Trade Weight: Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 2: Godbomb

Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. 
 
2013 - Marvel

"The God Butcher", volume 1 of Thor: God of Thunder, was so very, very epic that, in waiting to retrieve the next volume from my father-in-law, I began to have doubts that it could follow through.  Well, gods-damn does it ever follow through.  I don't know that I've ever been so satisfied by a story arc as I was with this one.  By the end I was quite handily satiated.  I didn't want more Thor, despite having a mammoth collection of issues 12-25 beside me.  I didn't feel I needed it.  There wasn't anything that more Thor could deliver that would improve upon what the one-two knockout punch of "The God Butcher" and "Godbomb" delivered.  I would be quite happy to never read another Thor story again, thank you very much.  This really does seem like the be-all/end-all for what can and should be done with the character.  It creates such a large myth, such a grand legend that anything further would just dilute its grandeur, its greatness.  This 11-issue arc is, hands down, a masterpiece of comics.  Jason Aaron achieves a meaningful story for Thor but gives Gorr, the villain of the piece, both the motivation and the means for accomplishing his vile mission.  The scale is epic, it's at once fantasy, science-fiction, mythology, horror, time-travel, and, in no small way, faith-based storytelling (it's just not sticking to one faith here).  Esad Ribic's lavish art with exquisite detailing, gorgeous landscapes, and powerful figure work is cinematic and yet something that can only be done in comics.  It wouldn't be nearly what it is without the stunning color work from Ive Svorcina.  Between Ribic's shading and Svorcina's digital washes, there's an etherial quality to this that stikes exactly the right tone... not doing too much, particularly with backgrounds, letting the power of the figures tell the story, and in some cases, via only hints, letting the reader's imagination flesh out the setting.  It's all so potently unforgettable...and also, given how utterly brutal a story it is, one that will not be replicated into another medium.

If I have disappointment, it's in the fact that "Godbomb" as a concept didn't live up to what I was picturing in my mind.  Aaron and Ribic kept the story tighter and more personal, where as I was expecting something far larger and messier (which while terribly cool, would have ultimately been far less satisfying).  But even in this extremely minor disappointment can't minutely tarnish this awesome work.

Trade Weight: Thor: God of Thunder Vol 1: The God Butcher

Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. 

2013, Marvel

Of all the big-name writers in comics today, Jason Aaron is the one name I'm most woefully inexperienced with. I've only read a few excerpts of his work but, of what I have seen, I've been impressed... with one notable exception : Star Wars.  And unfortunately it's his run on Star Wars (because I'm an old school nerd) that I've read the most, and it 's displeased me greatly from the second issue in (I've dropped reading the book after 20 issues... his stories read like overblown fan service rather than actual chapters in the Star Wars Saga).

His run on Thor has become the series he's most identified with. I had read a random issue years ago and loved it (despite finding Thor to be one of the most boring characters in comics).  I put his Thor run on the list of things I needed to get back to. 

I don't quite remember the chain of events, but I bought vol1 of his run, "The God Butcher" well over a year ago.  I believe my wife read it and said "I think my Dad would like this", thus outing my father-in-law as a Thor fan.  

We passed the book off to him an he loved it, and I took some extra effort to seek out the second volume ("Godbomb") which, for some reason, was incredibly difficult to find.  I picked up the second oversized collection (containing volumes 3 & 4) months before I finally found "Godbomb" (I love that title so, so much).

During this time however, volume 1still resided with my father-in-law, and due to various concerns on the homestead, we hadn't mafe a visit to my in-laws for over half a year. 

Finally, a couple weeks back, we made it there. I brought "Godbomb" and the still-shrinkwrapped volume 3/4 collection for him to read, and in turn get "The God Butcher" back.  In morning of the day we were leaving I sat dow and just blasted through "The God Butcher", truly one of the best mainstream comic book stories in recent memory.  Jumping backwards and forwards in time it's an epic about an evil, evil entity murdering Gods from pantheons throughout the universe.  It explores deities and weird hierarchical structures of Godhood, as well as belief systems and how the affect a population.  It's high fantasy, action, horror, mystery and science fiction all in one  and it's gorgeously illustrated by Esad Ribic.  What Aaron does so well is juggle the multiple genre facets...and not just juggle, but blend them seamlessly together.  How he manages to skip across multiple tielines without any confusion  is a marvel in itself, but what's more is how it exemplifies the immortal life that the gods have.  It's both storytelling convention and world/character building.

When I finished devouring volume 1 I'm was ravenous for more, but we had to leave the in-laws and venture home and I had to leave behind "Godbomb" and its follow up.  I guess it just forces me to go back to the in-laws sooner, rather than later.