Once again, my bizarre appreciation of Jason Aaron’s work comes calling. I am not an Aaron fan. I find his work to be long winded, often annoying, and usually filled with a style of “look at me I’m so clever” humor that grates on the nerves. However, the man really does know how to start a story. In fact, he’s so good at beginnings, I am constantly reading his stuff in hopes that it will end as well as it began. It never does, but yet I return. Thor God Of Thunder #19 is a prime example of that snake eating its tail.
This is Thor for the Marvel Now age. Not much has changed, except that Aaron is launching into a story that is mammoth even by Thor standards. Once again, Aaron is splitting his story between two eras. The first is many millennia from now. The Earth is a dry, poisoned desert. No life. No sea. Nothing. In this age, Thor is king of Asgard, and has dedicated himself to finding a way to save Midgard (Earth).
Aaron’s second story takes place in the modern era. SHIELD, particularly agent Rosalind Solomon, is chasing down Dario Agger, the CEO of multi-billion-dollar energy conglomerate Roxxon. Aaron still hasn’t mastered subtlety, as Dario Agger is a poor attempt to hide the word Dagger. Anyway, after a particularly violent underwater exchange, somebody who has a crush on her – namely Thor – rescues Agent Solomon.
The underwater battle is pretty impressive, but not quite as impressive as Thor screwing a giant cash cow project involving Roxxon. They want to mine ice from Jupiter and charge for it. Thor brings a giant glacier of ice from the Frost Giants’ realm. It ruins Agger’s plans and brings about a change in him. We don’t see the whole change, but it’s obviously supernatural.
Back to the future. Thor is on Midgard once again, this time with his family, who are trying to convince Thor to give up on Midgard. Right as he begins to reconsider his quest, who should show up but Galactus, which is never a good thing. Will Thor fight another god for a dead planet, or allow Galactus to feed, thus cementing the end of the Earth forever? Aaron blends all these mysteries together perfectly, creating an exciting brew of ideas. He did that with Gorr the God Butcher and the most recent story involving Malekith. Both of those stories started strong and ended horribly. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen here.
Esad Ribic is on art once again. I have to say, as much as I appreciate what Ribic does, his work is getting boring. Thor needs something much less fantasy and much more bombastic. It’s fine to allow the fine-art fantasy book style to step in for a few issues, but by now Ribc’s work is hurting the series. It’s too soft, too relaxed, almost out of focus. Marvel needs to use this whole Marvel Now idea to get a new artist in there.
Thor: God Of Thunder #19 is a solid beginning, but with a huge uphill climb ahead of it. Let’s hope Jason Aaron gets there, and hopefully with a new artist.
(3 Story, 2 Art)
