| Title | : | Thor: God of Thunder, Vol. 1: The God Butcher |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0785168427 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785168423 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 136 |
| Publication | : | First published November 14, 2012 |
COLLECTING: Thor: God of Thunder 1-5
Thor: God of Thunder, Vol. 1: The God Butcher Reviews
-
Come back, Jason Aaron, all is forgiven!
Okay, your crappy run on the Hulk is almost forgiven.
Ooo Wee! It’s a Thor book that’s more than just a volume only a momma can love.
There’s a God Butcher out there and he’s, um, butchering gods and talking a lot of smack as well.
God of War. Dead.
Goddess of Erotica. Dead. *sob*
God of Non-linear Equations. Very Dead.
It seems that Thor has run into this butcher in his past, present and future.
In the past, Thor hangs out with his Viking homies – pillagin’, lootin’, fightin’, drinkin’ (mead), wenchin’ and singin’ songs of the glories of Spam.
In the present, Thor answers a cry from a now godless alien planet for rain and discovers a bunch of dead gods.
In the future, old man Thor is all by his lonesome (the Warriors Three aren’t around to change Odinson’s diapers) because everyone else has been, in a word, butchered.
Bottom line: Jason Aaron offers up a well-blended tale here, equal measures of humor, mythos, horror and action. Thor’s cosmic stories usually suffer from remoteness, but Aaron does a great job lessoning the reader/character gap. Esad Ribic’s artwork is definitely on scale with Aaron’s writing.
What the Frigga? How’s Thor going to get out of this jam?
And yes, Stepheny, he does resemble Voldemort. *sigh* -
I have been wanting to try and read comics for a long time, but the comic world (and all the companies, their universes, and the numerous story lines for the same characters) is so complex and overwhelming that I have just never started.
Some of my friends at work have been trying to get me on board for a long time now, and they finally decided to just shove a physical copy in my hands...they know I love Thor, so they decided to start with this one...not sure why.
Anyway, I...finished it. And I must say I'm not really sure what's going on.
I knew I would be lost, but this jumped around time frames on top of that, so I have no idea.
Anyway, I'm not going to rate this for that reason. Being that this is my first one, I don't think I even KNOW how to go about rating it, so I am going to hold of until I can figure out what I like, etc.
That said, I am going to try more comics in the future, but I think I am going to go back and start somewhere else for the Marvel Universe. -
The Ultimate Thor Story
Thor is a superhero, of course, a member of the Avengers. He is also more than a superhero, though: He is a god. For starters, he has lived much longer than any other superhero: “There are thousands of years worth of memories rattling around inside my head.” As a result, his priorities and values and attitudes and language differ from those of, say, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Thor has a completely different perspective on life: “For a god, the lives of mortals seem to pass by in the blink of an eye.” He thinks in cosmic terms, and a good Thor story must be large enough in scope to allow him to do that.
Thankfully, The God Butcher provides all the scope and grandeur Thor could possibly hope for, and then some. It spans millennia, features Thor at three different stages of his long life, and pits all three incarnations against a villain who is almost as old as Thor himself and has brutally tortured and butchered all the gods of the universe, until only Thor is left alive. The God Butcher perceives himself as the “good guy,” though, as a proponent of the Enlightenment destined “to liberate [humanity] from the yoke of divine servitude!”
In this context, the inevitable, spectacularly realized showdown between the God Butcher and Thor becomes a larger-than-life battle between a seemingly unstoppable Enlightenment movement and the last god standing, a meditation on the gradual decline of religion in the western world. This decline of religion manifests itself in the three incarnations of Thor: a youthful, cocky, overconfident, brash, boastful, vain, and slightly dim-witted Thor who takes worship for granted during the Middle Ages, at a time when religion ruled supreme; a more enlightened, moderate, even doubtful Thor in the present; and a lonely, weary, disillusioned, paranoid, desperate Thor in the future. And it makes perfect sense, because any benevolent god would have to be devastated by human beings who come to view the divine sphere as an instrument of oppression that needs to be abolished.
In summary, Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic may have created nothing less than the ultimate Thor story. I have never read Walt Simonson's highly regarded run from the 1980s and hope to get around to it one of these days, but at this point I find it hard to imagine a story that suits the character better than this one. -
The Gods of Indigarr are dead and all signs point to Gorr, the God-Butcher, a being Thor knows all too well. Can the Thunder god defeat the God-Butcher once and for all?
Most of the Thor comics I've read over the years were pretty forgettable unless Walter Simonson was involved. The God Butcher was an eye-catching title so I decided to give this a shot and I'm very glad I did.
The God Butcher tells the tale of Gorr, the Butcher of Gods, and his conflicts with Thor over the years. Aaron weaves a tale in three timelines. One of a young Thor in the age of the Vikings, before he earned the right to wield Mjolnir, one of present-day Thor, and one of old King Thor, a one-eyed, one-armed god, the last god of Asgard. Pretty cool, huh?
