The Marvel Cinematic Universe delivers its next installment with Thor: Ragnarok. In addition to being a great new adventure, it covers where Thor and Hulk were during Captain America: Civil War. We get a new kick-ass heroine to root for, and a few lingering plot lines dealt with.
Since Jane Foster took up Mjolnir, it’s been acting a lot differently than for anyone else who has wielded it. Last issue, it even helped keep her secret identity, much to the confusion of a few rabid SHIELD agents. This issue goes back and tells the origin of Thor’s hammer. In the past, there’s just been a passing reference to the dwarves of Nidavellir forging the hammer from mystic uru and that’s been about it.
Tension has been building for a while now, and things finally go over the edge in this issue of Thor. Thor has had enough of Odin, and the two of them fight. And “fight” isn’t anywhere near a strong enough term. I think they did some damage out Jupiter way, but Aaron did something amazingly…
The new Thor has been around a while, and has crossed paths with various parts of the Asgardian mythos. In the age of the Marvel movies, you can’t go too long without a certain God of Mischief popping up. This issue has Thor clashing with Loki in several iterations. It’s really interesting seeing all the different versions pop up, although it doesn’t go as smoothly as Loki himself was probably expecting.
At the end of the last volume of Thor, they finally revealed who the new Thor is. The new status quo is being established, but it’s ugly. Thor has a heavy burden to bear- every time she picks up Mjolnir, the magic of the hammer wipes out Jane Foster’s chemotherapy, but not the cancer she’s suffering from because it’s so much a part of her now. It’s a nasty twist on an old idea.
The new Thor has been accepted by most of the people in the Thunder God’s life. Unfortunately, one of the ones who hasn’t accepted her is Odin. Odin has sent the Destroyer, animated by Cul, Odin’s crazed brother, to kill Thor and retrieve Mjolnir. In response, Thor Odinson and Freya have gathered an army of female warriors, mostly people Thor suspected of being his replacement (Spider Woman, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch among them), to come and help the Goddess of Thunder. It’s a huge fight, and the array of power is staggering. Eventually, Freya’s arguments (and contempt) penetrate Odin’s thick head, and he orders Cul to withdraw.
The new Thor has caused a lot of upheaval in the Marvel Universe. You’d think the one with the biggest problem with the new wielder of Mjolnir would be Thor Odinson himself, but it seems to be Odin. He’s got such an issue, he’s unleashed the Destroyer, one of Asgard’s most powerful artefacts (and something familiar to those who have seen the first Thor movie).
The mystery of the new Thor continues. The first few pages give us an origin for Dario Agger, the being that’s been a foe of the current Thor and the original over the past year or so. While he’s an interesting character, I keep feeling like they just tried too hard to get his name be D.Agger.
Annuals take a lot of different forms. The overblown, major event, link-them-all style seems to have died out, finally. I can’t say I miss those. This one features three different stories. As has been the case in Aaron’s run on Thor, three different time periods share the action. King Thor, ruler of Asgard, is far in the future, thousands of years from now.
The new status quo is slowly being established in Thor. The God of Thunder has made his peace with the new wielder of his hammer, even though he’s still trying to figure out who she is. Unfortunately, Odin is trying to work it out, too, and he’s nowhere near as forgiving. In fact, he’s pretty damn pissed off about her having Mjolnir.
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