hard, emotional story to read as Volstagg tries to come to terms with the tragedy that has befallen him and those in his charge that he could not protect.

I hate the Mangog. I hate that authors seem to feel the need to keep bringing this creature back, sometimes without explanation, before having it "dissipated" in some way with the comment that NOW it will never return. Granted, claiming it is used to "punish the uncaring gods" was a bit too much in terms of the author's overall underlying story he has going on in which he is expressing his apparent disdain for any kind of deity. As much as I hated this "retcon" of the Mangog, at least it was along the lines of a valid explanation as to why it never seems to truly die, why it it seems to keep coming back to haunt the Asgardians like it does. I will give the author that much; I just really hate the author's underlying current of despair and hopelessness that he seems to infuse in the Thor comics. It is such a paradox as deities are supposed to bring some kind of hope, usually, and the author writes in such a way that there is no hope, no future, no vision of something "better." It is all doom and gloom and darkness and whatnot. Aspects of the Thor stories encouraged people to rise above themselves, to be better than what they were the day before, but not so much Aaron's run. Instead, he would try to claim that humans are better than deities, that the "gods" should sit up and take notice of mortals and learn from them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story involving Jane meeting Thor in "ancient Egypt" and fighting Apocalypse. That was a fun story to read, and I loved that Thor took the nose of the Sphinx back "home" with him to either Scandinavia or Asgard. In any case, it was a fun story. The artwork was pretty good, too.

I have to admit, I was surprised at how loathsome Odin was in Volume 4 of Aaron's run. In this collection, I never expected him to grant Jane entrance to Valhalla, to be honest, but he did. Not only that, but I never expected Odin to return to Thor's side and help revive Jane Foster (as she was not yet ready to die). I felt like Odin had really come around by that point in this run, that he had actually grown as a character, which was awesome, and then something happened and he returned to being the arrogant @$$ that he has always been, but taken to an ugly degree by this author.

Odin's "fling" with the Phoenix being "the one time" he "truly felt alive" was as bit of a joke to me. I didn't believe it in the least bit, to be honest. I would also say that his adventures with his brothers before they died trying to contain Surtur would also count as times he felt "most alive" (especially after they gave him their "power" as they died). That was a "whatever moment" for me, and I assume explains how in the current issues of the Avengers the Phoenix is supposedly Thor's mother and not Jord/Gaea).

I honestly did not think that Jane Foster was going to die. I would have been shocked if she actually had died. It just did not feel like a "thing" Marvel would do. Granted, they seem to have an increasing tendency to resurrect characters on a regular basis who were obviously killed one way or another. I will say this, though - that was a pretty awesome pic of Thor and Thor kissing as the sun burned around them. That was a beautiful work of art. As to the explanation running throughout as to why Jane has such negative feelings towards deities, I was on the negative side of ambivalent about why she is an "atheist" of sorts. I mean, I "get it" and I do not believe "Christianity" really "works" in the Marvel U (or stories told involving "Christians"), so I can see and "get" why Jane feels and believes the way she does, but she is so depressing and negative and . . . hopeless and filled with despair, in some ways, that it really seems to take away from her story, in my opinion. I did read Aaron's comments, though, in which he talks about how many people have shared how they loved Jane's story and how inspirational it was for them, so that is cool. I am glad that his "journey with Jane" blessed other people and helped them through dark times in their lives.

I'll have to find the stories that introduced the Tenth Realm to the Marvel U and read them. I keep coming across them in these stories and do not know enough about them to have anything but an exceptionally strong negative reaction to them. Granted, maybe I don't want to know more about them, but it'd be nice to have some kind of understanding or something about them, about their realm and why they are the way they are.

Still sick and tired of Malekith and Dario Agger. I find myself wishing they were in a separate series of books so that they stopped taking away from Thor. At least they did not seem to be in as much of these stories in this compilation as the prior one or two. Also, I do not quite understand why "Heven" would joing Malekith's side, so I will probably have to look them up or something so that i better understand them and why they joined Malekith.

I cannot quite rate this as 4 stars, and re-introducing the Mangog nearly knocked it down to 2 stars for me, but I will leave it at 3 stars, I think. I would probably rate it 2.7-2.8 and round it up. Part of me is getting tired of the War of the Realms teasers and stories that have been running through these issues as they seem to make Thor a supporting cast member of her own book instead of being the main character. There are more good moments than "bad moments" or "ugh! get over it!" moments, so that was a nice change of pace. I do wish it had more "positivity" in it than the negativity that seems to fester throughout. After the whole "God-Bomb" storyline, I would say this is my next favorite compilation of these stories. In any case, I am glad that I read this compilation.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has become increasingly rare for either of the Big Two (DC or Marvel Comics) to consistently produce a superhero book with an overall narrative plan, single writer and limited artistic changes. The fact this high profile series even got a beautiful hardcover edition is surprising given the sporadic hardcover releases that have occurred over the last 3 years. One of the true success stories has been Jason Aaron's run on Thor.