The God Butcher is essentially a murder mystery with Thor piecing together the God Butcher's motives and whereabouts. Gorr, for all intents and purposes, is a serial killer gods. Aside from his great power, the scariest thing about him is that he thinks his cause is just. The way Aaron weaves the three Thor tales together is pretty skillful and present-day Thor joining forces with old Thor to save what was left of Asgard was bad ass.
That's about all I have to say. The only mark against this volume would be that it doesn't tell the full story but I'll be glad to read the second volume. Thor is one of those characters that's so powerful it's hard for me to care about his exploits. Jason Aaron has made me care. Four out of five stars. -
I've had a contentious relationship with Marvel and DC superheroes, but despite the massive amounts of money attached to these 'properties' and 'franchises', superhero comics are still being made that don't feel like spineless, compromised, manipulative piles of shit. This isn't news to plenty of comics fans who have learned to spot the gems amongst the offal, but I dismissed them all as being not worth the effort -- especially given the still growing percentage of alternative and underground books demanding attention. I don't mind admitting I'm wrong now and then. The problems still exist, since they're mostly systemic, and the Big Two don't like to risk facing the ire of fans with changes. Making the solicitation date deadline is still more important than getting the art right, and there still doesn't seem to be much concern with creating stories that new readers can pick up and enjoy. The 'event comics' I like bitching about are one of the primary culprits for the latter, tying up every monthly mid-narrative arc in a transparent gambit to force a few more titles onto reader's pull-lists. But thanks to some fine GR reviewers whose opinions I respect and trust, finding the 'worthy' books is easier than I anticipated..
'Thor -- God of Thunder: The God Butcher' is the ideal example -- a monthly book, featuring one of the biggest stars in the Marvel constellation; but surprisingly -- to me at least -- Jason Aaron has still found plenty of interesting ways to abuse The God of Thunder without provoking the wrath of the Uber-God With Mouse-Ears that rules them all.
Aaron splits the story into three narrative timelines presented simultaneously: a neat device, and one that's easy to fuck up. But Aaron's been one of the big names in mainstream comics for years now with good reason. He knows what he's doing, and resists the impulse to keep adding plot elements certain to turn the whole thing into one of those convoluted messes everyone loves so much.
It's pretty simple: something has been not-so quietly slaughtering gods for thousands of years, without any multiversal alarms or warnings being triggered. A young Thor, minus Mjolnir, ignores a fairly obvious clue in the form of a Native American deity's head, floating close to one of the Viking shores of Midgard. He soon finds out that prayers are going unanswered across the cosmos, and his investigation leads him first to the butchered corpses of the missing and dead immortals -- apparently not an oxy-moron -- and then to a climactic confrontation and a mistake with tragic consequences.
This plays out as the older, slightly wiser, present-day Thor deals with the ramifications of his youthful pride, as gods continue to fall. In a truly apocalyptic future, meanwhile, the one-armed, sword-wielding, grey-bearded Thor ruling a desolate Asgard faces Ragnarok alone. Aaron manages the narrative jumps with skill, and it never feels pretentious or disruptive, as it so easily could. The fact that the Norse pantheon is unique for having a paradoxical, confusing sort of expiry-date woven into their DNA gives the story an added depth; the 'Twilight of the Gods', aka Ragnorak, is the final climactic battle that Thor and Odin and Freya look forward to fondly, though they are well aware it will mean their destruction. Aaron's take on the idea is pretty clever, but he never bangs the reader over the head with it.
The other reason for the story's success is Esad Ribic. While I've admired the cool tones and clean European style of his painted covers, I hadn't seen much of his interior art; as I suspected, it's beautiful stuff; it's a fusion of the sharp delineations of Georges Bess, Goran Sudzuka, and the gone-but-not-forgotten Edvin Biukovic, with more than a little of Frank Frazetta's profiles and cross-hatching.
The only minor criticism I can make... well, not a criticism, I guess. I wish I could see some painted interiors by Ribic, like Ariel Olivetti's beautiful work on Conan (the two artists are lumped together in my foggy memory, as they've long been two of Marvel's best cover artists). The first time I encountered 'finished pencils' as they're now often done was the Marvel series '1602' -- written by Neil Gaiman, who no doubt had an influence on Aaron's storytelling on Thor -- with art by Andy Kubert... and I fucking hated it. I don't love his art fully inked, but the process of adding computer colors to fully rendered pencils did not impress me. That has changed, as artists like J.H. Williams III and Lee Bermejo have used the method to great effect, and turned grey-wash inks into pages indistinguishable from fully-painted art. Ribic's pencilling looks great, but I would have preferred this story to be done as a mini-series, giving him more time to add inks (or paint), and detail to some of the spectacular alien vistas.
This is a very entertaining read (thanks to Jan for the recommendation), and I'm looking forward to reading more of Aaron's super-hero story-telling. I've seen negative reviews for some of his titles, but given the mad word-count this writer's cranking out, that's to be expected, unfortunately. Certain people thrive under the whip, using deadlines and page-rates to push them; but not many. I think the monthly comic isn't really necessary anymore, with TPB's and hardcovers selling as well as they are, but that idea might seem like treason to some fans, I'm sure.
