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Review: Thor: God Of Thunder #9

By | June 14th, 2013
Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments

Three Thors, one God Butcher, and some of the most epic fight scenes the Marvel Universe has ever seen. Check out our review of “Thor: God of Thunder” #9 after the cut! Minor spoilers ahead!

Written by Jason Aaron

Illustrated by Esad Ribic

GODBOMB Part Three of Five

Three Thors, side by side at last, united in battle! But will even that be enough, as Gorr the God Butcher’s grand plan nears completion and his powers grow beyond anything we’ve seen before…?

 

The word “epic” has garnered a bad reputation lately. Whether it be plastered on a thousand t-shirts at Spencer’s Gifts or screamed by twelve year olds on Xbox Live, “epic” has lost a lot of its meaning and can be applied to most anything. That is why, when we refer to Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic’s run on “Thor: God of Thunder” as “epic” you keep from rolling your eyes; because it’s honestly the biggest, boldest, and most epic take on the Prince of Asgard in a long time, and issue nine only proves that point further.

Following from last issue’s declaration that “The hammers will fall”, issue nine features three Thors from three different eras of time battling the God Butcher on his planet of enslaved gods. Like we said: epic. Aaron and Ebic put their sights as high as they can put them and put on one of the most ridiculous, over the top, battles ever put on a comic page. As has been said many times, Aaron has a real gift for humor and he’s able to twist it in some ways here to make battles like this one seem more ridiculously large. The ridiculous isn’t a silly or cheap type of ridiculous; it’s the type of over exaggeration that makes the tale all the much larger for it. For example, in the first story ever written, “Gilgamesh”, there are so many absurd events, such as the wildman Enkidu learns how to speak and act civilized by doing the nasty with a woman for a straight week. They seem crazy, but that certain type of craziness, in which impressive feats are performed by only the most elite of champions, elevates the story into its own category as godly myth, which this run of “Thor” seems to be.

Of course, that mythological feel doesn’t just stem from Aaron’s epic brand of crazy. Esad Ribic’s art solidifies the big epic feel with his almost-painting like style that falls somewhere on the line between beautiful and gritty. His figures are big and bold and exude this giant epic feel. Plus, Ribic is a good fit for this title as his fairly realistic art style helps ground some of Aaron’s crazier moments in the script. That’s not to say the art is down-to-earth in any way. Space sharks, exploding planets, gods throwing fists all over the place, this is one of the biggest titles Marvel is putting out right now and Ribic does a completely stellar job of making “Thor: God of Thunder” the giant that it is.

Going down a somewhat different track, in recent years there has been a bit of tiredness that comes when a new villain is introduced. Yes, they can be compelling and will probably offer a good story; but they will almost never come to be one of those iconic villains that come to define the hero. For example, James Gordon Jr. is a very interesting villain, but he will never mean as much to Batman as say the Joker or Scarecrow. That’s why it’s so rare for a villain to come along and just be so right for a character. Gorr The God Butcher is, hands down, the best Thor villain since the Simonson run. He’s menacing, he has a reason to be connected to Thor and be his enemy rather than just a general Marvel Universe threat, and Gorr has the motivations and pathos of a truly dangerous villain. I honestly cannot think of a single bad thing to say about Gorr. When picking this title up from the store, I oftentimes find myself forgetting that it’s about Thor and just get excited to read another twenty pages of Gorr. And its’ not like he’s overshadowing Thor or taking away the spotlight, Gorr is a villain that can actually share the space with Thor and prove a real threat.

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“Thor: God of Thunder” is the biggest and most genuinely epic tale of the Prince of Asgard in recent memory. It’s huge and unapologetic in its scope and a new take on the titular hero that definitely deserves your attention. The only potential disappointment is the dropping of Gorr in favor of Malekith the Accursed in future issues; but, knowing Aaron and Ribic, that will be just as epic.

Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy!

 


James Johnston

James Johnston is a grizzled post-millenial. Follow him on Twitter to challenge him to a fight.

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