Thor Ages of Thunder

Next week Thor Ages of Thunder, a done in one Thor special arrives by writer Matt Fraction, and artists Patrick Zircher and Khari Evans. Actually to be specific Thor Ages of Thunder is one story told in two parts with a follow up to the story continuing in Thor: Reign of Blood. Having said that, I'd still call Thor Ages of Thunder a really good self contained issue (I've read the preview copy sent to retailers and just wanted to give a heads up for those who don't normally read Thor, but like a good story, especially a good story in the fantasy genre).

Patrick Zircher draws the first half of Thor Ages of Thunder and certainly the pages and cover shown here will attest to his artistic prowess (part two of the story drawn by Khari Evans is nice and perfectly suited to his part of the story, but it can't help but fall short after following Zircher).

Thor Ages of Thunder, in a nutshell, is a two part story about two eras of Ragnaork (the Norse end of the Gods) which also involves the Enchantress. Thor is one of those characters like Dr. Strange and Wonder Woman who are hard to substain long series before readership dwindles and as I've mentioned before this is largely because of their huge power levels (thus making it hard to come up with situations or villains to put them up against) and because often their backgrounds are hard for readers to identify with and or have a frame of reference for. While I wish that there was a writer that could better involve Thor within the Marvel universe, I do think that writer JMS over on the new semi-regular Thor title (being that it doesn't ship monthly, but what does these days?) is doing a fantastic job of straddling the fine line between the mythology of the character and the "real" world setting that has sold even me, with my usual aversion to fantasy and mythology based stories. Matt Fraction, here in Thor Ages of Thunder, also does a bang up job with a story rooted in the fantasy genre which also works as a great introduction to the character of Thor that doesn't require the new reader to know a lot of backstory.