More Art-book Reviews
More Comic-book Reviews
More Novel Reviews -
Tade Thompson (of Rosewater fame) told me this was one of the best stories in comics and he was absolutely right. Consider me stunned.
Be warned, however, this is part one of two (I think, though there's 18 issues in this authors' run with 11 contained in the first two volumes) and you WILL need to know what happens next. -
As a kid, I made mine
Marvel. As I grew up, however, Marvel comics held less and less attraction for me. Maybe it was the fact that I was used to the gritty old '70s versions of all the favorites and the '80s brought in a bit of a more "slick" aesthetic. There were also
some very cool indy comics coming out at that time that took a bit of my gritty enthusiasm away. Of course, other interests took over, as well (most notably
D&D and other tabletop role-playing games . . . oh, and girls). In time, I fell out of love with Marvel.
Fast forward to the Marvel movie era. I admit: I'm impressed. Though I am anticipating the
upcoming Doctor Strange movie the most out of the franchise, I've been pretty happy with what's been produced . . . I'm talking the non-Fox movies here. I don't know if I'll ever forgive the butchering Fox has given Silver Surfer and Galactus. Ugh. Anyway, in the true Marvel movies, I've been rather taken with
Chris Hemsworth's Thor. Thor was a favorite of mine back in the '70s. Probably because of that cool winged helmet, the condensed orange juice can lids on his chest and those boots . . . those boots . . . It's probably a good thing I was not a cosplayer, or I might have made the deadly mistake of wearing a pair of those boots to school one day and had the living crap beat out of me.
Of course, then I could be just like Thor. At least Thor in this graphic novel because, make no mistake about it, he spends a good chunk of his time getting powned by the God Butcher. He's not in a good way most of the time and, believe it or not, I sincerely wondered what the resolution might be to this story, if it might turn into a very non-Marvel ending.
Only problem is, there is no resolution. This is the first in a series, and we're left with quite the cliffhanger at the end. I don't mind cliffhangers as long as the writer gives me something to hang on, but I wasn't even given that common courtesy. What are the motives of the God Butcher? Can you at least give me a HINT?!?
Hence my dropping of the fifth star.
Besides that one glaring omission (on purpose, I know - gotta sell the next volume, but at least give us a hint) this was fantastic. I have toyed myself with
the meaning of death to one who is immortal in my own writing. So I can
genuflect, show some respect, get down on one knee when another writer handles the proposition well. And Aaron handles it well; quite well. The potential problem with this sort of tale about the gods is that it engages in so much hyperbole that the death of a god becomes a sort of pastiche, that it loses its pain and loss and becomes a sort of ritual sacrament, all holy and hush-hush, anesthetized from human feeling. Aaron avoids this and presents a Thor full of pathos, a Thor connected to humanity, to his people, and to the universe. So when he is threatened, and oh-boy is he threatened, so are the rest of our universe, his people, and humanity. I am eager to see what happens in volume 2. I feel like I have a vested interest in this story.
Though I'm not quit ready to "make mine Marvel" to the exclusion of others, they've definitely opened the door for me again, and I think I'll have a little look around. It's been a while. -
Three Thors? Triple your pleasure, triple your fun!
This is my first comic book foray into the world of Thor, so I have no allegiances to previous incarnations or storylines. Despite my love of mythology, I have actively avoided Thor because a) he can look seriously ridiculous in that winged helmet (I'm thinking more of the 60's and 70's incarnations here) and b) I'm not a fan of Thor-on-Earth (or Midgard) stories. For these reasons, Thor: God of Thunder is a good fit for me. The artwork by Esad Ribic is beautifully detailed and realistic, avoiding a contemporary look and opting for muted colors and shadows that give it a weighty, epic feel. Jason Aaron avoids too many Thor-on-Earth storylines and, with the exception of a very brief present day encounter with Ironman, Thor's visits to Midgard consist of 800's A.D. visits to Viking villages for some Asgardian R & R: battles, booze, and babes. Despite liking the character, it's always been difficult for me to suspend disbelief long enough to accept a Norse god in present day times--apparently I have no trouble with men in high-powered iron suits, green giants who are less than jolly, a super serum making a super soldier, hell, slap a cape on anything else and I'm buying--but the gods in the present day has always been a nugget I've had trouble swallowing (this is also part of my aversion to DC's Wonder Woman). Because Thor's interactions with Earth are almost exclusively limited to the place and time period of the people who worshiped him, this never bothered me one whit. Not one whit, I say!
