Then, a few months ago, having loved the Avengers movie, and just gotten back into collecting comics, I tried Avengers Assemble. It was terrible, and after four issues I gave up. A couple of weeks ago, having heard good things about some of the Marvel NOW! titles, and having gotten rather fed up with most of the sewage being passed off as "comic-books" by +DC Comics, I decided I would go ahead and try Marvel again. I started with Captain America #1-6, about which I'm ambivalent. The story is odd, and the choice of having Cap age 12 years between issues 2 and 3 is going to be trouble in the long run. I usually know after 6 issues whether I want to put a comic on my pull list or not, but I'm still reserving judgment on Captain America. I'm leaning toward not putting it on, and it's going to have to get dramatically better by the end of this first story-line to prevent that.
I thought that might be the end of a very brief, probably misguided, attempt at re-acquainting myself with the Marvel Universe. Two attempted series, one a dud, the other highly questionable. I decided to give Marvel one more try, this time with the Marvel NOW! version of Thor -- Thor, God of Thunder. I'd heard good things about it from several people, and I've always liked Thor. The comic shop had all 8 issues still out on the "current" shelves, so I didn't have to pay inflated "back issue" prices for it. Picked it up on Wednesday, and started reading it... and could not stop. Within 24 hours I had devoured all 8 issues. What a gem this title is.
By any metric of measurement, Thor, God of Thunder is sequential story-telling at its best. The story-line is broad and sweeping, yet still delves deeply into character. The dialogue rings true -- a difficult task with the normally stilted, old-fashioned speech patterns of Thor. The art, although stylized, is exceptionally good and appropriate to the story-line -- moody, but with a surrealist quality to it. The panels look almost like oil paintings rather than pencil-and-ink drawings. As I say, just these characteristics alone would make Thor, God of Thunder a good read.
However, what struck me the most as I was reading these eight first issues of Thor, God of Thunder was just how much this sweeping, epic story-line reminds me of another great Thor story-line -- the one by Walt Simonson back in the 1980s. Like Simonson before him, Aaron has delved deeply into the mythology of the Marvel Universe, creating new elements to it that feel like they have been there forever, while simultaneously drawing on older material that has been around since Marvel's inception. Beyond this, the series has remained, at least for the first eight books, almost completely independent of the Marvel Universe (other than a brief cameo by Iron Man, you wouldn't even know this title shares that universe). It can be read completely on its own.
One really important feature that reminds me of the old days, however, is not the story nor the art, but rather, the fact that this series (and apparently all Marvel titles) still has a letter column! For regular readers of this blog, you know that I have complained vociferously about the lack of a lettercol in current DC titles. Well, Marvel still prints letters in the back of their comics (well, e-mails... but it's the same thing), and they answer the letters as well. How refreshing it's been to read those letters. And how connected it makes me feel to the other comic-book fans -- much more so than the so-called "social media" do. I'm not sure why that is, but it does. In each issue there's a letter by someone like me, who hasn't been reading comics, or Marvel, for years (or maybe ever), and decided, for one reason or another, to pick up Thor, God of Thunder and give it a try.
What I love about the lettercols is that they allow writer Jason Aaron to respond directly to readers, and tell us what is on his mind. He explains what he is thinking, hints at what he is planning. And best of all, in issue 5, when a reader complained briefly about the Iron Man cameo and said he doesn't want a bunch of guest-stars and crossovers in this title, Aaron responded as follows:
That shared universe is one of the hallmarks of the House of Ideas. But I also want Thor to be a series you can continue to read and enjoy even if you're not following the overall thread of the Marvel U, though at the same time feeling big enough to be relevant to that universe as a whole. In other words, I wanna do big, epic Thor stories that anyone can enjoy.This is what comics used to be like. The shared universe was a backdrop, years ago, not an excuse to try and force people to buy every title in the line.
Another thing that seems readily apparent from both the way the story unfolds and the answers Aaron gives in the lettercol, is that, on Thor, God of Thunder, the writer is in control of the plot. Although I'm sure the editor has a say in the book's direction, there is no doubt who is in charge here. Marvel seems willing to let Aaron, and presumably its other writers, do what they're supposed to -- write stories.
Between the sweeping, high-quality story, solid artwork, lettercols in every issue, and the writer's ability to control the story-line, I really felt, reading these eight first issues of Thor, God of Thunder, as if I'd gone back in time 25 years, to the days when comics were truly great, and high quality was the rule in both major comics companies, rather than the exception it's become today. Since coming back to comics, with a few rare exceptions (Red Sonja, Batgirl), I had been wondering if they could even make comics like they used to. Here, we have the answer... yes, they still can. Thor, God of Thunder, is one such book.
Now, don't get me wrong. The actual specific story is not like one would have read in the 1980s... it would have been far too violent and bloody, and the old Comics Code Authority would never have allowed it. However, although the plot is modern and far more adult than the stories in those days, it is executed like they did back in the day -- executed the way the greats like Simonson, Perez, Wolfman, Mantlo, and Levitz used to do it all those years ago.
Kudos to the creative team. Thor, God of Thunder is the first Marvel comic to officially make it onto my long-term pull list in 22 years.
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