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.

I thought John Romita Jr. was doing art? 
 
Either way Pasqual Ferry is waaay better than Jr... 
I love how (if you take a good look) Ferry rarely uses straight lines!

His art style litearly flows because of that! 
 
I love it! 
Best Comic Book-related news today!

  The neon light effect on the costume looks very Tron. Cool :]    

"

I thought John Romita Jr. was doing art? 
 
Either way Pasqual Ferry is waaay better than Jr... 
I love how (if you take a good look) Ferry rarely uses straight lines!

His art style litearly flows because of that! 
 
I love it! 
Best Comic Book-related news today!

"

Not bad, can't say im to taken with the shiney shiney costume but i might warm to it

Is that Asgard behind him? I thought it was going to crash into Oklahoma during Siege.

Yeah, I can see why they would trust Fraction with this, seeing all the great things he's done with Uncanny. At first, I thought it was just coincidence that Fraction and Bendis were sapping all my interest in the Marvel U. Now I'm getting the distinct impression that they just do not want me to read any of their books coming into the "Heroic Age". Fraction is easily one of the weakest writers on Marvel's roster. Why give him a project like this? His work on Thor so far has been bearable at best. It's pretty clear he will have people acting wildly out of character by issue 3 of his run on this book. "Go big or go home"? Please, please, please, let it be the latter. I loved Stracyznski's run on Thor, and to see this book being handed over to the man who made me quit reading Uncanny for the first time in 15 years is incredibly sad. Fraction, you are a substantially worse writer than Chuck Austen, please GTFO of Marvel and never return.

Definitely looks good enough to check out!

looks like the new Iron Man suit!

This is poster material... though I'm not really sure i like the "light-up" feature... that would look better on an Iron Man design. 
 
oh, and Im sOOOOO glad they changed his appearance, this armor/costume (whatever you want to call it) looks a helluva lot better than his blue jeans and sleeveless shirt!!!

"Is that Asgard behind him? I thought it was going to crash into Oklahoma during Siege. "

" @Korg: Have you read Fraction's Iron Man?"

" he's not "easily one of the weakest writers on Marvel's roster." "

I think Matt Fraction is an excellent writer when it comes down to writing single character titles(like Invincible iron Man), but when it comes to team books..his writing goes down a level, but I still think he's a good writer though :D , and I bet he'll do a good when writing Thor!, as for  Pascual Ferry, I think he;ll do an awesome job on the art!!!! oh now I'm getting excited for this to come out!!!! can't wait to pick this up!!! June is just around the corner !!!! :P Let's bring on the thunder!!!!!!!!

" @Korg:  Highly disagree with you on that one. Austen was terrible! "

" I know a lot of people bitch about his uncanny run, but I enjoy it also."

I thought it was originally going to be Fraction and JR.JR.

What is with his hand? oh an JR.Jr is brutal.

I will only be happy if this means that Fraction stops writing team books...

" @Kid_Zombie said:

" @Korg:  Highly disagree with you on that one. Austen was terrible! "

Fraction is worse.
 
@Kid_Zombie said:

" I know a lot of people bitch about his uncanny run, but I enjoy it also."

This explains a lot. "

I like the glowing. It's a rip off of Grant Morrison's New Gods designs, but I like it. In fact, that's probably why I like it. :P

"Read his Iron Man"

" If you don't like it..don't read it."

"You do not know that you dislike it, because you have not read it"

"you make an assumption"

"He co-wrote Iron Fist (with Brubaker providing the outlines) which was one of the best non cosmic books in 5 years."

"Carey's work on X-men is mediocre at best. "

"Writers are never uniformly awful nor uniformly awesome. "

"There is no intrinsic paradox in what i have said."  

" If you read an issue and then say it's crap."

" denouncing a writer before he even starts is pathetic."

"You're hardly being productive yourself. "

Cant call it. Fraction is great and award winning on Iron Man.
He's terrible with X-Men. I personally equate that with a writer being 
good or bad depending on whether he's in his element or not. 
take Frank Miller for example. Good stuff, but he either stuck to his element 
or got to turn whatever he was writing into his element. Ennis is another example.
So is Loeb. Problem comes when the book just doesnt fit their writing style and
vie-versa. Case in point, Fraction doesnt fit X-Men. His style just doesnt incorporate to it.
But whereas it does to Iron Man. Unfortunately Thors element is different from both, vastly,
and im not sure how he'll mix with it. I know for one though im not a big fan of any company
stretching out their talent too thin. I always see bad results with this in the person rushing
and at least one project gets neglected.

" @lostlantern13 said: 

" @Korg: Have you read Fraction's Iron Man?"

" @Deadeyeduck said:

"You do not know that you dislike it, because you have not read it"

I have the first issue right here, and it's sh!t. He has Salvador Larroca on art, and it is still not enough to distract from his sub-par writing.
 
So now you have read it, when before you had not.  
@Deadeyeduck said:

"you make an assumption"

Wrong.
saying that his writing on a team book is indicative of his writing on a solo book is an assumption.
@Deadeyeduck said:

"He co-wrote Iron Fist (with Brubaker providing the outlines) which was one of the best non cosmic books in 5 years."

A matter of opinion. 
An informed matter of opinion. I've read most of what Marvel has put out over the past 5 years.   

@Deadeyeduck said:

"Carey's work on X-men is mediocre at best. "

Another matter of opinion; one with which I happen to disagree. 
 If you've actually read his work, then again, fair enough.
@Deadeyeduck said:

"Writers are never uniformly awful nor uniformly awesome. "

Another opinion I disagree with. 
Thats a very narrow point of view, but it is your own.
 
@Deadeyeduck said:

"There is no intrinsic paradox in what i have said."  

Yes there is, because I've read some of his Iron Man, and you made the spurious assumption that I hadn't.  
  
I would remind you of 

@Korg said: 

" @lostlantern13 said: 

" @Korg: Have you read Fraction's Iron Man?"

Why would I? Everything I've read by Fraction has been terrible, and Iron Man isn't even a character I particularly care about. 
   
@Deadeyeduck said:

" If you read an issue and then say it's crap."

Done and done.  
 
An informed opinion, thats fair enough.
 
@Deadeyeduck said:

" denouncing a writer before he even starts is pathetic."

Good thing I never did that. 
  
Er, yes you did. Fraction hasn't even started his Thor run and your already saying how awful it will be 

@Deadeyeduck said:

"You're hardly being productive yourself. "

Never said I was. Your opinions and tastes to not align with my own, and you have already made several assumptions which have proven incorrect. You have also tried to correct and deride my own opinions. Telling me to read something I already know I will not enjoy is incredibly asinine. Please restrain yourself from giving unsolicited advice to me in the future. TIA "

" Fraction hasn't even started his Thor run and your already saying how awful it will be  "

"Its not a matter of taste or opinion, its a matter of actually knowing what you are talking about.  "

" Please restrain yourself from giving unsolicited advice to me in the future."  

" I will only be happy if this means that Fraction stops writing team books... "