You may have asked what happened to the original Marvel Thor Odinson (Son of Odin). It can be a little confusing after Battle World and Secret Wars. There is a new series coming called Unworthy Thor, it will
explain where Odinson is and what he has been doing. The series will be created by Thor writer Jason Aaron and artist Olivier Coipel. It will answer the questions about what happened to Odinson after he was found unworthy to wield Mjolnir back in the series Original Sin where Nick Fury whispered something into Thor’s ear and Thor found himself unable to wield Mjolnir. In the aftermath of the “Original Sin” storyline, Thor takes up the battle axe Jarnbjorn as a substitute for Mjolnir and subsequently loses his left arm in combat against Malekith the Accursed. Jane Foster lifts Mjolnir; taking possession of Thor’s power.
On the Marvel website is an interview with Aaron discussing this series. I wanted to share it with my readers:
The Thunder God formerly known as Thor reclaims his own ongoing series later this year when writer Jason Aaron and artist Olivier Coipel present UNWORTHY THOR. With the new Thor firmly ensconced as protect of Asgardia and Earth, Odinson searches for renewed purpose, which leads him to both fresh opportunities and familiar friends.
We spoke to Jason Aaron about the thunder in store for UNWORTHY THOR.
Marvel.com: What’s the pitch on UNWORTHY THOR? What’s happening in this series?
Jason Aaron: Since Secret Wars we haven’t seen the Odinson, so there’s a big mystery as to where he’s been, what happened to him. You got just a tease for the first time at the end of MIGHTY THOR #5. We saw that he was prisoner of some mysterious force on a ship hurtling through space and that not only was he there, but so was the hammer of Ultimate Thor, which we saw crossover into our universe at the end of THORS; so the Odinson and the hammer are in close proximity and that’s all we know. We don’t know who’s holding him or what’s happened to him, but that’s where we pick up; we kinda flashback and see when the Odinson first found out that there’s another hammer out there. There’s this mysterious other Mjolnir out there and of course for a guy whose whole identity is wrapped around being worthy, once he finds that out, he sets off on a quest to get his hands on this hammer.
Marvel.com: You’ve been writing Odinson for some time now, but like you said, you’ve had a little break. Has that changed your approach to the character at all? Did absence make the heart grow fonder and all that?
Jason Aaron: [Laughs] Not really. I mean, you know, again, to me, I’ve been writing Thor this whole time. The person carrying the book has changed, but the book hasn’t changed. To me, it’s still very much a Thor story; it was a Thor story when I was doing THOR: GOD OF THUNDER, it’s a Thor story with Jane Foster as the lead in MIGHTY THOR. But yeah, this is going back to a guy I haven’t written in a while, but to me, it’s all still the same suit. You know, it’s all still the same story, the same kind of book. We did just see Young Thor pop up in a couple of flashback issues of MIGHTY THOR. Even when [Odinson] became unworthy and someone else picks up the hammer in his place, the story was never over; it was about giving him his own arc to follow. This is the next big part of that, the next big chapter in his story.
Jason Aaron: Initially he’s definitely on his own. I think we’ve seen since he became unworthy he’s a bit more of a loner. He’s still fighting the good fight, but he’s an angrier, darker, surlier version of the Odinson that we’ve seen in the past. So yeah, he starts out alone, but very quickly gets some help. Beta-Ray Bill shows up by the end of issue #1. So you know this is very much a cosmic story so I love the chance to bring Beta-Ray Bill in and team him up with the Odinson. And maybe it’s in some way my apology for killing off Beta-Ray Bill in THORS.
Marvel.com: Apology accepted. On behalf of Beta-Ray Bill fans everywhere, apology accepted.
Jason Aaron: You never know. He might die in issue #2 of this as well.
Marvel.com: What’s the dynamic between Odinson and Beta-Ray Bill? It’s a very unique dynamic in comics, kinda the brothers in arms thing. How do you approach that?
Jason Aaron: Well, I don’t want to ruin how he shows up, but I love the theme at the end of that first issue, which was actually my editor Will Moss’s idea. Why Bill shows up and what he does when he first shows up, I think it’s pretty exciting and Beta-Ray Bill fans will dig it.
