excluding Jason Aaron's run because i already own that. What is the "Allstar Superman" of Thor?

@sog7dc: He doesn't have a single story like that but he has some incredible runs. J Michael Stracynzkis run along with the first 3 issues of Keiron Gillens is a good 20 issue epic story about Thor and how he comes back from the dead and revives Asgard and all the gods. It was a way of grounding Thor and making him more relatable without making him different I highly reccomend it its easily the 2nd best Thor run. Also Walter Simonsons Thor run and Dan Jurgens (he didnt draw he just wrote) Thor run are both very good although alot lengthier with Walt. Simonsons being around 50 issues and Jurgens run being close to 90 issues.

The best story of Thor was the first half of Simonson's run. It was one giant story that led up to Surtur. It wasn't the prettiest art-wise compared to today, and it was incredibly wordy, but it is definitely the greatest story imo. All of Smonson's run is fantastic though, just be warned that it is from the 80s, it's wordy, and it's a big omnibus. I wouldn't say it's the most enjoyable run as a contemporary reader, but it is the most epic by far.

godbomb nuff saId although sImonsons was amazIng Its too wordy

@sog7dc: Jason Aaron's run on Thor god of thunder The God butcher and God bomb or as this will be known as the saga of the god butcher

@sagejonathan: is that story the one where Thor finds out that Gaia is his birth mouther ?

Read JMS Thor run. That is the best Thor run for me alongside Simonson's classical epic.

It's tough because Thor has his key writers or runs like every other superhero, but I still don't think he has like a transcendent high level story. Jason Aaron's current stuff might be that definitive take on the character but we'll have to wait and see. Simonson's run is good but the art is kind of meh even for the time. JMS' is good but I prefer Thor as a cosmic character. He was too rooted on Earth with Asgard floating over Oklahoma and the whole Donald Blake thing which I really don't like. I haven't finished reading much of Jurgen's run yet.

But if I had to pick one self contained definitive Thor story, it'd be Thor: The Mighty Avenger. It's doesnt do what a Dark Knight Returns, All Star Superman or Kraven's Hunt did for their characters. But like I said, sadly Thor has no such story. But The Mighty Avenger is a fun lighthearted exploration of Thor and his early encounters with Midgard. It's sure to please. And Chris Samnee's art is just exquisite.

@z3ro180: No.

@extremis: Rooting Thor in Oklohama was the best thing that could happen to him IMO. It allowed JMS to humanise his character and take a deep look into what makes Thor tick along with finding his new place in the world juxtaposed with bringing back the old Asgard and its gods. There was plenty of action and mythological stuff in JMS' run too from the Destroyer to Loki's time travelling escapades to Borr and all that. It had the perfect mix and was my introduction to Thor and properly following Marvel Comics.

I really liked the Godbomb story arc..but I have a lot of favorites

I wasn't much into Thor until his movie came out (I admit it!) and I didn't start picking up his comics until God Thunder.

But man. The Gorr / Godbomb arc...was utterly amazing. It was such a good story, had great real life interpretations and had great art.

And I mean...how COOL is Gorr? Anyone with the title "God Butcher" automatically gets inducted in the Badass Hall of Fame.

There are many it's hard to single out any one particular story. I would say it depends on what type of story you like!

people keep suggesting the god butcher saga and i have already read that lol isaid it in the OP

JMS first 12 or so issues are amazing - a slow build though. Sadly, like pretty much everything JMS related he walks away leaving his story unfinished and the dangling threads werent tied up particularly well IMO.

This is the worst thing that could have happened to Thor, IMO. While I liked the run by JMS, I felt putting Asgard on Oklahoma showed Thor's blunder by putting Asgardians at risk in a hostile environment at the time (the whole Civil War garbage). Ultimately, it led to the disastrous Siege which just gave Bendis free reign to destroy Asgard. The subsequent run by Fraction greatly reduced the character to a brutish nincompoop who rarely was the lead character in his own title. Plus, thanks to having Thor "die" again in another idiotic event (Fear Itself) that really didn't lead to anything, this reduced Thor's standing even further. Asgard is now "Asgardia" and acts as a congress of the Nine Realms in the middle of Oklahoma. Ridiculous. There is such rich history and potential with Thor and Asgard as a whole that constantly placing them in Earthbound stories greatly limits the type of story to be told, IMO.