So, on to the story. Yes, as promised, there are three Thors: the young, arrogant Thor who has not proven worthy of Mjolnir; the present day Avenger Thor, who has begun to doubt the worth of the gods to mortals; and the future King Thor, who has succeeded Odin as the All-Father, but is a broken, crippled god waging war by himself. In all three stories, the enemy is Gorr the Godbutcher, a being who, for reasons known only to him, has made it his mission to destroy the pantheons of every culture and every religion throughout space and time. Possessing a curious weapon, Gorr butchers the gods, good and evil alike, to free mortals from their whims. As the three Thors desperately try to stop Gorr (in three different timelines), there will be aliens, time travel, gods never before seen, eternal cities, thunder and lightning, weapons with unpronounceable Norse names, and, by Odin's beard, there will be ale!
It's a fun narrative, although the one bit that doesn't quite work for me is Gorr. I like his style, sure, but he looks like Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. His motives are never quite clear and, when they are, seem pretty cliche. In addition, Gorr's weapon doesn't seem like something that would possess the power necessary to quickly dispatch hundreds of gods with some pretty awesome powers of their own. The idea of a slayer of gods is an intriguing one and I just wish there had been a more original concept behind the why and how of Gorr's death-dealing agenda.
Overall, I'm going with 3 1/2 stars.
Cross posted at
This Insignificant Cinder -
Jason Aaron + Thor = Sure Thing, right? Well... no. Jason Aaron is definitely one of my favourite comics writers due to penning the superb Scalped and the ongoing Marvel series Wolverine and the X-Men, but his more recent stuff like Thanos Rising and this Thor series have felt really lacking in the quality he usually brings to his projects. Maybe he's stretched, or just uninspired, but I didn't enjoy this very poor effort.
Aaron shows Thor at three different points in his long life - as a young man, living amongst Vikings in the 9th century; as he is in our time, an Avenger; and in the future, where he resembles his dad with one eye, has one arm, and looks old and worn out. Gorr the God Butcher has been, well, butchering gods for millennia but kept Thor alive until the last as he is the only one who stood up to him. Why is he slaughtering gods? He doesn't quite like them. Doesn't like their attitudes or the way they comport themselves, so they've gotta die. That's basically it for character motivation.
So this entire book is Thor, at various points in his life, seeing the effects of Gorr's work, looking at the slaughtered gods and swearing to hunt him down. Gorr meanwhile continues killing gods. Gorr and Thor sometimes cross paths and fight - no one dies or seems to be majorly hurt, despite limbs being hacked off. More gods die. There's a giant lake of god blood. The story is to be continued. The end. Very unsatisfying!
The story is very weak and repetitive and the characters barely interesting. Thor is an ok character but I feel he's still a bit one-dimensional - despite the various stages in his life, he remains brash and overconfident only with varying levels of both. Gorr on the other hand remains boringly powerful. There isn't an obstacle in his path that causes him a hindrance - he can overcome them all without any sign of effort. He can create armies of powerful beings out of nothing, he can morph his body into powerful weapons (his arm turns into an unbreakable black sword), he can regrow limbs, he can travel through time, he can do whatever, whenever, however. Is there anything more pointless than an invincible bad guy? What's more annoying is that he's bound to fall in the second book in some contrived way ("No, not my Achilles heel which you just discovered in Volume 2!"). His character design and invincibility reminded me a lot of Super Buu from Dragon Ball who's another alien god-like creature who can't be beaten - so even though he's not much of a character, it looks like Aaron's lifted him from an older Japanese comic rather than bothering to create someone original.
I've always known Thor is a god but it wasn't until I read this book and the god characters show up in their scores that I really questioned gods in Marvel. Though I'm non-religious, a god to me should be more abstract and intangible than simply a human or alien with superpowers, and even then only some of them seem to have them! In this book, gods are basically replicas of humans or aliens and live on orbiting moons - it just seems too literal an interpretation. It also makes them seem less than gods and more like the rest of us whom we've wrongly assigned the label gods - in which case, they really aren't gods at all. Which is fine, maybe that was Aaron's intention - I get the impression he's non-religious too - but it makes the story that much less impressive. The God Butcher is really just an unkillable, angry alien who hates beings whom less powerful beings call gods - a Butcher instead. The story becomes far less dramatic and much more mundane.
I'm also not a fan of Esad Ribic's art. It's not terrible but somehow the subject matter of Thor and epic-ish battles combined with his style make so many panels in this book look like cover art for 80s heavy metal albums.
It's surprising to see Jason Aaron produce such an uninspired comic but that's what this is. The God Butcher is a barely involving storyline that jumps around in time to make you think things are happening when they're not. The story barely has a pulse, the characters are dull, and this book is utterly tedious to read. Thank god(s) for Wolverine and the X-Men! -
Someone is hunting down and killing every god they can find.
Thor has fought this God Butcher
and he surprisingly survived. Now the butcher carries out his work and he's saving Thor for last. The butcher has been a thorn in Thor's side for thousands of years
and he's seeking to stop him.
The God Butcher is hands down the most interesting and well written Thor story I have ever read. It also is the first time I've ever seen Thor depicted in a manner that he or other eternals are prayer answering helpful gods. Seeing Thor come to the aid of people on a far off planet that needed water was surprising to say the least.
