Thor Done Dirty (Aaron run 2012-2020)
For years I've been told to check out the Jason Aaron run of Marvel's Thor comic. "A sweeping epic that's metal as shit" a friend said. I would look at the volumes in comic stores, 3-inch thick tomes covering eight years of comics and think "I cannot afford this in time or money." But now that I have Marvel Now, I burned through all those issues and I can confirm it is epic and glorious and at times metal as shit.
Thor starts simple enough: a creature known as Gorr the God Butcher is going around the cosmos and butchering gods. Thor teams up with past and future versions of himself to defeat the creature. That sets off a thunderous (had to) arc of stories that sees Thor become unworthy of his hammer Miljonir, give his title to his former love as well as a dozen other characters, and fight various evil creatures from the depths of the darkest realms to the highest corporate megastructures. The culmination is War of the Realms that pulls in all aspects of the previous years as well as reconstructs the character of Thor after breaking him down so much.
The main takeaway from this series is how much the Marvel movies fucked up. They have done Thor so dirty taking pieces here and there from this run and not fulfilling the vision at all. Anybody remember the villain of Thor: The Dark World (2013), Malekeith? He's the villain of the whole damn eight years here, a Machiavellian joker pulling strings behind the scenes and conquering whole realms of existence while in the movie he opened some holes and had a big tussle. Gorr and Jane Foster as Thor were crammed into a single movie that used both of them as almost punch lines while in the comic Gorr is an existential threat and Foster Thor has some of the most inspiring and metal album cover moments in comics ever. The epic nature of Thor (you know, a god!) has been stripped from the character in the MCU and all we have is a kinda funny surfer dude who sometimes has solid moments. He's good, but in these comics he's a goddamn legend.
I really want to gush about all the things I love about this, but I don't have time to recount the whole damn thing. The best moments are when it recognizes the silliness of medieval space knights fighting shapeshifting minotaurs in corporate buildings or the politics of dwarves versus elves. It's a silly comic populated by real characters who you will feel hurt and cheer for. The best part is the deconstruction and reconstruction of Thor himself. The first large chunk takes away everything that made the character "work." He loses Miljonir, his godhood (sorta, he walks away for a bit), his costume, his home, a few body parts, and even his damn name. What's left is someone who has to find out who he is. It's great to see a character explored so fully not only in the narrative but in his own mind while dealing with all the crazy bullshit.
The question of recommendation is hard, though. This is not an entry level comic, but it is some of the best comic story telling in the superhero genre. Giving this to someone who has never read comics would be like giving a new sci-fi reader Dune. It's big and bombastic and twisty with time and space, but maybe check out some smaller and more digestible stories first. Or jump in with the Jane Foster Thor comics and then catch up later.