I hate this notion of "humanizing" a cosmic character or godly figure like Thor. No matter how often he hangs out in a bar in NY to drink beer or have human girlfriends, he's still a god from a race of deities from another dimension who will outlive every one of his human companions. He is also the son of the Earth Goddess Gaea, so perhaps his connection to planet Earth rivals humanity's. This is why Jason Aaron's run is vastly superior to anything since Dan Jurgens at least. He understands the character and recognizes that Thor's greatest adventures and stories have been rooted in the fantastical and larger-than-life elements of the character. It makes a story like issue 12 of GoT all the more touching as a standalone story, sandwiched in between two arcs that travel through worlds and time periods.

@lvenger: I disagree. Thor had plenty of humanity without plopping Asgard over Oklahoma. You can have the earth parts paired with his other responsibilities on Asgard without having Asgard floating there like that.

It might seem like a minor gripe, and maybe so, but we lose the cosmic feel to the book that I expect from a Thor title. It's supposed to be epic and expansive. It felt like the vastness of Thor's world that was so ever present before that had been summed up to one point of a US map.

JMS harps on this "finding humanity" thing with Thor when he doesn't have to. Thor had plenty of humanity without shoehorning in this close to home stuff. He's a god. Let him be who he is.

Idk to each their own I guess. But JMS' Thor just doesn't feel right.

I dont think you can blame JMS for that - at the time he had a strict "no crossovers" policy and wanted very much to deal with THor ass his own cotner of the MU. When Marvel began to make other demands he walked.

Thats one thing that was so great about JMS' Thor though IMO - he truly was noble and sympathetic. So many other iterations of the character come across as arrogant, unlikable and, more recently as you say, brutish.

Agreed on this. What was the point of having Thor die for about 3 issues so soon after a reasonably prolonged comic book death?

I can understand some of the reasoning though. Surfer is a character who has struggled, if not failed, to keep an audience largely because of his supporting cast/environment. Many would argue its a lack of connection to Earth (hence the way he was "grounded" in Fraction's run) but I think its more to do with the fact that so many old Surfer stories have him standing around in space talking to weird giant people. So I dont think sgard is the problem so much but i can see where Marvel was coming from at least.

One of the few things I really disagreed with from JMS was bringing back the Don Blake thing - when other heroes are shedding their secret identities it made Thor feel like a dated, derivtive character. But I though his actual characterisation was spot on.

And I think modern fans have a lot more to thank him for - it was JMS who finally had Thor speak English properly and he came up with a great alternative to Thor's pretty ordinary original costume design. But to each their own as you say.

@fifthchild: I didn't say the guy could do no good, regardless it still leaves those glaring issues which I've already mentioned.

And wouldn't the costume design be by Olivier Coipel or another artist at Marvel at the time? Don't see how JMS was involved with that as he's not an artist.

It allowed him to connect with his adopted world even more and put him back on the centre stage of the Marvel universe. What's wrong with that? It changed the status quo in a big way and brought back Asgard in a novel introduction to the MU. I loved what JMS did there

True but we gained a great deal of character exploration and humanising issues about Thor's place in the world. Those stories>cosmic epic stories that Fraction tried to do but failed on the characterisation. Seeing things on the smaller scale can be just as big as the grand stage.

It allowed him to reintroduce Thor to old and new fans, which I was a new one in a brilliantly engrossing way. It combined Thor's homeworld and adopted world into two similar issues and gave us the literal integration of gods on Earth. I found these stories to be more entertaining than the Thor is a god stuff. And if you look at God of Thunder 12, that shows exactly why humanising Thor stories are needed. For me, JMS' Thor run is one of the best runs Marvel has done on Thor and is my personal favourite.

I disagree about the first few lines. The Asgardians were big fish in a small pond so that was bound to bring about a host of problems and concerns about Asgard being on Earth. It did lead to Siege and Fraction's run was horrific but I don't see these things as being JMS' fault. None of these things were brought about by him. Other writers messed up Thor's rich history and the groundwork JMS laid so putting that blame on JMS is very unfair IMO.

