THE MIGHTY THOR #19
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Russell Dauterman, Matt Wilson, Valerio Schiti, Mat Lopes
Published by Marvel Comics
Release Date: May 17, 2017
So, there’s this little birdie called the Phoenix raging across the cosmos. It has its eyes set on Thor, and it’s unstoppable.
Unless you’re Thor.
Jason Aaron writes the ever loving hell out of this comic. This Shi’ar war has been a riot and when you crank up the dial by adding the Phoenix into the mix, you get even more fun. Aaron has never held back showing just how strong Jane is, but by God he nearly brought a tear to my eye at points in this issue. The ferocity of this character – the strength of spirit channeled into raw power….it’s absolutely fabulous and the titanic battle between the God of Thunder and the all-powerful Phoenix is something to behold. This is the kind of writing that will go down in the annals of comic history as being character defining for years to come. People talk about what Simonson did for Thor – mark my words, in 20 years we’ll be talking about what Jason Aaron did for the mythos of The Mighty Thor.
This arc is capped off nicely by the team, circling back to what’s going on with Malekith while the Asgardians were off playing space-brawler. Things are certainly not simple back at ol’ Yggdrasil, and that’s going to be interesting to come back to in subsequent issues. The meeting between Jane and the Odinson is masterfully told and the further additions to the back story of Mjolnir bring me immense delight.
Russell Dauterman is an unstoppable titan. He’s the Destroyer of artists and the splash pages featuring the Phoenix prove it. Matt Wilson’s colours light the page on fire and this team is simply one of the best in comics today. Valerio Schiti and Mat Lopes are a strong compliment to the aforementioned “Team of Thunder” and they close the issue out nicely. Schiti’s style is similar to Dauterman’s so it does not feel like a jarring transition when the page is flipped, and Lopes does a great job matching the The Mighty Thor‘s visual tone set by Wilson. The end result is a brilliantly crafted set of pages by some exceptionally talented artists.
The Mighty Thor #19 is the end of an arc, but I thank my lucky stars there is still story left for this creative team to tell. If you’ve made it this far, I’m pretty sure you know I loved this comic and I can’t wait to see where this story goes next. There isn’t a comic as thunderous coming from any publisher right now, and The Mighty Thor is as “can’t miss” as it gets.
The Verdict: 10/10