Witnessing Thor so shaken and uncertain is also surprising because other than times he's been depowered, Thor always presents himself as in search of a good battle and generally jovial. Thor is pensive and desperate to stop The Good Butcher and he's getting increasingly aggravated at only finding dead gods rather than their killer.
The God Butcher was thrilling and I'm excited to see where the story heads from here. -
This is the best thing that I've read out of Marvel Now yet. Aaron's take on Thor has the character as an actual god, full stop. The kind that answers prayers in person. And despite the lack of his regular Asgardian cast, he's still surrounded by gods and the trappings of godhood.
The story takes place across three periods of Thor's life: as a young, brash god not yet worthy of Mjolnir, as the heroic god who's also an Avenger, and as an older, wiser, sadder god. And he's a fascinating character in all ages, thankfully. Why the three stages in his life? Well, I wouldn't doubt that the rule of three has something to do with it, but it's also so we can see the course of the title threat across Thor's life.
I have mixed feelings about this villain. On one hand, I absolutely believe that he's a credible threat. I buy him as being a threat to existence of all gods across the universe (and wow, there are a lot of gods scattered around the Marvel universe). He makes my skin crawl when he's on the panel, in a good way. That said, he's entirely lacking in motivation. I believe that he could destroy all gods, but I don't see any reason why he would want to. The few things he does say on the subject are generic and don't illuminate the subject. And he looks exactly like Voldemort, which docks a few originality points. His story isn't close to done by the end of this book, and maybe he'll get development later on. I don't know. But right now, creepy as he is, he's a villain because Reasons, and I don't like that.
But the villain isn't on the page much. Thor is very much the star of this book, and he's handled so well here that I ended up really liking this book despite a somewhat lacking villain. -
This is an impressive Marvel comic. Both the art and the story are a notch above most. The story is epic, spanning 14 billion years and a bit more central to Thor's own timeline as a young godling, a mature heroic Thor, and a much, much older old man Thor.
In other words, it's ambitious as hell.
And really gelling everything together is an enemy, Gor the God Butcher, that is prolifically successful and nastily effective across all worlds in the realm, taking out all gods.
It may be a simple premise -- but suffice to say, the execution is fantastic. Word choice intentional.
I admit I've never read a Thor comic before, but if this is representative, I'm blown away by the scale and creativity. It shows a side that's rather more impressive than what I've seen in the movies.:) -
Gorr the God Butcher carves his way through a lot of gods as Thor tracks him down. This feels exciting because the stakes are high and Thor really feels like he is in danger. My only complaint is that Gorr's motivation could be clearer. Perhaps that is explained in a later volume.
-
In a conversation I had about The God Butcher yesterday, the question of "what makes a God a god" came up. Worship, tradition, and ritual -- it was decided -- make a God, and unless there is some fantastical higher being out there, it is our agency and belief that breathe life into our Gods, so if that is true, the Norse God of Thunder is one of the most revered Gods in our now.
Then we started talking about how Gorr the God Butcher wants to kill the Gods, all the Gods, a sort of Nietzschean Über-Übermensch out to enact the ultimate God is Dead scenario. But what is his motivation? Volume 1 of The God Butcher ends one issue shy of these revelations, yet there were plenty of theories: Gods suck; they cause too much pain and suffering; Gorr wonders where the Gods of "poetry and flowers" are and why they are so out numbered by Gods of war and strife, so we wondered if it is us or the gods that make for this split, and if it is us can the gods be blamed? and is Gorr blaming the gods unfairly? and would Gorr care?; or what if Gorr is a God himself, the God of Deicide, called into existence by all of those who feel wronged by Gods, who utter curses under our breath or scream them at the heavens, what if Gorr's motivation is his very existence, born of us?; we had no answers but plenty of questions and theories.
Then we pondered
Jason Aaron's three Thors: young Thor, pre-Mjolnir, very much like the bellicose Thor of Norse Mythology; our Thor or middle Thor, worthy of Mjolnir (in the comic book way), driven to save the Gods from Gorr, answering prayers on planets far away; future Thor, a sort of Thor/Odin, an All-Father alone in Asgard, last god standing. The trio caused some confusion, but seeing the three juxtaposed, it was decided, gave us a unique perspective on character development -- the fully realized arc in three easy steps, achieved at the earliest possible convenience, but I think it is something more, a meditation on stereotypes of masculinity, which leads me to the other thing we discussed ....
... The lack of women. There was one female who spoke in the The God Butcher, a Viking elder, a sort of witch woman, and the rest of the women were in the background. We were told that young, unworthy Thor was sure to have bedded them. This lack of women as actors in the story moved into our discussion and shifted from indifferent to disappointed to frustrated to angry. Where were the women? Why the sexism? But the more I thought about it and think about it the less this glaring omission of women glares. There is a thrilling asexuality about Gorr (the only character of import outside of the three Thors), and the story is almost solely about Thor himself, meaning that few other characters have any place in the book, male or female (yet the other Gods Thor speaks to are male, so there is that).