Humanising Thor shows why he cares so much for humanity and how humanity has made him a better god rather than the god making humanity better. The reverse dichotomy was a brilliant theme played up by Aaron and JMS. Aaron's run is really good BUT in terms of understanding Thor as a character, he has a way to go before he matches JMS or Thomas or other writers characterisation. Aaron has a very poor track record of writing as well and focusing too much on the fantastical cosmic stuff can backfire on making you care for the characters. You can write the epic, most cosmic story but if you don't care for the characters, you can't enjoy the story. And JMS made me absolutely care about Thor. If it weren't for his run, I wouldn't be a Thor fan at all and for me, his run means a lot in explaining Thor's character.

@lvenger:

It allowed him to connect with his adopted world even more and put him back on the centre stage of the Marvel universe. What's wrong with that?

Nothing's wrong with it from an objective standpoint other than it wasn't necessary IMO. He was back at center stage again regardless as he's a pillar character in the Marvel U making his return. His return could have been better.

True but we gained a great deal of character exploration and humanising issues about Thor's place in the world. Those stories>cosmic epic stories that Fraction tried to do but failed on the characterisation. Seeing things on the smaller scale can be just as big as the grand stage.

I'm not talking about Fraction specifically, but since you bring it up I've never read his run anyway. And yes, smaller scale can be good. It can't always be hammer THOOMing action all the time. Even story arcs themselves are comprised of small scale and large scale plots and subplots. But in general the Thor mythology itself should feel expansive and epic and JMS' Thor didn't have that feel for me.

And if you look at God of Thunder 12, that shows exactly why humanising Thor stories are needed.

I never said finding Thor's humanity, or any character's for that matter, wasn't a good idea. Quite the contrary, I love those slow issues where we really connect with Thor as a person. It seems you missed my point because I like those things, Thor 12 was arguably my favorite issue thus far. What I meant about JMS finding Thor's humanity is that it seemed like he felt like he had to root everything in an earthly manner for the reader to connect and it just wasn't necessary. Thor has endured as a superhero for years and has always been relatable as a character without having to shoehorn that stuff in. Those things I've mentioned were just overkill and took away from the strengths of the character.

He was kinda dead at the time. His return to life made for an excellent start in a new status quo which for me is what JMS delivered

Nor have I as it displeased me greatly. For me though, the mythology still felt expansive and epic what with seeing Asgard on Earth for the first time, Thor bringing all the gods back in a massive burst of lightning, Thor meeting Surtur and Odin in the Odinsleep, Thor vs Bor and more. JMS' run still kept a feel of the epicness of Thor's world whilst bringing something new

I wasn't suggesting that at all. But I always thought that Thor mixing his Midgard and Asgardian mythology was a great way to bring in the links between his joint worlds. It might have seemed like it was dragging at times but I thought the pacing was maintained well.

Michael Avon Oeming Thor run. I am always surprised this is not mentioned more. Most of it was Thor without his hammer which I think was great to see. Plus the return and inclusion of many cool characters. I wish Oeming got to write more Thor. His Ares series was great as well, and he loves mythology and usually writes a few non Marvel mythology books too. He would be perfect writer to have Thor interacting with gods from other Earthly pantheons and helping the character grow as a franchise. So many gods of strength, speed, war, fighting, love, fire, death, etc to fight, team with etc

Simonson Thor run, JMS Thor run. Don't feel I have to really explain why. Both runs are considered the best Thor runs traditionally and up there in general as far as good comic runs ever. I'd add Gillen to the end of that, since I think he did the best he could of the situation he was put in. I'd love to see what the writer could have done not being sandwiched between two runs and bridging the story from one writer to another.

Thor The Mighty Avenger. Am glad someone else already mentioned it. Very quaint and fun book.

Finally, even though I didn't like his Thor run (I really really didn't like it) Fractions one shots of Thor, Ages of Thunder, Reign of Blood and Man of War I did like.

My favorite Thor story is what has come to be called "The Eternal Saga" though I think it would be more accurately called "The Celestials Saga."

Both Simonson and Robert Rodi's runs