War of the Realms No. 1 review: War comes to Earth

The culmination of Jason Aaron’s run on Thor is here with War of the Realms bringing the battle from the cosmos and every branch of Yggdrasil to Earth.

Jason Aaron’s run on Thor has been a masterpiece nearly every step of the way so it’s great to see Marvel giving him the freedom that he needs to tell War of the Realms in such a grand way. This first issue takes everything that has been built over the past several years and pays it off almost immediately. This first issue honestly feels more like a continuation of the Thor comic than a separate story and that’s its greatest asset.

To start off with, this series may be a bit frustrating for those who haven’t been following Jason Aaron’s run on Thor. There are story threads that began all the way in the first story arc of Thor: God of Thunder present here and Aaron does really explain them at all. There’s a two-page splash at the beginning that sets up the conflict, but other than, there isn’t much in the way of explaining character motivations, why Thor doesn’t have Mjolnir, and what all of these different manners of beings are. So, if you’re just jumping into this series, it would be wise and to at least read a summary of the Thor books over the past several years. If you’re a fan of the Thor books though, then this book is everything that you’ve been waiting for.

Image by Marvel Comics/Art by Russel Dauterman

Aaron does a fantastic job with this issue and bringing the conflict to the forefront of the series almost immediately. So many event series like this spend two, maybe three issues setting-up the conflict to come and then, once the conflict is there, the resolution feels very lackluster. Here though, the title is what you are going to get, the War of the Realms. It’s pretty obvious that Aaron trusts readers enough to just jump into the story and, like mentioned above, not make this first issue new-reader friendly, instead telling the story he wants to tell and not worrying about readers not understanding. It’s a bold choice to put that much faith into the readership because event comics are usually new reader friendly, but it makes the story all that more engrossing, especially given how the first part of this issue begins.

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Aaron also manages to balance so many characters so well here, giving almost all of them a moment to shine. Whether it be an awesome decision that character makes or simply a funny line, there’s a moment for everyone in this issue. Not all of the jokes land and sometimes the dialogue feels off slightly, but for the most part, there’s some great writing in this issue.

This issue wouldn’t exist without Russell Dauterman’s art though. Honestly, he was the perfect choice to draw this series just based on his work on Thor and The Mighty Thor. He is able to make this grandiose spectacle look so good no matter what’s happening on the page. Invasion? Looks amazing. Small fight between five or six people? Incredible. Thor taking hundreds of Frost Giants? Gorgeous. Emotional close-up during all the grandiose happenings? Nailed it. His art is absolutely gorgeous and has such a Kirby-esque feel to it at times. Not that their styles are really all that similar, but he’s able to make the mystical and supernatural goings-on feel grounded in reality.

8.25/10 

War of the Realms starts off strong with an issue that fans who have been following the series will love, but newcomers may want to do a little catch-up on.