Who is the new Thor? (Thor #8)

Thor #8 finally reveals who our mysterious new Thor is. More on that later. So many people discussing this issue (really this whole series) have only focused on the mystery, but I also want to point out that Thor has been an excellent comic series. Jason Aaron continues to give us a fresh and creative look a Thor’s mythology each and every month.

Thor #8

Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Russel Dauterman
Cover by: Sean Chen
Colored by: Matthew Wilson
Lettered by: VC’s Joe Sabino

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Last issue, Odin and his brother Cul sent the Destroyer to recover Mjolnir from this new Thor once and for all. Freyma brought together several of the “potential Thor suspects” to stand with Thor in her battle. They are joined by the Odinson. In the end, Odin ends up deciding to call off the battle, seemingly inspired by Freyma’s determination to protect this new Thor.

After the fight, Odinson confronts Thor, insisting that she has to be SHIELD Agent Rosalind Solomon (mostly because she was the only suspect not at the fight). At that point, Rosalind shows up, proving Odinson wrong. Odinson flies off. In the end, the reader finds out that Thor is really Jane Foster who is hiding her identity because she’s afraid people will try to stop her since he is dying of cancer

I’ve seen a lot of people annoyed by the reveal. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on that, but it has to be discussed. Like I said, the mystery of Thor’s identity is basically all people seem to talk about when it comes to this comic. People who hate it, seem to all state three reasons:

1) Jane Foster was too obvious a choice/this was only done because of the movies.
2) The powers are killing her, which shows women are weak.
3) Jane was already ruled out as a suspect, so this reveal is unfair.

I really don’t agree with any of those complaints. Jane had cancer long before she was Thor. The power of Thor is not killing her, she was already dying. She’s not “weak” because she’s a woman; her body is weakened because of cancer. And she has been refusing mystical healing. I find this to be a great parallel to crippled Donald Blake from when he was Thor. And Odinson is not a detective. He ruled out June because of her cancer. Here the reader found of that was exactly WHY she was doing this.

But enough on that. I want to talk about why I enjoy this series so much. I have never really been too much into Thor. Jason Aaron writes a good comic, but I have always thought Thor’s history is a little too convoluted. I always felt like I was coming into the movie too late to enjoy it. But in many ways, this current version of Thor feels like “my Thor.” A version of the character that is far more accessible and more interesting to me as a reader. I am glad that this Thor will be around after Secret Wars (at least in All-New, All-Different Avengers). Like Miles Morales and Ms Marvel, I love that we have some newer versions of Marvel characters heading the Marvel universe moving forward.

I also liked that Destroyer came off an indestructible. There were a lot of heroes here, including Odinson, and they were barely able to slow the Destroyer down. Too often, Destroyer is supposed to be this bad ass character, but the heroes are always able to defeat him easily. I can’t help but thing of Thanos or Apocalypse. But in this issue, until Odin stopped Destroyer, the heroes seemed to be basically just holding even. I thought this was a great way to make the Destroyer a credible threat again.

I also loved the art here. Russell Dauterman was able to draw a variety of characters, keeping them all very distinctive. And even thought the cast was all women, he never made the reader feel like they were just there as scenery. Aaron and Dauterman made sure they never looked weak. I was reminded in many ways of Fearless Defenders, and I also thought this issue was the perfect predecessor for next week’s A-Force.

Honestly, I have really enjoyed this series and this issue was the perfect ending…for now! A great fight scene and a powerful reveal at the end. It is very easy to focus on just the mystery of the new Thor, but at the same time, you need to acknowledge that there is a very good comic here on top of the mystery.  Full of action and adventure, and just plain fun to read.  The new Thor series is definitely one of Marvel's best books!

I just hope that Jason Aaron will be bringing us more adventures of this new Thor after Secret Wars is over.