The Good
I love it when a comic can offer a good mystery. In today's age, major plot points and directions for comics are often revealed in advance. With this new volume of THOR, we've seen that the Thor we all knew is no longer worthy of wielding Mjolnir. A "mysterious woman" somehow made her way to the moon where Mjolnir landed and upon touching it, came into possession of the power of Thor. And we have no idea who she is.
What makes this new Goddess interesting is her reaction to gaining the power and how her thoughts and speech are different. This is something that really fascinates me. While part of me would love to find out who she is right away, another part could see enjoying this mystery building up into something nice and spicy. Whoever she is, she does have some knowledge of Mjolnir and Asgardian ways but also seems a little more...human. It's such a conundrum as to where she could have come from. You'll be reading each line or thought she has carefully to try to pick up on any possible clues.
Russell Dauterman's art is simply amazing. Combined with Matthew Wilson's colors and Joe Sabino's fancy lettering. You always have to admire when Asgardian lettering is required and I the way the sound FX is being incorporated into the art is really cool.
This book is rising to the top of my reading list.
The Bad
It's understandable that the hardcore Thor fans wouldn't be happy with their favorite character being replaced by another. This is a common theme we're seeing with ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA and even SUPERIOR IRON MAN, to some extent. Readers have to try to let go a little sometimes and enjoy where the story takes us. Plus, it's not like Thor will be MIA in the book.
The only problem I had was the slight confusion when the Goddess (are we calling her Thor as well?) came upon the Frost Giant's lair and a group of heroes were frozen there. When did this happen? Did it really happen? We'll have to wait and see.
The Verdict
The more I see of this new THOR, the more I dig it. Jason Aaron did an amazing job on the previous THOR: GOD OF THUNDER series and is now taking it to a completely different place. We don't often get big mysteries in comics, especially concerning the lead character. I'm intrigued with who the "new" character could be, but part of me doesn't want to find out right away. Russell Dauterman's art and Matthew Wilson's colors give the book a great look. Even though there's a lot of blue from the Frost Giants, it all looks amazing. Once the battle begins, I was simply in awe. If you're a hardcore Thor fan, do yourself a favor and check this out. Thor will still be in the book and we all know big changes aren't forever in comics. I'm really loving this book, but with this amazing creative team, it should be much of a surprise.