Prepares it’s not the dogs of war being let slip today after a cry of “Havoc!”, but Marvel let it slip today that Matt Fraction and Pascual Ferry will be taking over Thor come June, starting issue #611. And with this new run comes a new look for the thunder god, which you can behold below...
This new design seems to incorporate a little of Ultimate Thor’s shining-bright outfit with the current chain mail design. Considering that we’ve got a Thor movie coming out next year, I’ll say that this change (though seemingly slight) might be a portent of how the live action Thor will look. You’ll recall a while back that Marvel said they wanted to give a “scientific basis” to the Asgardians in the movie and the look from this promo would seem to reconcile that with the more grandly fantastical semi-Shakespearean pageantry. Marvel's rightly putting a lot of confidence in Fraction and Ferry, as the two will be leading Thor into a period where the eyes of mass audiences will be on the character.
Fraction, who’s done a couple Thor one-shots and minis recently, will be leading Thor out of the Siege and into the Heroic Age. And he lays down the questions facing the character thusly…
“What responsibilities does Thor have to deal with now that he's put Asgard on Midgard? What kind of a man-or god, as it were-could so willfully make a target of so many innocent people, again and again? Is he an Asgardian trapped inside a man-suit or a man trapped inside a god-suit?”
As you all know, I’m a big fan of the art of promotion, so I particularly appreciated how Fraction articulated his hype for this new run…
"Go big or go home [is my philosophy]. Really, seriously, go as big as you can, there's nothing so crazy that can't be done in THOR. If at least one scene from every issue can't be airbrushed onto the side of a van you're doing it wrong.”
YES! A thousand times YES! That is the barometer of any great comic, not just one starring Thor. Something is lacking if it can’t be airbrushed on the side of the van. Anyway, I’ve been a fan of Pasqual Ferry since his debut on HEROES FOR HIRE back in the day, so he’s got my thumbs up. Check out Marvel’s official announcement for more details of this new run…
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com .