This morning, we obtained our first look at Thor: Love and Thunder in motion, giving us glimpses of untamed adventures, wilder gods, and one thing much more stunning: Natalie Portman will return to play Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder, however not simply that. She’ll be again as Thor herself.

Update 4/18/2022: This submit has been up to date with the discharge of the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer.

If you weren’t conscious, this isn’t some flippant addition from returning Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, one thing you do once you by some means end up making a fourth Thor film: Jane changing into Thor has comics historical past. In reality, it has very latest, very good comics historical past, which is why so many individuals have been so excited on the considered Portman holding Mjolnir aloft. If you wish to be in on the thundering hype prepare, you want to choose your self up some comics. But oh, reader, isn’t it all the time the query: Just the place do you begin?

Good information! This is definitely fairly straightforward to reply for as soon as due to the truth that, for the previous seven years, the Thor comics have been shepherded below the auspices of a single author: Jason Aaron. In fashionable superhero comics, it’s extremely uncommon to see a author be capable of inform a constant storyline throughout such an unlimited span of time: books get canceled, strains get rebooted, new inventive groups are introduced out and in to inform new tales, a lot can occur that make even trying to inform a narrative throughout 12 months may be difficult, not to mention 84 of them!

But Aaron—partnered with a Valhalla-sized heavenly host of unimaginable inventive expertise, together with names like Esad Ribic, Olivier Coipel, Russell Dauterman, Matt Wilson, Ive Svorcina, Laura Martin, Ron Garney, Joe Sabino, Rachelle Rosenberg, and lots extra that it takes three consecutive runs of comics’ price of credit score lists to call all of them—has carried out simply that with not simply the Odinson, however Jane Foster, who spent 4 of these years because the titular hero of his Thor runs. If you wish to see how Jane rose from Staten Island citizen to almighty thunder goddess, listed below are three choices for the place to start, starting from brief and sharp to an epic virtually a decade within the making.

Get Started: Thor

Okay, so that you’re , however you simply need one thing to dip your toes into: an in-and-out sampler of comedian e-book context. You can learn each volumes of the 2014-2015 Thor run, launched in commerce paperback type as Goddess of Thunder and Who Holds the Hammer. These are the primary points with the mysterious and unidentified (on the time, no less than) feminine Thor. They introduce the idea, cope with the world’s response to a brand new Thor, and ultimately go on to disclose that not solely is it Jane, however Jane’s time with the hammer is a ticking time bomb ready to go off.

This is principally an amuse-bouche for the primary occasion—as a result of eight points into this run, Marvel principally put all of its comedian books on hiatus for the tremendous occasion Secret Wars, which exploded the complete Marvel Comics continuity and glued it again collectively once more virtually a yr later as “All-New, All-Different” Marvel. If you need extra than simply the premise, you can begin right here to get the elevator pitch on Jane’s Thor, after which transfer onto…

The Very Easy and Convenient Answer: Just Read The Mighty Thor

This, actually, is the true star of the present, and why generally you’ll see Jane known as the Mighty Thor as an alternative of Jane Thor (by no means Lady Thor or Girl Thor, except you wanna be a jerk about it). It was the identify of her comedian!

Now launched in its entirety throughout 5 volumes of commerce paperbacks—Thunder in Her Veins, Lords of Midgard, The Asgard/Shi’ar War, The War Thor, and The Death of The Mighty Thor—The Mighty Thor is the wonderful, definitive saga for Jane’s time with Mjolnir. You see her get to cope with an entire bunch of issues, from a battle with the evil darkish elf Malekith threatening to embody each realm in existence, to the ire of Odin himself at his son being changed by a mysterious lady, an interstellar struggle that counts the legendary Phoenix Force amongst its warriors, the arrival of an offended, violent new Thor wielding the hammer of a lifeless universe, after which Jane’s last battle defending all of Asgard from the Mangog, an alien being manufactured from hate that exists to homicide Asgardians.

Oh, and he or she has to cope with slowly dying of most cancers all through all of it. It is a wonderful, highly effective, stunning run of comics, and if you happen to choose it up, you’ll actually see why individuals are excited for this tackle Thor to come back to the MCU.