And then our discussion wound down and moved on to other things. A comic book did that. A graphic novel. An excellently scripted, beautifully painted, thrillingly conceived run of Thor comics that will be a landmark arc in the Marvel history of Thor. Thanks Aaron and Ribic for the best comic in Marvel Now. -
So, this is what Thor: Love and Thunder could have been, huh? Aaron writes a very fascinating and layered Thor, one who actually shows character growth and goes through an arc. It's a fast paced story that's slowed down through the tolerable, but overused (at times), prose. There is a fair bit of time jumping as the narrative hops back and forth through time to highlight specific interactions with The God Butcher. This is done well for the most part, however, sometimes it can take a moment or two before being able to place where a certain event is happening in the timeline. The God Butcher is a great villain, and one whose actions aren't played down . There's something very chilling about seeing the effect he has on Thor; a character who rarely shows fear. An engrossing read which showcases why the God of Thunder can be interesting.
TRIGGERS: graphic violence -
Im not 100% sure how I feel about this one. Good not great. Maybe the feeling will improve by the end of this arc.
-
Thor has always been my favorite character because of his nobility and power. The new monthly, Thor: God of Thunder by the creative duo of Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic is one of my two eagerly anticipated titles of the Marvel NOW relaunches. The first, Uncanny Avengers, experienced some shipping delays but Thor so far has not disappoint.
I really like the direction that Aaron is taking Thor by focusing on the character. Without the classic supporting cast cluttering the panels, it brings the focus to Thor and reminds the reader that this character can carry his own book. The opening arc is a tale worthy of the Odinson, set across three eras of his life, he seeks to stop the rampage of the God Butcher, who singlehandedly has been decimating entire pantheons of gods across the universe.
I am enjoying how Aaron is simultaneously weaving three stories into one epic. It is certainly ambitious and I appreciate the attempt because he is on target. His voices for the three incarnations of Thor; a brash godling, a seasoned veteran Avenger and a tired king of Asgard is right on. If the last page of issue four is any indication, the time barrier is no hindrance for at least two Thors working together.
Ribic deserves praise for having provided for the first five issues. His soft and detailed lines are perfect for the fantasy themes. The color palette by Dean White in the first issue and Ive Svorcina for the succeeding issues, give it a painted look that brings out the nuances of Ribic's lines without overpowering it.
This is the universe spanning Thor series that I realized I wanted. The character has been earthbound for the past few years, now it is time to rediscover his mythic nature and I am glad to be on the ground floor with this new launch. This is a new reader friendly book and all one has to know is on the title. He is Thor, the god of thunder. -
I heard a lot of hype for this run and believed it. I've invested a lot of pleasure reading in Jason Aaron and been rarely disappointed, so I was pretty psyched to finally dive in (once enough of the run was available on Marvel Unlimited to mean that I could devour a few trades' worth to really remember the subtle callbacks from book to book, forgetful bastard that I am).
And I am not disappointed. Less of the courtly politics, less of the navel gazing "why do I exist", more of the mortal threats and weaponeering. There's muted bombast, we get to know this obsessed god killer, and I'm happy to see little distractions from the grand tale of loss, mystery, chases and pain.
Gorr the God Butcher starts out as an 80's slasher villain, which feels a little boring for an Aaron foil. Then he decides to introduce us to the pained bastard under that hockey mask, and that's when he becomes soo damned threatening. A force of nature with a plan and an unstoppable purpose is truly terrifying, especially when you start to understand and can imagine why he'd be like that. It's like I'm getting worried that he's going to work his way into my head, like those damned MBAs I used to hang around - or those fucking slick salespeople who have some unnatural superpower to manipulate my mind and convince me to buy all their overpriced shit.
I can't wait for volume 2. So I won't. Binge reading ahoy. -
Sometimes it is hard being a God. Harder, even, to write for one. What do I mean? I mean Thor, as the Norse God of Thunder, is a very powerful being. Sometimes the villains he fights in the comics just do not do him justice as a God. That is not a problem in this epic tale by Jason Aaron.
Beautifully illustrated and superbly written- this epic tale takes place over the course of countless millennia and involves Gorr, the God Butcher and three Thors (Viking pre-mjolnir-weilding Thor ca. 980's; Avenger Thor ca. present time; and King Thor-The-All-Father from ca. 3,000 years in the future). A truly fantastic tale of the anger of a mortal, Gorr, who see's his entire family and way of life die and blames the Gods for their inactions, or actions if you prefer, and comes into possession of ancient powerful weapon that transforms him into the God Butcher. Without giving away spoilers- he encounters Thor, once when he was still a bloodthirsty Viking God, again in the future as Thor-All-Father and finally as the Thor we know. It may sound a little bit confusing, but Mr Aaron has penned a wonderful tale of time travel and Gods and an interesting philosophical tale about the relationships between mortals and the Gods they worship. If you are a fan of Thor, or just like a great comic story that is backed up with truly gorgeous artwork this volume is for you. -
I read it a year or two after the original run. I thought it was brilliant at the time!! I recall being totally blown away by Esad Ribić's dynamic artwork.
