Did you know that last week a lot of great comics came out? BECAUSE WE JAMES ARE IS ABOUT TO TELL YOU.

BRANDON WRITES STUFF

Well, normally at least! Here’s the thing: stuff is going down like crazy for him at work this week, what with a fundraising event tomorrow and a broken computer that is making a lot of his work next to impossible, while also having to help customers and sell comics. So he’ll have his stuff later, maybe! Or maybe not. In the meantime, you have me! HA! (J)

THOR: GOD OF MAKING ME CRY

So far in its run, Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic‘s Thor: God of Thunder has been one giant epic heavy metal story spanning time, space the entire breadth of existence itself, even including a discussion of what atheism means as a choice and as an act in a world where you know 100% that at least some gods exist. That’s not Issue #12. After the scope of the God Butcher Saga, Aaron brings it back down to earth - quite literally - as he and Nic Klein show what Thor the Avenger does when he returns from adventures like these. And it turns out that what he does is make me cry.

Issue #12 is a series of vignettes about all the people Thor visits and the things he does when he’s not saving the world. He visits a friend on death row to guide him into the next life, so yes, I started tearing up on page seven. He brings food and water to those in need. He visits veterans, tells stories with a monk and guides a ship to shore. In a perfect counterbalance to Gorr’s act of rebellion against faith, he meets with people of different religions just to share in kindness and breaks up a hate march by extremists. Thor, we are shown, is on the side of good, and that doesn’t mean punching things.

I adore Esad Ribic‘s art, but Nic Klein, fresh off his stunning arc on Winter Soldier, was the perfect artist to work on an issue like this. Ribic‘s work is gorgeous and bold, the right choice for a story filled with god butchers and space sharks and explosions. Klein excels at bringing things back down to earth, to tell stories about favelas and front porches alike. The joy in the faces of children, or the hazy emotion in the air at a dance, are where Klein excels. He’s an artist who brings out the divine in the everyday, and this is his story.

After all, look at the scene where Klein and Aaron bring Thor back home, to Broxton, OK, where he discovers that his longtime friend ex-girlfriend is fighting cancer, and his immediate reaction is to try and fly off, to find a wizard or a potion or something he can hit to make it all better. It’s Jane who chides him:

“It’s cancer, Thor. It happens all the time. It wasn’t the fault of anyone you can bludgeon, believe me… Just because you can’t save everyone, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad god. Sometimes you have to let the humans save themselves.”

Jane just wants a story, and Thor has to learn how to accept things. It’s not his nature, and the pain on his face is palable; it’s fitting that it’s Jane… a human… a sick human… who shows him the strength he needs to have. Of course, then he takes her for a picnic on the moon. Baby steps, I guess.

This is an issue all about human connection, and what it means to be one. It’s that great Marvel tradition of the fantastic representing our own lives, which is why Thor also accepts a S.H.I.E.L.D. graduate’s invitation for a date at her graduation dance, then flies all the way to Antarctica just to flirt with her. As the glimpses of Young and King Thor at the beginning and end of the issue show, Thor has always been a god of the people, and it’s why he keeps coming back to them. He loves them, and he will die for them, but he will also just sit with them when they want a story.

It’s hard to explain how much I loved this issue. It was funny, it was moving and it was all about very real emotions and desires, told from the viewpoint of someone who more than anyone else can appreciate how precious the lives we have are. As far as an interlude between punchings go, it’s one I was grateful to have, because it enhances all the other Thor stories through its lessons and context. Aaron and Klein have earned this week’s Rainbow Bridge Award. (J)