The Mighty Thor vol. 5: The Death of the Mighty Thor

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect going into this volume.  You see, whenever a series does a big “Death of [Insert Character Here]” arc, there’s usually a pretty good chance that we’re talking about death in a metaphorical sense.  The character won’t actually die, but instead come through the storyline with a significant change to their status quo. So even though this storyline promised the death of Jane Foster, I was fairly certain she’d come out of it all right in the end.

Then the solicitations for issues after this storyline started rolling out.  There was a new “Thor” series featuring the Odinson, which was to be expected, but no mention of Jane.  In fact, there wasn’t any mention of her at all in any of the solicitations that I read. Toss in the fact that the follow-up special to this storyline was called “At the Gates of Valhalla” and Marvel actually had me thinking that maybe “The Death of the Mighty Thor” would send Jane off to that great Norse paradise after all.

Is that what happened here?  If this volume and the storyline it chronicles throughout its length has any real flaw to it, it’s that it lacks any of the uncertainty I felt towards it going in.  “The Death of the Mighty Thor” is a very straightforward tale that knows what it wants to do and strives towards that end with all the confidence and momentum of a steamroller.  Those qualities, and the sheer spectacle delivered along the way help to make it entertaining, even if its predictability holds the story back from being a truly worthy finish to this particular era of “Thor.”

We do get a lot of unpredictability at the start of the volume, which kicks off with the oversized anniversary “Thor #700.”  Though it, and the volume as a whole, is written entirely by Jason Aaron it features a whole host of artistic contributions from lots of fantastic artists.  This includes regular artist Russell Dauterman continuing the ongoing buildup to the “War of the Realms” as the Odinson fights to hold of Malekith’s forces from wiping out the Norn Queen and her followers.  Dauterman’s pages are as fantastic as you’d expect, but it’s just as fun to see James Harren set up the return of the War Thor, Daniel Acuna illustrate a throwdown between Thor and *sigh* new Hulk Jennifer Walters, Becky Cloonan give us a rundown of Thor’s rebellious teen years, Andrew MacLean show us some father/son bonding between Loki and Laufrey, Jill Thompson reintroduce the Frog of Thunder, and Das Pastoras and Chris Burnahm give us a look at Old King Thor’s future.  Future and past “Thor” artists Mike Del Mundo and Oliver Coipel also show up to give us a look at what the bad guys are up to as well. It’s a big, glorious, messy celebration of all things “Thor” and it’s really hard not to enjoy. Even though I still really don’t like what they’ve done to Jennifer Walters and roll my eyes at the thought of seeing the War Thor again.

At least, that was my feeling about the Thor who is Volstagg wielding Ultimate Thor’s hammer before I read the following issue which was fully illustrated by Harren.  The short version is that the War Thor winds up being the sacrificial lamb to show us the threat of the Mangog who was unleashed following the Asgard/Shi’Ar War back in vol. 3.  While I wasn’t familiar with this Jack Kirby-created monster prior to him showing up here, we’re filled in on a version of his metal backstory and why he’s out to destroy gods. Harren’s kick-ass artwork does the rest.

From his time on “B.P.R.D.” to “Rumble” it’s been clear that the artist specializes in two things:  Drawing monsters and drawing monsters fighting humans. What he shows in this issue is that he can scale up his fights from human-sized affairs to cosmic god-punching brawls.  Seeing the beatdown the Mangog put on the War Thor actually made me feel sorry for him, even as it established the former as a genuine threat to all of Asgardia.

That threat is stunningly realized by Dauterman in the issues that follow.  When I mentioned that this storyline had spectacle, it’s mainly because of how dramatically the artist is able to render the carnage wrought by the Mangog.  While Asgardia itself gets a good thrashing, we also see the Mangog bite off the head of the Destroyer armor, take on (and eventually beat) Odin and his son at the same time, and fly back for another round after being thrown into the Sun by Thor.  It’s an epic battle by any standard, worthy of Jane’s last stand.

If only the human drama was on the same level.  Jane gets two good scenes, one early on and one towards the end, where she goes and gives Odin a piece of her mind.  They were both unexpected and spoke to the character’s inner strength. The problem with her storyline here is that the big drawback of her transformations into Thor, how it flushes out the chemotherapy treatments for her cancer, is meant to provide the real drama here.  By that I mean we’ve finally reached the point in the story where if Jane changes into Thor ONE MORE TIME then the cancer will win and that’ll be the end of her.

Prior to this we’ve had six volumes showing us what a Big Damn Hero Jane is, constantly putting the needs of others above her own.  Expecting us to believe for a moment that she’s not going to pick up the hammer to stop the Mangog and save the surviving Asgardians is a fool’s errand.  Then there’s the matter of what happens to her after the fight, and… For all of the over-the-top swagger that Aaron imbues the final issue with it does feel like something of a cop-out.  It draws line under this particular era of “Thor” with not much finality and much less tragedy than the story itself promised in the anniversary issue.

It’s not the end of the volume, however.  That’s saved for “At the Gates of Valhalla” which doesn’t actually involve the Norse afterlife paradise at all.  The issue is split into two halves, illustrated by Jen Bartel and Ramon Perez. Bartel gives us a fun romp as Old King Thor’s granddaughters travel through time to investigate the legacy of Jane Foster and get a bit more than they bargained for.  It’s good fluff and I would’ve preferred it as a closer to this volume even though I understand why it was the first story in the issue.

That’s because the second story is about how Everything’s Coming Up Malekith!  That’s right, it’s half an issue about how the plans of my least favorite Dark Elf’s are all proceeding as expected to set up the War of the Realms.  It’s hard to take any pleasure in this because we haven’t seen him struggle with his plans ever since he showed up in the series. That trend continues here, unless you count the couple of panels where he gets some backtalk from Kurse.  Which I don’t. I do like Perez’s art here as he gives the proceedings a sinister edge. It’s still not enough to make me enjoy seeing Malekith’s smug elf face here again.

“The Death of the Mighty Thor” is a story that does deliver a spectacle worthy of the title.  That’s mainly thanks to the tremendous artistic efforts of Dauterman and Harren. It only struggles when it tries to convey some real human drama during its course as the central storyline is quite predictable.  If it sounds like I was hoping for more from this storyline, it’s because Aaron and Dauterman have shown me in the past that they’re capable of delivering better. This time around only the artist(s) wound up delivering just that.