I never processed the idea that Gorrs son betraying him could be his subconscious trying to bring him back to the light. What a wonderful thought. Great insight!
The character did need a bit more development, gorr always felt like an epic but ultimately hollow villain. For instance he's ensuring others suffer without their gods just like he did. And that Thor fights back proves not all gods are bad. He's an eternal pessimist, it's not the most thought out personal philosophy.
@@JRussellDay I disagree, I know a lot of religious and political groups trying to push their ideas and laws without thinking about the consequences or the effects on others.
I remember just walking through the Comic Aisle of Barnes and Noble and stumbling across the Gor the God Butcher Storyline. Such an awesome image seeing Broken King Thor,Avengers Era Thor,and Young UNWORTHY Thor team up side by side against This Pyschopathic God Killer Gor.
The fact that gods just...EXIST in all classical superhero universes is one of the big jokes that's always directed at them. But truly examining what that MEANS is a big swing to take, and on that couldn't be attempted without an awareness of possible controversy. It's a very high minded, high concept idea that this run pulls off so well as to make it look easy
Jason Aaron's God of Thunder run is what made Thor my favorite Marvel superhero. In particular, the first two arcs of God of Thunder, God Butcher and God Bomb, really brought out the epic-ness of the character, thanks to Jason Aaron's writing, and Esad Ribic's amazing art, which really lent itself well to the epic aspect of the story. Thank you for this episode, I'm really glad to hear about this run from one of my favorite comics RU-vidrs!
His run made me like Jane foster Thor more than the regular Thor. The hate for Jane foster is unwarranted. One of my favorite characters. DC should have taken notes and given Superman a daughter instead of a son and made her thoughtful, vulnerable and new to her powers like Jane.
Thanks again! These recaps are not just timely and entertaining, but genuinely valuable, highlighting the artistic merits of these stories that the casual fan would otherwise never be aware of!
@@ungreatfulduck750 never read dan’s run of Thor, I read Jason Aaron’s run up until the last days of Midgard and really enjoyed it and I’m currently trying to read the rest since I recently bought volumes 1-4 but I was wondering if you would recommend reading dan’s run as well?
What a wonderful summation of JASON AARON's wonderful early run on the THOR series. I also loved it on first reading. And ESAD RIBIC's art is DIVINE and INSPIRED.
Aaron's Thor run was really really good, i just wished he paid a little more attention to previous and current continuity in other books (e.g.: he completely ignored everything in Ewing's Loki: agent of asgard run, which, by the way is a read i'd highly recommend), but, man, I don't know what happened with his avengers run, i (personally) find it a slog to read (everything is so crancked up to eleven that nothing actually feels exciting, and that war of the realms she-hulk tie-in in which he basically just complained about people not liking his she-hulk for 20-ish pages was baaaaaad). Anyway, great review as always, love your videos!
I'm a Jason Aaron stan all the way, but I agree. His Avengers has been like "Avengers but with explosive rage and ALL the toys." I will say now that I see some Englehart in his stories I appreciate more his pulling from those sources, but it just hasn't been for me. Mind you, I think the best run of Avengers of all time was Busiek and Perez, so I set my bar pretty high, but yeah...his Avengers has just been all over the place.
@@HankChinaski27 he admitted his avengers run is just him having dumb fun because hahas..... that that's why he isn't even putting that much effort which only makes it more enfuriating it that he is doing his massive big a status quo retcons and doubles down on them (the whole, thor is son of the phoenix), canonizing basically poorly written fanfics and his villain sue original characters (the multiversal masters of evil, particularly doom supreme who is so boring even the doctor octopus doctor doom sorcerer supreme mashup from superior four was more interesting); and all te weird characterization he is giving to all the characters and all of that as a joke...... is like the equivalent of setting rome on fire because "it was fun" AND SOMEHOW I at least don't hate it as much as whatever zeb wells is doing at amazing spider-man
How was his later Thor run?. the one where he writes Jane Foster as Thor. I haven't read it, but heard a lot of complaints that he changed Thor's characters so much, and it really sucked. is that true?
