I want to start reading comics. And I was told to start with my favorite superhero and branch out from there. Thor happens to be my favorite because I love Norse mythology. Are his comics any good? If so, where should I start?
HELLO! I’m gonna post this public, because I figure somebody else, somewhere out there, will find this useful. Hopefully that’s okay!
Honest truth is, I’ve never read a Thor comic in my life! So I’ll do what I can to help you, but a lot of it will be based on things that I know of Thor and of the Asgardians in general!
Volume 3 of the THOR series was essentially what made Thor an A-Lister again. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski. It ran from 2007-2011 and would be your best starting point to get into the more modern realm of comics featuring him!
After that, the next best thing I can recommend in Journey Into Mystery. It’s a long-running series (655 issues before getting cancelled not too long ago). It’s an anthology, though, so reading ALL OF IT would take you back to the 60s, I believe! The run I suggest is a fan favourite, it’s Kieron Gillen’s run on it, featuring Kid Loki (issues 622-645). It’s apparently fantastic. And even if it’s Loki, and it’s Kieron Gillen (two things I’m not fond of), what I’ve seen of it, it’s worth reading. It’s all character development and genre deconstructing, and follows right after Vol 3 of Thor.
After issue #645, Kathryn Immonen takes over the title and the focus shifted to LADY SIF! I only picked up one issue of this, and I really liked it - but, then, I love the Immonen family. It only lasts until issue #655, as I mentioned, when they cancelled the title, but I would rec both of these for fellow asgardian characters.
I’m not 100% on this, but JiM has almost always focused on Asgardians, so if you go further back, you might find some more characters there, but those are the runs that have been active since I, personally, started getting back into comics.
For more Thor related books, the two crossover events of Fear Itself and Siege both focus heavily on Thor and on the Asgardians in general. FI is by Matt Fraction (who is great) and Siege is Bendis (who is basically the king of Marvel at this point). Those would have the contained event books and then a bunch of spin-offs, limited series, and tie-ins that could show you some other great characters.
For Fear Itself, I really recommend Cullen Bunn’s limited series called ‘The Deep’. It takes Stephen Strange, who calls every superhero in the universe for some help, and he gets stuck with She-Hulk (but not the She-Hulk you’d think), Alani Ryan (a fantastic, underused X-Kid), and some other fun guest stars. It’s four issues, and it’s really funny and cute and features a lot of lesser-known characters.
Thor also now has a series in Marvel Now called Thor: God of Thunder. That’s a good starting point, since MN was a soft relaunch for fans of the movie to come in without being overwhelmed! I haven’t read it, but a friend read the first couple issues and thought it was pretty good.
Hopefully this helped a bit!
ETA: Here and here are some more encompassing recs.