The Longer, More Rewarding Answer: Start With Thor: God of Thunder And Do Not Stop

Maybe you probably did Options One and Two already and crave extra Thor. Maybe you wish to see what occurred to Jane after she escaped her seemingly sure destiny. Maybe you simply need extra context. What was the Odinson as much as whereas Jane was Thor? What’s Malekith’s endgame? Why couldn’t the outdated Thor even choose up Mjolnir any extra within the first place?

This is principally the Asgardian equal of the nuclear possibility: Start the place Aaron did, and simply don’t cease studying till you’ve chased by way of all of that, after which get into the recently-concluded occasion sequence War of the Realms, which is each a) a very bonkers epic occasion of ridiculous, godlike proportions, and b) principally the momentary epilogue on all the things Aaron has carried out to this point with Thor, and a becoming end result of Odinson and Jane’s arcs to this point, in addition to a tease of what’s but to come back for them each.

Having Aaron as the only author for thus lengthy means he’s been in a position to delicately lay the groundwork for character arcs and wider tales and occasions all through this whole interval, so you’re rewarded drastically for beginning the place he did and taking all of it in because it unfolded. Things that occur in God of Thunder don’t simply matter by the point you’re attending to the very most up-to-date Thor comics, however repay immensely in War of the Realms. I may spend no less than seven years myself telling you what occurs on this huge assortment of tales, however for now, listed below are the names of what you’d want to choose up.

• Thor: God of Thunder This is the place it begins. Thor, having simply gotten over being lifeless for a short while (ah, comics), encounters Gorr the God Butcher—who, because the identify suggests, goes about killing the gods of assorted pantheons—and has to save lots of Asgard, at present floating above Broxton, Oklahoma, from whole destruction; fights Malekith once more; and will get a steel left arm within the course of. This e-book is collected in 4 volumes: The God Butcher, Godbomb, The Accursed, and The Last Days of Midgard.

• Original Sin This was truly a Marvel-wide occasion sequence, which noticed the Avengers and Nick Fury examine the homicide of Uatu the Watcher, the all-powerful being with huge information of previous and future occasions that swore solely to look at them, by no means to intervene (he interfered on a regular basis although). While it has penalties for characters effectively past Thor’s realm, Thor himself performs a large half within the sequence, and it’s right here that he has a secret revealed to himself so profoundly stunning, it renders him unworthy and unable to wield Mjolnir. It’s collected within the hardback assortment titled, you guessed it, Original Sin.

• Thor (2014) A mysterious lady picks up Mjolnir! Who is that this Goddess of Thunder? It’s…we actually simply went by way of this. It’s Jane Foster. Remember, the explanation why you’re studying this whole weblog within the first place? This is collected in Goddess of Thunder and Who Holds the Hammer.

• The Mighty Thor Jane Foster’s adventures proceed, and are available to an finish. Or do they? As most cancers and celestial beings of unfathomable energy alike jostle to be the menace that ends her life, Jane flies excessive because the all-new, all-different Avenger, the Mighty Thor! This run is collected in 5 volumes: Thunder in Her Veins, Lords of Midgard, The Asgard/Shi’ar War, The War Thor, and The Death of The Mighty Thor.

• The Unworthy Thor A five-issue miniseries the place the Odinson goes on a quest to recuperate the Mjolnir of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, which had survived the destruction of that alternate actuality throughout Secret Wars, within the hopes that he may wield it. For one of the best impact, you wish to learn this between the Asgard/Shi’ar War and War Thor volumes of The Mighty Thor. It’s collected within the standalone quantity The Unworthy Thor.

• Thor (2018) The Odinson is a Thor as soon as extra! Who says you want a hammer to be the god of thunder? With Jane retired from Asgardian superheroics, Odinson finds himself on a quest to regain his folks’s belief…and save not simply them, however Midgard and all the opposite realms of existence, as Malekith’s plan for a struggle to finish all issues begins to unfold. This sequence remains to be ongoing, and to this point just one quantity has been launched to this point, God of Thunder Reborn. If you wish to learn past that, together with War of the Realms, you’ll have to choose up single points, beginning with Thor #7.

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