@@v-trigger6137 personally, I liked it (although the beginning was VERY rough, like an issue in which Jane was fighting Titania and the Absorbing Man and Titania knocked out her husband and surrendered because she gave Jane a "girl pass" or something similar...Titania... The one that regularly fights She-Hulk. Furthermore I really don't care for the way he writes Odin, like, at all) I wouldn't know about Thor being out of character: on the one hand, at the beginning of Jane's run I recall him being quite a dick, but it kinda made sense with him being found unworthy (and why it was found so), getting mutilated and finding out someone else took his hammer and apparently has better control over it than him, all in a short time; later on he became more in line with the previous depictions. I'd say that from the point when the reader is made privy on who the new Thor is and onward the book gets pretty good, it just has some growing pains at the beginning. (BTW, not to shill, but if you have a phone/tablet/whatever and you are on the fence about the series, you could subscribe to Marvel Unlimited and give it a try: best case scenario, you love it and start collecting the physical copies; worst case, you don't like it and still have A LOT of great stories to read/try until your subscription expires)
Gor's Subconscious desire for defeat reminds me of Metamorphosis in Gandahar. Also the time skipping. I do love the European art style. Thanks again Chris.
Another great presentation 👏, Chris -- thoughtful, even-handed and entertaining. I caught Aaron's last few years run on Thor and was quite pleased. I missed this initial arc, but thanks to your video I'll be picking up the trades.
Fantastic episode. Love the Aaron /Ribic team. Thank you for covering one of the best Thor runs since Simonson. Keep up the good work and we will keep reading comics. Thank you, Chris.
I'm just getting back into comics in over a decade, started reading Immortal Hulk and the Batman Who Laughs stuff recently, and this video helped me make up my mind about reading this run. It seems wonderful. Jason Aaron has always been a talented creator. I just got vol 1 today and cannot wait to get into it. Great video, man. Keep it up.
Aaron's run on Punisher Max is also a fantastic character study on Frank. He takes everything Ennis did throughout that series and gives it a great conclusion.
That first year of Aaron with Esad Ribik in the art departament was just magic; I think it is my favorite Thor story, including its epilogue (King Thor, some years later). Thanks for the video! 🍺🍺
Great video! I'd highly recommend the new Thor by Jason Aaron omnibus as a great way to read this run. It collects the first half of the run in the correct reading order and even has an excerpt from Original Sin to give context. Here's hoping they publish volume 2 soon to compete this epic run!
@@pious83 Really? I loved Wolverine and the X-Men. It was a fun book, and there was a stretch where it felt like the only X-book I was reading because I enjoyed it and not because I felt some compulsion to read all the X stuff. I kind of agree about the Avengers, though. A full 5 issue arc of characters fighting over who gets the Phoenix force that really could've and should've been a single issue? You know going in that it doesn't matter. None of these characters are going to be the next Phoenix, and even if they are, it won't be for very long. So why drag this out?
@@sim4344 There's a panel with narration in Hickman's Powers of X book. Which refers to the 2010's as the "lost decade". A veiled swipe at the quality of Aaron, Bendis and Fraction's output. Obviously the petty, behind the scenes movie rights nonsense by Disney played a part in it, too. My own personal favourite X-Man - Beast - has been at the receiving end of near constant character assassination. Which began during this time too. The title of 'Wolverine and the X-Men' (both the comic and show) put a lot of fans backs up also. For obvious reasons. Bachelo's art being quite divisive didn't help. I believe it was Bendis that championed the current bastardisation of the Phoenix Force in AvX too. Treating it as a power-up for everyone, when it *never* was.
@@pious83 Sure. But I don't think "quality" is quite the right word. Art is subjective. Even my problem isn't so much with his writing as it is with the nature of modern superhero comics and writing stories with the tpb in mind. For all that I've heard complaining about Aaron's run, including some from myself, I kinda feel like he wouldn't be on what, year 4 of his run if it was that much of a problem. What obvious reasons? Again, I quite enjoyed it. I know I'm not the only one. I'll agree that Bachalo is very stylized, and not everyone's cup of tea. But Nick Bradshaw also drew a lot of the series. That sounds right. I didn't care for AvX.