Annoyingly Aaron's run has taken place across a range of different Thor based titles with numerous #1 issues. It's a shame he was not granted the status like Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man to keep the numbering relatively intact. Despite this, the collected trade format makes it easy to follow the narrative in correct order.

SPOILER: Much like Slott's excellent transformation of Doctor Octopus into the Superior-Spider Man, this volume sees long time Thor supporting cast member (and periodic love interest) Jane Foster become the God of Thunder. This development allows Jane to participate directly in the events of the Norse Gods but also escape her cancer ridden normal body. Aaron does a marvellous job with this character overhaul and puts the new Thor through a narrative gauntlet of battles, sacrifices and bloodshed. It's been great to see this version of the character take off beyond the comic with a range of merchandise and the recently announced Marvel film Thor: Love and Thunder which promises to focus on Foster as Thor.

Just like Slott's lengthy Spider-Man run, Aaron is able to play with the complete Thor sandbox and make use of a broad range of characters and locations from throughout the character's history. Highlights include the return of the Ultimate Universe Thor's hammer and Cul from Matt Fraction's Fear Itself.

Throughout this volume beautiful high detail art is provided with standout work by Russel Dauterman. Dauterman's hightly detailed fantasy style meshes together incredibly well with Aaron's high concept take on the world of Asgard. The lengthy battle with Mangog is one of the best fight sequences I've seen in a while.

It's great that this hardcover provides a focused narrative from start to finish while also building up to Aaron's recently concluded event War of the Realms. I'm excited to read it myself and enjoy more artwork from Dauterman. Aaron's run on Thor is currently wrapping up with a King Thor focused limited series. It's hard to see how a new writer can top Aaron's vision who has provided such a refreshing take on this character.

[James De Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, this is pretty epic.



There is a lot of content in this book. First off, Malekith is still plotting in the background. He has set a few things in motion that will bring about a ton of destruction.
And then we have Jane, who continues to battle as Thor even as the cancer and Mjolnir keep killing her.

In the first arc, Jane must deal with gods from the Shi’ar empire. They want to beat Thor (Jane) in a few challenges to prove who is the best god. We get some good moments from Gladiator and the Phoenix, and the art is glorious. The second arc introduces us to the War Thor! This was so GRAND and epic - but alas, it sort of ended with a whimper. We also get the Generations one-shot, which was okay - I could have done without it.

And then, we get the main dish - the big battle against Mangog. Everyone gets destroyed here. I have to admit that, being uninitiated with the Mangog, I did not expect much from him. But boy, was I wrong! The end of the arc felt like it was a bit much, with Aaron giving Jane the victory, but it also felt somewhat earned given how it happened - I think it was well executed, overall.

The art is great, bot the most part. When Dauterman is doing the art, it looks and feels grandiose. And the colors are vibrant, big, and bold. I’m going to miss this Thor. This was so much fun!

9/10 for art and story.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing series! I only started it after the announcement of the next Thor film - Love and Thunder - and now I completely understand that subtitle for it. I adore that title for the film.

This series is full of heart, soul, epic battles, well balanced humour, strong villains and lots of love and thunder.

Some single issues and chapters in the early Mighty Thor run and one or two in the God of Thunder run were less interesting but they were all leading to this grand finale. And what an epic finale it was.

Jason Aaron is to Thor what Brubaker was to Cap, what Claremont was to X-Men and what Stan & Steve were to Spider-Man.
Russell Dauterman's art is beautiful, mystical, epic and perfectly captures the fantasy elements of this story. The mythology is rich and detailed and it's wonderful to see Aaron's entire series start to come full circle. (Thor God of Thunder series is essential reading before getting into this run)

5/5

Now onto God of Thunder Reborn, to finally read War of the Realms and soon to end this magnificent run with King Thor!

