Thor: God Of Thunder #15

Writer Jason Aaron Artist Ron Garney

 

Introduction

 

Thor: God Of Thunder has been consistently entertaining, even though the last couple installments of the series has not quite met highs of the previous arc or the fabled stand alone issue. Writer Jason Aaron has shown a clear understanding of each facet of the character, except for Asgard itself. It would be interesting if the writer spent more time on the home of Thor, but this tale is still focusing on the main mythology aspects of the character. These facets have shown off the new character featured in the major Thor film in theaters. Main villain Malekith was not explored in depth towards the movie, so Aaron has a lot of space to flesh him out further in this arc. The League of Realms that were formally introduced last issue was absolutely fascinating. The different characters were created to aid the prince of thunder on his ongoing exploration deep into the Marvel Universe. The ragtag group feature colleagues all over the different realms, which includes a dark elf scorned by Malekith in the flesh. The adversary is definitely becoming a foe worthy of engaging in combat with gods, which is interesting because in the original Simonson stories he was depicted as a pawn of Loki.

 

Writing

 

As far as this reviewer is concerned, Aaron is the master of the captions. His playful style, can really show off some of the similar sides of the nine realms which makes the story really come alive for readers. A certain moment involving a giant shows why this scribe is thriving at a time where comics are being celebrated for being fun. Marvel is continuing to embrace their silly side with books such as this and Wolverine And The X-Men. The new characters introduced with the Dark Elves gives the writer a vehicle to embrace his silly side. This issue is not all fun and games, as a poignant scene shows why the character is so versatile while still being interesting. The evil sect of the Dark Elves are also being embraced wholeheartedly. The creative team is juggling an immense amount of threads with a lot of care. The issue ends that starts with peace ends in blood, as the threat wages with war thrust upon our heroes.

 

Art

 

Artist Ron Garney has created better art than the pencils he has delivered here. The creator has a lot of ground to cover in this issue that he takes great advantage of. The majority of these pages are visually dynamic, and have some incredibly dynamic layouts as well. The penciller is great at drawing some fairy tale inspired locations that can really take advantage of his distinctive style. At times, his pencilling can still be very loose, and difficult to look at. Some of the shadowing is definitely off here. Which could be the fault of Garney or color artist Ive Scorcina. Throughout most of the issue, the colors really start to pop off of the page. Multiple tones are evoked here, from seriousness to lightheartedness. The colors are such a crucial point of focus for the story to be clear. Aside from some of the aggravating lack of polish for the artist, the pencils look astonishing.

 

Conclusion

Aaron and Garney deliver another solid chapter of Thor that does not hit previous heights of the series, but is still quite a solid entry in the full book. Witness one of the greatest Thor runs while it is still being published.