Thor: God of Thunder #19

Writer: Jason Aaron

Art: Esad Ribic

Release Date: February 12

Rating: T+

Price: $3.99

This week brings us the latest installment of Jason Aaron’s outstanding run on Thor: God of Thunder, and while that’s always something to be celebrated, this issue has been of particular interest to many fans, as it marks the return of Esad Ribic, the artist who helped to create the brilliant Godbutcher and Godbomb arcs. With Aaron and Ribic collaborating again, I had high expectations for the start of this new arc. Let’s see how it stacks up.

The Good

As stated above, this is the start of a new arc, and Aaron is keeping up his trend of bringing in new characters for us to enjoy the ride with. This time around, we have Roz Solomon, a SHIELD agent who was briefly introduced as a potential new love interest several issues back, as well as Dario Agger, a shady CEO who seems to be hiding big secrets. One of Aaron’s strengths as a writer is his ability to create engaging characters, and I’m glad to say that this remains true here; Solomon is strong, smart, and capable, while Agger positively drips with the shifty arrogance a corporate villain needs. And as usual, Aaron demonstrates an intimate understanding of Thor himself, both in his current and future incarnations.

From an artistic standpoint, Ribic demonstrates why he was sorely missed. While this issue doesn’t give Ribic many chances to draw the jaw-dropping, exotic set pieces that were a hallmark of his previous work on the book, he still displays strong work depicting dynamic action ranging from submarine battles to good old-fashioned giant smiting.

The Bad

As the first issue of a new arc, there is a fairly heavy amount of exposition in this issue. While this isn’t really a bad thing in an objective sense, it does mean a necessary lull in the outlandish action that has been such a fun part of Aaron’s run so far. Still, we have plenty of story to go, and a good foundation to build on here, including the promise of a showdown between All-Father Thor and Galactus. So we’ll see where we go from here.

The Verdict

This issue keeps up the high standards I’ve come to expect from Aaron and Ribic. If you haven’t been checking out this book, this is a good chance to get on board with one of the best collaborations in comics right now, and one of the better runs on the God of Thunder we’ve seen in a very long time.

4 out of 5