Spider-Man may have his Homecoming first, but Thor is roaring up behind him, making noise to prepare fans for the MCU’s next next release, Thor Ragnorak. But in the comics, where this all started,Thor follows a different narrative—one that’s arguably even more compelling. The Mighty Thor, you see, is now the goddess of thunder; the original Thor is now known as Odinson (and has been shuffled off to his own book, Thor the Unworthy). In short, someone else was deemed more worthy to wield Mjolnir, and dare we say it, she’s pretty spectacular.

If you’re not caught up with the goddess Thor, now may be the time—things are getting pretty epic in Asgard; for starters, they are at war with an advanced alien race, the Shi’Ar. X-Men fans know that where the Shi’Ar appear, the Phoenix Force is sure to follow, so we recently talked to The Mighty Thor‘s writer, Jason Aaron, and artist, Russell Dauterman, about exactly godhood what means, and how the Pheonix found her way to the pages of Thor.

Godhood has been discussed at length in the series. We know Odinson has been deemed unworthy, what is it about Thor that makes her the owner of Mjolnir? Is this something we’ll eventually find out?

Jason Aaron: I think we see her worthiness in action, every time she picks up that hammer—and also in her daily life as Jane Foster, as she continues to fight the cancer that’s ravaging her body. Changing into Thor is neutralizing the effects of her chemotherapy, so being Thor is basically killing her. Yet she does it anyway. Because the world needs a Thor. If that doesn’t make her worthy, I don’t know what would.

There’s a collection of godlike entities sharing the page: the Shi’Ar gods, the Phoenix Force, and Thor and the Asgardian pantheon. How do you visually show the power of each entity without diminishing the others?

Russell Dauterman: I think the more unique and distinctive you can make each character, the more weight each will have. A goal of mine is to make each character feel like a fully realized person with a specific face, silhouette, height, fashion sense, mannerisms. Powers too. I’m hoping that makes each character special, even if their abilities aren’t as showy as others.

For Thor, I think her physicality really sells her strength. I wanted her to be a mix of traditionally masculine and feminine attributes, with impressive arm muscles and a confident stance. Her power is rooted in her strong will, so I’m always trying to convey a lot of inner strength through her facial expressions.

She’s in contrast to the Shi’Ar gods, Sharra and K’ythri, who rely more on pomp and pageantry. They’re constantly showing off, and, in an over-the-top way, reminding everyone around them of how powerful and important they are.

I wanted that to be really evident in their design and body language. They’re physically closed off, very connected to each other but dismissive of everyone else. Design-wise, Jason described them as so bright, it would hurt to look at them, and I ran with that. I wanted their skin to be a swirl of moving colors, like a lava lamp, and thought it’d be intimidating for them to have these Eiko Ishioka-inspired face masks and strange scarves that move around their bodies autonomously. They’re also always radiating the same effect they display when using their powers, like a warning to anyone that might piss them off.

The Sh’iar and Asgard are two fascinating opposite ends of the spectrum: both in the far reaches of space, but one an empire built on scientific advancement, the other a literal realm of the gods. Was this taken into consideration when pitting the two against each other? What inspired you to bring these two kingdoms to war?

JA: I wanted to see a war of sci-fi versus fantasy. Of spaceships fighting Viking longboats amongst the stars. Of superaliens versus the gods of Asgard. And man, Russell drew the hell out of it all, and made my dreams come true.

Visually, they’re arguably two of the most distinctive empires in Marvel lore. Russell how were these elements explored in your art?

RD: I really like the juxtaposition of the Shi’Ar’s sci-fi weirdness and the fantasy of the Asgardians. Some of it was built in: we’ve got energy blasters versus swords, and alien bug-ships versus Viking longboats. I tried to play up that contrast as much as possible, especially with costumes and environments.

The Asgardian aesthetic has a lot of embellishment, layers, and texture. Their architecture is decorative and ornate. The Shi’Ar are the opposite: they’re much more streamlined. The costumes are sleek and modern, and their buildings are very geometric with clean lines.

In more subtle ways, I tried to change my panel layouts so that the Asgardian scenes had more circular panel shapes, while all the Shi’Ar scenes had very angled and geometric ones.

