The Mighty Thor vol. 4: The War Thor

“War Thor?”  More like “Edgelord Thor” as he’s presented here.  This new Thor, brought into existence after a certain person picked up the Mjolnir of the Ultimate Universe, is all about anger, rage, blood raining from the skies, and vengeance to be visited upon the Queen of Cinders for the deaths she’s caused in the burgeoning War of the Realms.  This is a Thor that means business and he’s not about to let anyone stand in his way when he comes to bring justice to those who have committed awful crimes during wartime. Especially not the current Thor, Jane Foster, who’s dealing with some long-delayed personal drama of her own. You see, she’s finally let the Odinson know that she’s the new Thor and he’s taking it about as well as could be expected…

I’m only partially kidding about this “Edgelord Thor” business as his characterization is over-the-top in a way that’s more distracting than endearing when it comes to Jason Aaron’s writing.  However, his actions are just about barely justified by the fact that I can actually believe that this normally jolly character would be traumatized into acting the way he does as a result of what happens to him in the first issue.  In fact it’s honestly kind of touching to see how Thor deals with him after the initial round of fisticuffs is over. It almost makes up for how Ultimate Mjolnir is described as conjuring unmitigated rage in its user. You might think that it’s Aaron offering a kind of commentary on the Ultimate Universe, but there’s nothing in the storyline to back it up.  It’s just been reduced to a plot device here.

Rounding out the collection is the “Generations:  The Unworthy Thor & The Mighty Thor” one-shot, which has Young Thor teaming up with the current Thor to help some vikings take on Apocalypse and his clan in Egypt.  It’s a fun but largely inconsequential story that has Thor teaching Young Thor some lessons about worthiness and some really dynamic art from Mahmud Asrar. Backing up a bit, even if the main story is somewhat uneven and overdramatic, it’s still very nice to look at courtesy of Valerio Schiti’s art (with regular artist Russell Dauterman pitching in for a couple scenes).  If this isn’t the best lead in to Jane Foster’s “final” story as Thor, it at least doesn’t completely derail the series’ momentum.