Please please PLEASE do a video on Aaron's Ghost Rider run. He took up writing duties after Danny Way decided to make the Ghost Rider an angel of vengeance in his last issue of the Vicious Cycle storyline and saved the character from what many considered a strange and unnecessary plot twist.
That is one of my favorite runs of all time. I was reticent, but I'll read anything Ghost Rider, and his totally flipping the mythology on its heads was such an inspired take on a character that just seemed to be continuance of the same old tropes. Good stuff.
Thanks to this video I think I'm gonna look back into Jason Aaron's Thor. I have his Star wars stories and find them really cool so thanks for letting me know how good this Thor run is.
This was great, thanks. A few things left out that were really neat were thors daughters and the result of king Thor being inspired by his younger self to remake the earth as a better god.
I recently read this entire run by Aaron and had a totally different reaction to it. I think the greatest weakness it had was that the entire premise of Thor doubting himself, or rather Mjolnir doubting him, made absolutely no sense. What really was different about Thor between when he became "unworthy" and at the end of the run where he magically became worthy again? He was a hero throughout the run, looking to save others all the time, even due to some great sacrifices to himself. There was no great change because the character was being a hero the entire time. The answer is because the story demanded it basically, because at no point in the story did it actually make you think that "yeah, Thor is totally unworthy....you know while he's saving the universe.... again". And you can tell Aaron had no clue how he was going to make Thor "unworthy" since he didn't reveal what was whispered to him in Original Sin for months and months later. When the reveal finally happened......it was just plain dumb. I can understand trying new things, like a female Thor. Although I also found it weird that she named herself Thor, the hammer gives you the power of Thor. You don't actually *become* him. I can understand why Marvel the comic publishing company wants to publish her in a comic named Thor for sales purposes, but storywise again it made no sense. I would like for this different story Aaron wanted to tell, to just have better reasoning behind it I guess than none at all. Make Thor actually have done something that would make him, or rather again Mjolnir, question his worthyness. If Mjolnir thought all the Gods were unworthy, why would it create another God by making a female Thor? For that matter what had the new Thor done to being worthy? If we're looking at the worst examples to base the worthyness of the entire group like was being done to the Gods, how in the Hell would humans be seen as more worthy? :D I thought it was an ok journey overall, definitely helped by the great art. But I wouldn't put it at the upper half of Thor runs.
I think making Jane Thor makes sense seeing a mjolnir deemed the gods unworthy because of gorr’s ideology of there are no gods and if they do exist then they don’t care what happens to us because they let atrocities happen everywhere like what happened to his tribe and family, because while Thor does save the planet and the world all the time along with the avengers there are times when he might not be needed in a conflict because the other avengers would be enough to stop the threat so instead of doing that he could focus on answering the prayers of people that might actually need him and I think mjolnir making Jane foster Thor works in my opinion because she’s a human and deals with human problems just like the people Thor is supposed to be protecting no matter how small their prayer may be.
Definitely feels like Gorr was meant to be a bit of a dark alternate history of saint walker. Their origin stories are almost identical up to where they both get their powers
Gorr the God-Butcher's comic arc WAS dubbed on RU-vid by a page known as the Russian Comic Book Geek. Him and his team effectively made two feature-length parts for the saga, it's amazing.
I stopped following almost all modern titles years ago (unless your count Love & Rockets and Saga), but I still see art I like and I remember finding Esad Ribic's work really beautiful and a great fit for Thor. This summary actually makes me interested in reading Aaron and Ribic's run. Although, seeing the insane difficulty in following which titles the story continues in is enough to give me an aneurysm (and probably represents an unfathomable barrier to entry for any newcomer).