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Do you like Thor?
It doesn't matter.
Do you like good story-telling and amazing artwork? Then you'll like this one!
Great fun read, that just makes me wanna read what's coming next, so that's a good thing for sure.
Mysterious. Creepy. Thor being scared, that's new. What can I say. I really liked it! -
Too much frakking fun. I can't wipe this twelve year old smile off my face.
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I read this already as part of the volume that contained Vol 1-2, the whole of the God Butcher Saga.
This just showed up in my library hold shelf, so why not?
A blast, great art by Esad Ribic. I also enjoyed Jason Aaron on Thor...not as much humour as usual, but there are still a few comments here and there to keep this from being a total "grit fest".
If you want to know more, read my review of the combined Thor.
Well worth reading...now if I could only get my hands on Vol 4... -
I loved this. A creature like God is butchering gods of all types ( hence the title). The action is relentless, the characters well thought out, and the artwork by Ribic is ridiculously good. Some of the detail in work blows my mind. Some of the plotting when it jumps around can get a little confusing, however this was ana amazing start to this run. Cant wait for the next.
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I honestly only watched the first Thor movie last year, four years after its release in 2010. Like I said, not a Marvel fan in general, but I got to admit that of all the movies Marvel Studios have released so far, the first Thor film is my most favorite next to the first Iron Man. Admittedly, I love mythology stories which was why I stumbled upon this 2013 title, God of Thunder rather easily (also, it's written by Jason Aaron who is writing Wolverine and the X-Men which is a part of my comic diet this year).
Much like with Ms. Marvel, I went into reading this unaware of the content I was being served with and it was only when I finished the two volumes, The God Butcher and Godbomb, that I've done some research just to see how my experience is comparable to that of other people; and I was pleased to see that a lot of them were just as positive as mine had been.
The truth of the matter is that I immensely enjoyed God of Thunder in a scale that I didn't expect since I only read it with the mindset of someone who has only encountered the titular character in the films. I know just enough about the original Norse mythology it was based on, and watching 2010 Thor was almost reminiscent of the Hercules television show I was very fond of as a kid. I suppose that was the draw of Thor's characterization in that movie; that he was an arrogant god who could not see past his war-advocating aggression until his own father banished him and stripped him off his powers to teach him a valuable lesson.
And then a hero's journey follows where he has to claim his own powers back by proving that he has learned the importance of temperance and the meaning of leadership. It's an archetypal narrative I have a strong penchant for.
Now I wouldn't consider Thor as a favorite character (nor Loki, even though Tom Hiddleston's portrayal is painfully orgasmic for me), but I'm invested enough in the general atmosphere of his mythological story to want to read him in the actual comics medium, so I selected something that was fairly recent and something of a standlone from the rest of the roster. And it pleases me to no end I chose God of Thunder. I think this is a comic book story that is digestible for a first-time reader of said character so anyone can pick it up because it's actually a rather intimate tale that follows a detective story structure while it also blurs the timelines among past, present and future.
In God of Thunder, long-time Avenger Thor is patrolling the galaxies when he encounters a small nation living in a planet where one of its young citizens claimed that they had no gods to pray to which was why they sought his help instead. Naturally disbelieving this, Thor decides to visit the planet's own absentee gods in their kingdom so he could possibly chastise them for slacking off and ignoring their worshipers' calling. Upon arriving to said land, Thor was shocked to find that all of its godly inhabitants were gruesomely disposed of; disfigured and hacked corpses littered every corner of the palace, prompting Thor to investigate what and who could have possibly murdered these gods.
Meanwhile, in the distant future, a worn-down and ancient Thor, now the last king and remaining survivor of Asgard, which is now being relentlessly attacked by soulless entities who seek to bring him down, tries to hold off the evil forces by his lonesome. We then jump back to the past where an axe-wielding and strapping young Thor, who is as reckless and as fun as anyone expects from an adolescent jock, accompanies the Vikings on earth as they pillage and loot across the lands. These transitions would feel slightly abrupt at first until we slowly find out in the present that Avenger Thor's encounter of those mutilated deities is only the beginning of a horrific cycle that will touch upon different levels of reality where the god of thunder himself is at the eye of its storm.
The first volume is a bleak and serious murder mystery set in a mythological landscape that hit my sweet spot just right. Comprised of the first five issues of the series, The God Butcher is a sweeping epic that manages to be very personal and character-driven at its core in spite of its seemingly expansive premise. In it, three versions of Thor seeks out a madman by the name of Gorr, a serpentine black-hearted rogue whose shade of darkness is only matched by the vivid ink streams he is often depicted with in the pages. He is on a personal mission to wipe out every living god in existence, and he is not going to stop until he accomplishes this.
