Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic have been deemed worthy to wield the power of THOR! Last week’s teaser sparked speculation. The new creative team is revealing their vision (and the cover to issue #1) for Thor: God of Thunder first to Comics Newsarama.
Aaron is describing his story as a simultaneous “Year One,” present-day adventure and Dark Knight Returns-esque tale — re-teaming with his Dark Reign: The List — Wolverine collaborator Ribic and his love for Mangog. Aaron created a new villain ominously called the God Butcher.
Aaron is taking over after Matt Fraction’s long run on The Mighty Thor and cites a Fraction story as part of his inspiration.
“I remember when [Matt] Fraction did his first Thor stories a few years back in the Ages of Thunder standalones. I remember reading those and thinking for the first time as a writer, “Oh, Thor’s really cool. I could see me writing Thor.” But I never really thought much more about it, other than enjoying the book as it was coming out. But suddenly, once Thor was on the table, that’s the one I instantly gravitated towards. Before I even had a story, I just kind of made my play and tried to plant my flag. “Stay away! I want Thor!”
Aaron’s story will be set in 3 eras similar to Ages of Thunder.
“In part. I do flash back and show a young Thor in action, but he’s actually just one of three Thors that I want to focus on. This first story is an epic tale that plays out over the course of thousands of years. So we spend time with young Thor in the Viking age — the young, hotheaded god of the Vikings, who loves to come down to Midgard and get into trouble.
In the present, we see Thor the Avenger on a journey that takes him to the far corners of space, interacting with all sorts of new space gods and wondrous new locations.
And then we also see old King Thor, who’s the last king of Asgard, thousands of years in the future, where something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Linking all these eras and Thors together is one villain, an all-new character, who is basically, at least initially, a serial killer of gods. He’s a guy with a serious axe to grind against all immortal beings in the cosmos, and he’s going around doing his best to kill them all off, one at a time, as brutally as possible. That villain’s story unfolds over the course of all these different eras. He starts as a serial killer of gods, but by the end, he has become something even more frightening.”
Aaron calls Gorr, the God Butcher a “serial killer” of Immortals but he has a classic villain on the horizon.
“This first villain is all-new, but man, I can’t wait to do a Mangog story. I’ve had a Mangog statue sitting on my desk for months now, and he begs me every day to write him in somewhere. Soon, Mangog, soon.”
For the entire interview here’s the Comics Newsarama link.
Thor: God of Thunder arrives this November as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch.
By Editor