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This epic collection of Mighty Thor sees Jane continuing to tackle both mythical monsters and the very real monster known as cancer. I enjoyed how the story would show you the levels of being Thor that Jane goes through (arrogance, joy, pain, love) and Jason Aaron really works to show the reader just how worth she truly is. Initially the stories are a tad basic (Thor v unstoppable gods) but Aaron imbues characters with such heart that a basic story is elevated. From here the story works to set up the epic tale ‘War of the Realms’ and it really lays the ground work for some amazing visuals and story.
The penultimate issues see Jane’s transformation back in to Jane the human and they are filled with epic action and a lot of heart.
For anyone that wrote this story off as ‘woke nonsense’ then I feel sorry for you, as you’re missing an epic tale.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Beautiful art as always, Matt Wilson's colors are as vivid as ever and just make the pages sing. There was a cool story with Shi'Ar gods challenging Thor, that was quite a highlight in here. There's a lot of "The War of the Realms is coming" talk, which just gets real old real fast. I found everything with "the War Thor" to be dreadfully boring and annoying (although I did really like his origin, when Volstagg was looking after the children. The final arc was really good, Jane was finally very compelling in it, and Odin's scene with her outside Valhalla was very moving. The final issue had cool Jen Bartel art. Overall I liked this series, but it was not without its faults.

[Adam Spanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best Thor has been in decades. Not since the inspired, grounded genius of J. Michael Straczynski's run in years' past has the God (or Goddess) of Thunder been this damn good.

Author Jason Aaron is a master of modern comics (Wolverine & the X-Men, Scalped), and coupled with the unstoppable storm of artist Russell Dauterman (Supurbia, Nightwing, Cyclops), their epic conclusion to the Saga of Jane Foster is a standing ovation in the annals of Marvel Comics. Smart, gorgeous, breathtaking, hysterical, empowering and totally insane, "The Mighty Thor, Vol. 3" is one of the best of the best in the business. Highly Recommended, for newcomers and life-long diehards, alike.

[Robert Cochran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this a three-star rating for now, but acknowledging that can change after Vol. 4 is published.

As much as I've adored Aaron's refreshing take on Thor up to now, this one felt like a bit too much in terms of everything. Obviously a very personal, and biased, position, but I thought Aaron had done so well avoiding the usual tropes and cliches of superhero comics, but here that seemed to me to be his undoing. Mostly good, but really left scratching my head with some of the decisions.

[Gary Fortuin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epic in scope. But also hard to keep track of the plot at times. The art is fantastic though. The hardcover edition I got from the library maybe even had extra variant covers that weren’t in the regular trade. I think the paper quality and size of the book made a difference as well. Being hardcover the pages could open fully so you could really get a grasp of some of the full page art. I’m not sure a soft cover trade would give you that ability.

[Ricardo Noronha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The epic conclusion of Jason Aaron's run of Lady Jane Foster, aka The Mighty Thor!

This entire run is simply brilliant and its conclusion does not fall short from the tree.

It's jaw-dropping with a (very) big surprise at the very end!

Jason Aaron really outdid himself, I consider him the best Thor writter I have seen since J. Michael Straczynski revived Thor in 2007.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Třetí macaté OHC o holce co se stala Thorem.

Jason Aaron je ta nejlepší věc co se marvelovskému Thorovy kdy stát. Jane Foster a její boj s rakovinou vs přeměna na Thora. Thor a jeho depka z toho že je unworthy, Volstagg jako War Thor, Malekith a jeho příprava na War of realms a do toho ještě krásná kresba.

Navíc snad nikdy se mi nestalo abych 500ti stránkové OHC přečetl na jeden zátah.

[Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

that ending... o boy... so great... long live Thor

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of things happen! I like the variety of Thors presented. The story surrounding Jane’s illness feels never ending though and it starts to wear thin.

[Rob Marney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson knock it out of the park. This is an ensemble book with a dozen characters and new villains in every arc, and they are great at everything. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't back this up, and the dialogue lowers to match. Jason Aaron is at his anti-theist worst (a poor fit for the book about the gods) with the Asgard-Shi'ar War, which introduces plot holes into his earlier, better Gorr arc and just blows up a bunch of stuff for no reason. The War Thor arc shoves a plump round peg into a square hole, ignoring established characters to tell the story the writer had in mind with whoever happened to not be busy in any other plot line today. The Mangog arc is epic because of the art, despite the writer's best efforts. Jason Aaron wraps up the book with a rapturous, nuance-free, all punches pulled sendoff for the Mighty Thor. Apparently, battling cancer is harder than seeing your wards murdered, or your entire species murdered. A valiant death makes you better than all the gods. The Mighty Thor is a better fighter than Odin.

At least the decompressed nature of the story means the art team has a chance to flex their muscles.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other than the shiar war this was a great book.

[Shelby Fielding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aaron's finest work reaches a deft climax of both thunderous action and dense poignancy. A well-worth read that rewards tenured investment in a land of fantasy and magic and wrath and worthiness and bravery and will. It's a piece of golden cruxed fiction that matches might with a stirring narrative.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end, I cried...