Marvel.com: The title of the book is UNWORTHY THOR, which means Odinson continues to be unworthy as he has been since the end of Original Sin. In a larger sense, what makes him unworthy? Why put it right there in the title?
Marvel.com: You’ve got Olivier Coipel doing art on this book? Have you guys ever worked together before?
Jason Aaron: No, no.
Marvel.com: So this is a first-time team up.
Jason Aaron: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marvel.com: How’s that going so far?
Jason Aaron: Well of course it’s a huge thrill for me. Olivier is one of the best artists working in comics, not to mention one of the best Thor artists ever. But I feel profoundly lucky that I’m getting to work with him on this book and Russell Dauterman on MIGHTY
THOR. You’re gonna have two of the best looking books on the stand and two of the best looking Thor comics we’ve ever seen so I’m every fortunate in terms of all that. And just having Olivier do this, it’s huge and when we took the Odinson off the shelf for a little while and left it kind of a mystery as to where he’s been and what he’s been up to and we wanted to bring him back in a big way and to bring this other hammer into the picture in a big way so getting Olivier to agree to do this of course makes it even bigger. And I’ve just been trying to drill in as much cool stuff to draw as I possibly could so I think even in this first issue, there’s a lot of great moments in it and I’m excited for people to see Olivier tackle [it].
Marvel.com: What’s it like working with separate artists on two Thor books at the same time?
Jason Aaron: Well, it’s pretty cool. Again, I think of everything that I do—I love everything to do right now at Marvel and I’m really happy with all the books I’m doing. To me, Thor still seems like the easiest or the most fun, maybe just because I’ve been doing it for so long and I’ve got so many Thor stories in my head that I still wanna get to, that I still wanna tell. So I’m really happy to be able to do two of these at the same time to kinda get more Thor out there because I’m still having just as much fun doing these two books as I was when I first started working on THOR: GOD OF THUNDER. If anything, I’ve only gotten more excited and my plans have gotten bigger and bigger as we’ve gone along. There’s still a lot to go. These two books going on at the same time will be two big chapters moving forward in my overall Thor story.
Marvel.com: Can you talk at all about threats and villains the Odinson will face?
Jason Aaron: Well, The Collector will be a big part of [the book]; [he] is one of the Marvel cosmic characters who I’ve wanted to get to for a while. Of course most people will know [him] from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie. Again, once people find out there’s another hammer floating around out there, you’re gonna have a lot of people who are gonna wanna get their hands on it. You will see a couple of other [villains] as the book moves forward, but we’ll keep their identities secret for now.
Marvel.com: Will there be any sort of crossover between UNWORTHY THOR and MIGHTY
THOR?
Jason Aaron: This story in terms of the Odinson’s quest to find this hammer, it’s very much its own story and Jane Foster will be dealing with her own threat over in the pages of MIGHTY THOR. For now, you’ve got two very different stories, but certainly you can expect that these two characters will cross paths again before too long in a very huge way.
Marvel.com: Alright, final question: You’ve got Thor and Beta-Ray Bill, great powerhouse tag team. If they could take on any tag team from WWE, who would you wanna write them as going up against?
Jason Aaron: [Laughs] It would have to be Enzo and Big Cass.
Marvel.com: Yeah?! [Laughs] You’re gonna get poor Enzo killed!
Jason Aaron: Right, it might not be much of a fight, but the promos would be amazing.
End of interview.
I wanted to share more words from Jason Aaron about one of the favorite characters in Marvel Thor. Some have bad feelings when Jane replaced Odinson and left the story unresolved and basically the original Thor totally rejected by Mjolnir without a proper exsplanation. It is nice to see Marvel recognise Thor Odinson again and give us some back story again.
Without doubt Marvel has changed greatly since Secret Wars and more definition of what the Marvel Universe is these days is welcomed. I realize that after the death of Bruce Banner the original Hulk in Civil War II nothing is out of bounds. it is great to see the return to his own story arc Thor Odinson. I
enjoy a good story as much as the other guy and welcome the story from Aaron’s perspective. Stay with us for the latest in great comics. 🙂 Walt