I was so happy with aarons run it was incredible from start to finish its actually one of the last comics i read before a fell away from comics and im glad it was one of the last
Hello there Chris, and all the Comic Troopers! I don't think I've ever read this - but I'm going to start reading now. I really appreciate the explicit run-down of the issues and reading order. I'm sure a lot of people do. Good video :) Cheers Chris, and everybody out there :) "LiL'JpD." edit: Im reading thru the first issue, and it does not disappoint; the art, coloring, and atmosphere are all beautiful. The story has a natural and believable way with character voice and interaction :)
What is meant being worthy? isn't that question answered in many many issues of Spider-Man, whole premise of spider-man is built upon with great Power comes great responsibility. I will read first 11 issue because those sounds super duper fun..
Missed this series as I just started to get back into collecting when it was releasedand was kind of rusty in my choices. Plus at the time I didn’t have the internet to research books and reviews. I’m currently collecting Cates run which I’m really enjoying. But I can’t help feel I missed out an very epic run from Aaron.
I completely loved this book, but, like you, I agree that Simonson arguably has the best run of all time. I definitely hold Aaron up there with the likes of Jurgens (I love the beginning of that run so much) and J Straczynski...even some of Wein and Englehart's work.
They bring up a question but never answer it. They brought up the issue of "if gods are good why dont the help us?" But never had thor answer it. It was turned into a generic good vs bad at the end ☹
The last Aaron arc I was able to enjoy without problems, his inmediate follow up arc to godbomb with the start of the war of the realms was already a redflag in how the quality of his writting started going down with a fairly uninspired version of Malekith. Like the whole Jane Foster arc felt like entirely supported itself in the gimmick yet did nothing to make Jane's character compelling which I don't get because Aaron can write great female characters, his new character during his ghost rider run Sara the caretaker for example is a fantastic new character that stand on her own, yet Jane feels like a carboard cut out in Aaron's mighty Thor. We are never given a satisfactory reason of why she became worthy outside of having a uncurable deasease that she is offered magic cures but she rejects, this directly contradicts the what makes one worthy as it was clearly layout by Simonson's Thor with Beta Ray Bill that to be worthy is not just being a good person, not just to go through great personal pain, Bill and Thor common ground was always that they carried their entire people's safety, hopes and destiny on their backs, and the fact they were willing to expand their devotions to other people, I never got that out of Aaron's version of Jane, hell Sif would had been a better pick for female Thor, or use the retcon in Strancinsky's Thor that part of Thor's soul was used by Strange to reforge the hammer, and that Thor's love for Jane was what allow her to lift the hammer initially and she later becomes worthy as her character develops, kinda how Thuderstrike became worthy by living Thor's life. I mean is not a bad run but I feel Aaron's lost a lot his writting quality during this run, it doesn't help his Avengers' run after this one has a lot of the cast feeling out of character specially She-Hulk.
A lot of people think that Jane-Thor was editorially mandated rather than something Aaron wanted to do. If so, that would explain why he had trouble writing her.
They bring up a question but never answer it. They brought up the issue of "if gods are good why dont the help us?" But never had thor answer it. It was turned into a generic good vs bad at the end ☹
Never cared about Thor until I got the Marvel Unlimited subscription and chanced upon the Aaron run. Drawn in by the covers, I wound up loving the story. I also became a huge Jason Aaron fan!
@comictropes thank you for doing such a great passionate episode about not only one of my favorite comic stories but one of my favorite writers! I just ordered The Other Side per your recommendation. Have you considered doing an episode on Aaron's Conan run?
They bring up a question but never awnser it. They brought up the issue of "if gods are good why dont the help us?" But never had thor answer it. It was turned into a generic good vs bad at the end ☹
Incredible quality Chris! I loved your take around 12:30 about the psychology of the character. I’d love to see a big streaming company pick up your show! I’m a former Hero level subscriber, I’ll be back to support when I can. Aloha!
They bring up a question but never awnser it. They brought up the issue of "if gods are good why dont the help us?" But never had thor answer it. It was turned into a generic good vs bad at the end ☹
Great video, but I need to look up just what a god is in marvel, cuz I've never really thought about how they're different than a regular super person.