Back in the past, it seems like a young Thor has encountered Gorr before but lacks the self-awareness and wisdom of his Avenger's version in the present, and therefore unable to comprehend the possible horrors that Gorr would be committing someday. The stakes increase significantly once present-Thor and future-king-Thor finally collide and join forces with the past-Thor. But this set-up will be expounded more by the second volume collection which also provides a more detailed background about Gorr, his origins and the driving motivation for his ultimate goal.
Artist Esad Ribic's visual style and illustrations are phenomenal and consistent for each issue; each panel has great fluidity and substance. My most favorite moment that showcases Ribic's dynamic fight scenes as they unify alongside Aaron's storytelling is the scene in issue #2, featuring the confrontation between past-Thor and Gorr. It was a chilling narrative concerning Thor's memory from childhood when he meets certain type of killer he could not understand:
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CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES]
If these weren't enough to get you excited, I don't know what will.
RECOMMENDED: 10/10
DO READ MY REVIEWS AT
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Recommended by a friend, available for free on kindle unlimited.
I liked the artwork quite a bit and the story as well. We follow Thor in his past, present and future on a quest to destroy the God Butcher. Good stuff, I read it in one sitting.
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The story is split into three timelines and jumps between them, progressively revealing the big picture behind the death of the gods. Thor is featured in each timeline, but so far he looks unable to stop the God Butcher. The artwork looks great and makes the longer-than-average narration easier to bear. Thor is more than a guy with a hammer. He makes it his personal mission through time to find and punish the God Butcher even if he forfeits his own life.
In the 9th century the severed head of a god washes up on the shores near a Norse village where Thor is celebrating a recent victory. In the present Thor helps a planet that hasn't seen rains in years and discovers that their gods have been killed. A dark creature guards the door to the area where the butchered remains of the gods are kept. A horde of creatures like that one will haunt Thor Odinson until he is the last god left at the end of time. -
I hate time travel but three Thors was just too awesome not to love.
I will admit that Thor is another one of those heroes that I was never terribly interested in. Shockingly, he’s a little too god-like for me.
I mean, the fact that he literally is a god this time (instead of Superman, who just feels like one), probably should have clued me in but I’m not a fan of insanely powerful characters. Thor’s also arrogant and tends to think with his fists rather than his brains, none of which appeals to me. However, Jason Aarons does a pretty good job making Thor vulnerable enough to be interesting in this one.
The main plot involves Thor in three different stages: young, brash Thor who has yet to earn the right to wield Mjolnir, slightly older Thor who wields Mjolnir and is part of the Avengers and old Thor who has seen grim things and is very Odin-like. All three Thors face a constant clash with a being known as Gorr, the God Butcher.
Thor first confronts the God Butcher as young, brash Thor and is a complete fucking idiot. As per his usual, he storms in on his own and things don’t exactly go his way. He barely survives and the experience is one he refuses to think about. Then, as Avengers Thor he begins to notice gods disappearing and remembers his experience in the cave with Gorr. He decides to pursue Gorr in an attempt to stop him. Avengers Thor chases Gorr into some kind of a time portal. Instead of landing with Gorr, this lands him 900 years in the future with an old version of himself who has been battling with Gorr and his minions. Now that he is stuck in the future, Avengers Thor must work with the other two Thors (I can’t even remember how the young one got to the future, my brain just stopped trying at that point) to defeat Gorr.
The first part of the story bounces back and forth between Young Thor and Avengers Thor, giving you the back story on both Gorr and his past experiences with Thor. This was confusing enough for me. Then, the second part deals with what happens when the three Thors are together in the future. Needless to say, I just stopped trying to understand it by that point.
I couldn’t agree more Thors, time travel sucks.
Gorr wasn’t that great as a villain, he’s ridiculously overpowered and pretty one dimensional. But differences between the three Thors and how their experiences have shaped them was really interesting. And the humor between the old Thor and the others was actually damned good. Old Thor was fucking hilarious. If Thor was always so cynical and sarcastic, I’d be way more into him.
The artwork is gorgeous, I absolutely loved getting to see all the gods in their full glory and the granddaughters of Thor were exactly the kind of kickass women I love to see.
Overall, if you enjoy watching Thor kick ass (three times the fun!) and aren’t totally turned off by time travel, this is worth a read. -
Past, Present and Future Thor battles a seriously scary guy, who’s taken it upon himself to murder gods, all gods, everywhere and every-when because his gods didn’t do anything for him and his planet when he called on them.
This is the first time I’ve returned to Thor in comic form in a long time. I never really found him all that interesting when I read earlier stories. This story’s art is good, and though the story is heavy with portent, death and muscles, I enjoyed it enough to check out the next volume. -
Everything you'd want in a Thor comic: Scenes from his viking past, crazy weird inter-galactic shenanigans, humor, impalings, and Mjolnir going THWAAAAAK! Beautiful artwork as well, rich colors, excellent details, and we almost get the God of Thunder's Full Monty. Plus this answers the age old question: How many Thors does it take to kill a millennia old godslayer? (I won't tell, that would be a spoiler.)
Bonus points for not having a character named something completely naff like "Beta Ray Bill."
