who is the best Thor writer

1 - Walter Simonson

2 - J. Michael Straczynski

3 - Jason Aaron

I liked Robert Rodis

1 - Walter Simonson

2 - J. Michael Straczynski

3 - Dan Jurgens

While I haven't read most of Simonson's run I was actively reading comics while it was being published and the single issue epic battle between Thor and rhe Midgard Serpent remains one of my absolute favorites to this day. I have read all of JMS and it's incomplete but a great run and he had the integrity to leave when Marvel derailed his run with their stupid event. And right now slowly picking through the Jurgens run via the trades and really enjoying it, pretty epic in scope. So in all I'm in complete agreement.

The fact that Dan Jurgens or Stan Lee/Jack Kirby were not originally mentioned in this thread is blasphemy. Dan Jurgens' run on Thor blows away anything post 2004. JMS' run was very solid but unfinished, and Aaron's God Butcher saga was great but the quality started slowly dipping after. Lee/Kirby, Walt Simonson and Dan Jurgens are the best Thor scribes.

Nice... Walter Simonson is Thor best writer that's indisputable... I also didn't read all his work on Thor but (Surtur Saga + Jörmungandr + Beta Ray Bill + Balder the Brave + Skurge...) are something very special for Thor and Asgard...

His new idw Ragnarok book it's also pretty good...

I read last year all Jurgens run again and i loved it like the first time, and this is a great time to read again JMS run, because i stop with the Pr stunt book...

Thor has had a lot of great runs and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I am not that big a fan of the Lee/Kirby run though I only read the second half of it but I am not a fan of Kirby's art either. I like the way Walt could always have 2-3 storylines going at the same time and usually weave them together into a cohesive story. I also like Walt's style of art though sometimes it got a little too messy. Not a big fan of JMS' run either. I mean it was good but I felt like it moved a little slow and I hated the way Thor was drawn in it. His nose just was drawn so weirdly in that run. I like Jurgens run though it starts off kind of slow but and I don't like JRJR's art but it keeps gaining steam and the King Thor storyline is huge and great. Oeming deserves some mention for the rkt arc and blood oath. Gillen's run wasn't bad. Fraction I am still getting through so I'll reserve judgement on. Gorr was a nice arc though it was an awful lot like Desak but it was done well and had very distinctive art. I'll reserve judgement on Aaron for now till we see how he ends this current volume. I am still trying to get ahold of the Celestials Saga tpb's from the Roy Thomas days.

My mind always changes on this, but for right now its JMS. More focus on plot than action.

What JMS succeeded at was nailing the concept of Thor and Asgard as a race of gods with special powers and with a devotion to royalty. He also wrote much better dialogue than Jason Aaron. Where Aaron succeeded in 24 issues of God of Thunder was giving these characters compelling action and conflict befitting of their status. The problem with Aaron (and many Marvel scribes) is the inability to properly voice the character with appropriate dialogue. It's why so many characters in Marvel today all sound (or read) the same. Everyone has to have sarcastic, goofy humor because, hey, it works in the movies and people like it. JMS' Thor was much more decompressed and was definitely building to some kind of grand conclusion but Marvel told him that they wanted to use Asgard in an event, he objected and left the book. My personal opinion is a preference for character development that drives the plot, as opposed to the other way around, so I give the nod to JMS' because he understood the titular character better than anyone post-2007. However neither can top Dan Jurgens as a Thor scribe, whose run is criminally overlooked.

I'm in complete agreement with you on that point, and of course favorite runs are going to vary from person to person, I mean I've always enjoyed the "Quest For Odin" arc but that's most likely because it's when I first started reading comics and there's a bit of sentimentality attached to it. Since getting back into reading last year I've picked up quite a few trades and three volumes of the Essential Thor series (3, 5 and 6) so I've gotten a good variety of writers from different periods (though I'm really shying away from the post-Simonson / Thunderstike / mid-late 90s stuff). Good luck with the (I assume you meant) Eternals Saga trades, snagged both at something of a "discount" recently but still rather pricey.

@antithetical:

I would definitely suggest the "Eternals" saga from Roy Thomas. Quite a swan song from him before he left Marvel. You want to talk about epic storytelling for Thor? This is it. It certainly helps when your artists for the story are John Buscema and Keith Pollard. I have the original issues and the story was quite a cosmic/fantasy opera.

@master-danny:

Walt Simonson among those you mentioned.

I'd like to add Roy Thomas, Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio to my list as well.

I found the entire Eternals (AKA "Celestial") saga mind-blowing.

Gerry Conway wasn't too shabby either. As a whole, especially from the 60's to the 80's, Thor has had some steady creative work.