Basically, I just tried to make the Shi’Ar stuff as weird as possible! I’m a big fan of the aesthetic that Dave Cockrum designed for the Shi’Ar originally—it’s so wonderfully weird—and I wanted to build on that.

The walk of worthiness amongst gods is especially poignant when introducing the Phoenix Force into the fold. Quentin is, in some ways, the anti-Jean Grey. What made you choose Quentin instead of another Phoenix host?

JA: I like the idea of adding to Quentin’s overall arc a bit, after having written him for years in Wolverine and the X-Men. And I also wanted to see Jane have to deal with a super-powered super-genius smartass like Kid Omega.

Russell, Your panel work is truly extraordinary. The last few panels of issue #18 that read as burnt parchment (due to the awakening of the Phoenix) were incredible. How do these original concepts come to you? Do you have any crazy panel work planned for future issues?

RD: Thanks so much! I try to make each layout reflect what’s happening in the story on that specific page. So with the Phoenix, she’s coming to burn everything to ashes, and I thought it’d be cool to have the actual panel borders burning.

In #19, there’s a meeting between the Phoenix and Jane in the White Hot Room. The environment is completely white, no backgrounds, no shadows on the ground. Since nothing exists there in that moment except those two characters, I thought it would be really cool to have no visible panel borders either. The whole page is white except for Jane and the Phoenix, and the only way we can delineate where the panels end is from the cropping of the figures and the glow of the Phoenix. That’s something I was super excited about.

I always start with a basic layout: I put rectangles on a grid, and decide which panels should get prominence in size and what the rhythm they should be in. Then I try to think of how I can skew that to make it more interesting and exciting.

Back in issue #11, we had a scene where a floating island was falling out of the sky. I wanted to emulate that feeling of free fall by having the panels and the content within them tumbling down the page. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I really like quiet scenes where there might just be two people talking, and the panels are more straightforward. I love doing layouts like that where we might have four panels on a page that are all exactly the same, except the characters within them might move or have subtle facial changes.

As for future issues, yeah, definitely—I’m always trying to make the panel layouts crazy. Still readable, hopefully, but crazy!

Jason, you’ve essentially created a brand-new mythos with the Thors of the world—Odinson, Ultimate Thor and Mighty Thor—as well as your changes to the mystical hammer, Mjolnir. Can you tell us more about your new age Asgard, and how it differs from the Thors of the past?

JA: I don’t think I’m rewriting the mythos of Thor. Just adding to it. The idea of transformation has always been at the heart of the character, going back to his first Marvel Comics appearance. That inscription has always been on the side of his hammer. We’re seeing the promise of that inscription be truly realized right now. As for the other Thors, yeah, I love exploring all different portions of the Thunder God’s timeline. That’s one of the benefits of writing a character who’s practically immortal. There’s a pretty big timeline to play with. And we’ll continue to see more Thors as things continue.

The two of you are a cosmic dream-team. How’s it feel to create something so otherworldly together?

JA: Russell has been a dream to work with. He bring so much energy and so many new ideas to the table that it makes my job easy. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to come up with things for him to make look amazing. Whether it’s Thor fighting space gods or Jane Foster in a cancer treatment ward, Russell makes it all look as beautiful and powerful as the God of Thunder deserves.

RD: I’m so lucky to have been paired up with Jason. I absolutely love working with him. His scripts are a joy to work from, and he’s really one of the best writers in comics.

To be able to work with Jason at all is an honor, but to get to work together on a project like this is really wonderful. Before getting this job, I was a huge fan of what Jason was doing with the mythos. He really gets these characters and this world. His take is brilliant and fresh, and the whole idea of Jane Foster as Thor is really gripping. I’m so thrilled to be a part of that, and to help tell a story that seems so meaningful to people.

I love the world of Asgard and all its fantasy elements, and I love Jane and her story. To be telling it with Jason, and our colorist Matt Wilson, who’s phenomenal, and the whole team, is really a dream.

The Mighty Thor, Vol. 3: The Asgard/Shi’Ar War publishes in hardcover on August 1.