Rairly is there a comic book story that is so epic as Mighty Thor #705. It began with people complaining that Odinson had lost the mantle of Thor and become unworthy then Jane Foster picked up Mjolmir and became the Mighty Thor even though it wasn’t revealed till later in the series who the new Thor was. Even the All-Father Odin did not know her identity. Odinson later said of her you made Mjolmir do things I never did and he realized she was truly worthy.
Jason Aaron crafted a story that was years in the making and added greatly to the Asgardian and Thor mythos that Marvel has crafted over the years that began in Journey into Mystery #83 in 1962 with Stan Lee, Larry Lieder and Jack Kirby. The Jane Foster Thor has been a breath of fresh air to the stories about superheroes. She was unpretentious, unwavering and uncompromising as a person and also as The Mighty Thor.
SPOILERS: As I read more of her exploits as Thor I began to understand why she was such a great Thor and why Mjolmir considered her worthy and revealed only to her its true identity as an unimaginably powerful cosmic storm called the God Tempest which was revealed later to her as a sentient being that she talked to. She prevailed in many things but one she could not overcome was cancer, every time she became Thor it negated the chemotherapy in her body and cancer got worse.
Jane Foster was presented with the warning by Doctor Strange that if she becomes Thor one more time she will die but she chose to save Asgard, Odinson, Odin himself and Lady Freyja his wife plus those who were left alive of the Asgardians and became The Mighty Thor one last time. She fights The Mangog, which is the physical manifestation and sum total of the hatred of a billion beings from a race that was slaughtered by the ruler of Asgard and the Norse Gods, Odin. The Mangog in this story is the ultimate judgment of all the gods and destroys Asgardia the new place of the gods.
Odinson the former wielder of Mjolmir and called by the name Thor originally was a god. He inherently was the strongest of the gods of Asgard and called the god of thunder because he could control the storm and lightning. With all this power it took him many years to become worthy to pick up the hammer called Mjolmir, but he never really understood the harness power of the God Tempest or comprehended the sentience within the hammer. But Jane Foster reacted to Mjolmir as she picked it up for the first time like she was born to use it.
Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman brought an epic story conclusion which has to be a classic in comic books and I am sure others will agree. One of the last things Jane says as she saves the Asgardian people from The Mangog, “I Die for Love, Mangog. You Die naught for Hate. That is why you lose.” Then as she breaths her last she dies in the arms of the son of Odin that introduced her to the world of superheroes as the god she has always loved.
This is a fitting conclusion to a controversial decision by Aaron and Marvel to put Mjolmir in the hands of Jane Foster a woman. Thank you Jason Aaron for sticking to your guns and completing one of the best story arcs in comics I have ever read. Stay tuned for more. 🙂 Walt
MIGHTY THOR #705
Written by JASON AARON
Art by RUSSELL DAUTERMAN
FOC – 2/26/18, On-Sale – 3/21/18