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Thor by Jason Aaron Reading Order

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In 2012, Jason Aaron took over writing duties on Thor. Before that, Matt Fraction was writing The Mighty Thor, while Kieron Gillen was in charge of the Loki-focused title Journey Into Mystery. This was during Marvel’s Heroic Age initiative, which gave way to Marvel NOW! later that same year.

As part of Marvel NOW!, Aaron began his run with Thor: God of Thunder, with artist Esad Ribić. While Ribić didn’t stay on the book, which was renamed multiple times throughout the run, Aaron went on for almost seven years, finally ending in 2019 with the crossover event The War of the Realms. During that period, he explored multiple eras of Thor’s life, juggling between storylines in the past with a brash Young Thor, the present Avenger Thor, and the future All-Father King Thor at the end of the universe. 

During this period, the series introduced iconic characters such as Gorr the God Butcher and Jane Foster as the Goddess of Thunder. After being deemed unworthy of wielding Mjolnir, Thor Odinson experienced a prolonged identity crisis that explores his ‘worthiness’ as a God and a leader in Asgard. 

This era is now considered one of the most influential, next to Walt Simonson’s. It put back the emphasis on the Gods and focused on epic fantasy and cosmic adventures storytelling. 

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Best 1980s Marvel Comics: The Stories That Defined a Decade

These were good years for the comic book industry. Actually, they were great years. The 1980s were a period of tremendous financial and creative growth that transformed the medium. The emergence of the Direct Market, with specialty comic book stores, created more opportunities for creators and led to a wider range of publications.

It was during this decade that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus were published, breaking new comic book narrative ground for future writers. It was also during this decade that DC Comics was rebooted with Crisis on Infinite Earths and started its Renaissance with the British Invasion of creators. 

The comic book industry rose and fell during the 1980s, including Marvel Comics. The House of Ideas evolved in those years, embracing darker storytelling, launching new comic book series, trying new formats, hiring new talents, and releasing some of the most celebrated and iconic stories in its history.

Maybe one of the most important decades on the creative front, the 1980s helped redefine Marvel’s superheroes by pushing boundaries and going where the industry had never been before. Today, we explore the best Marvel stories of the decade!

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The Beta Ray Bill Origin Story – Who is this alien Thor?

Looking like he is Thor with the head of a horse, Beta Ray Bill is not a multiverse variant of the Asgardian superhero. He is from the same universe and he is more than a copy or a variant of the God of Thunder.

Introduced by Walt Simonson during his famous run on Thor in 1983 in a 4-issue adventure told in The Mighty Thor #337-340, Beta Ray Bill is a Korbinite, as he comes from the planet Korbin, “Burning Galaxy.” The inhabitants of this part of space don’t look like him as he was transformed into a cybernetic being.

For Walt Simonson, the idea was to use comic tropes to subvert expectations. As he said in an interview published in The Jack Kirby Collector #14, “I designed Bill deliberately as a monster, because I knew that people would look at it and go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s this evil guy.’ I deliberately wrote them so you weren’t sure in the beginning if he was a good guy or a bad guy. His face was designed around a horse’s skull, partly because horses are quite beautiful. I thought it’d be kind of cool to have the structure of a beautiful animal underneath the monster to give this dichotomy between the monstrous and the beautiful in the same face.”

One of the most surprising elements of Beta Ray Bill’s introduction is that he can pick up Mjolnir, the most powerful weapon of the Norse gods, the one that only Thor is supposed to be worthy of using. But Bill is also worthy and, beyond the initial shock of seeing a monster-like character using Mjolnir, it proves that he is a noble warrior on par with Thor.

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Thor Reading Order

 

Based on the Norse mythological god of the same name, Thor Odinson–or simply Thor–is a Marvel Superhero created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby that was introduced in Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962)–possibly as an unofficial equivalent to DC’s Superman.

In order to make the Asgardian god of thunder (whose enchanted hammer Mjolnir–called the ‘Uru Hammer’ at first–enables him to fly and manipulate weather) relatable for the average American reader, Stan Lee imagined a secret identity (à la Clark Kent). Partially disabled human medical student Donald Blake only had to strike his walking stick to transform into the thunder god.

As Donald Blake, the hero took care of his patient in his private practice, working with nurse Jane Foster. As Thor, he defended humanity from his numerous Evil enemies, and notably his adoptive brother Loki, but also the Absorbing Man, the Destroyer, the Wrecker, Zarrko, the Radioactive Man, the Lava Man, the Cobra, Mister Hyde, the Enchantress, the Executioner, and more.

Thor joined the Avengers, fall in love with Jane Foster, opposed his father’s will, and went on epic adventures, alone or with allies from Earth and Asgard. As the years went by, we learned more about Thor and Asgard’s real origins, the Gods, and their enemies. Also, Thor was freed from Donald Blake. Like a lot of Marvel heroes, Thor died (Loki and Odin too), but came back to life. Asgard was destroyed and rebuilt. Even Mjolnir disappeared at one point.

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Original Sin Reading Order, A Marvel Crossover Event: Who Shot The Watcher?

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Original Sin Reading Order

Written by Jason Aaron with art by Mike Deodato, Original Sin is a Marvel Crossover Event published from April to September 2014. The story began when Uatu, the mysterious space-god who’s been watching mankind from the moon for as long as we can remember … is found dead. But who shot the Watcher?

As the official synopsis reveals, Nick Fury takes the lead of the murder investigation. With the help of the heroes of the Marvel Universe, he must quickly find answers as other forces are marshaling and other questions are arising. Such as why is Black Panther gathering a secret team of his own, including Emma Frost, the Punisher and Dr. Strange? Who is the Unseen? What was stolen from the Watcher’s lair? Fury’s cosmic manhunt leads to the far corners of the universe and beyond, but just when the Avengers think they’ve cornered their murderer … everything explodes, unleashing the Marvel Universe’s greatest secrets and rocking the heroes to their core! What did the Watcher see? What was the Original Sin?

What to read before Original Sin?

The Original Sin event was not one of those long-prepared universe-shattering crossover. In fact, it started quite suddenly. The only thing you’ll need to read is the “Behold the Watcher” story from Point One #1 (collected with the rest of the event).

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The War of the Realms Reading Order, the Marvel Event from Jason Aaron

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The main event of 2019 in the Marvel Universe, The War of the Realms was written by Jason Aaron (with art by Russell Dauterman) who was, at that time, also the writer of the main Thor series. It was the culmination of his run, the conclusion of a story arc he started a long time ago.

For some time now, the Dark Elf known as Malekith the Accursed has been conquering the Ten Realms one by one until there is only one left: Midgard (Earth!). Thor lost his precious Mjolnir, but he’s still fighting to prevent the war. With a lot of Asgardian warriors and Earth’s heroes, they must now fight against a full-on invasion and defeat Malekith.

What to read before The War of the Realms?

Being a Thor Event, The War of the Realms story began in the Thor series. Jason Aaron wrote organically the progression of Malekith the Accursed’s plan into his series from The Goddess of Thunder storyline to the crossover – see the full reading order of his run. That said, you’ll only need to read the last relaunch of the series, Thor #1–11.

It’s optional, but Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 2: World Tour is a good introduction to the last iteration of the Avengers team (and the Agents of Wakanda) at the center of The War of the Realms event.

Also, the easiest way to read the essential issues before immersing yourself in The War of the Realms event is a book Marvel published called War of the Realms Prelude.

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