Thor

It seems like a match made in funnybook heaven. J. Michael Straczynski, a hit-or-miss creator with a tendency to overwrite, launches a revivial of Thor, a hit-or-miss character who begs to be overwritten.

You can guess what happens next...or maybe you can't. Because if there is one hallmark of Thor's latest ongoing series, it's that it tends to defy expectations.

Instead of the bombast associated with the God of Thunder and his Asgardian pals, JMS starts the action slow, with measured baby steps forward. Ragnarok has come and gone, taking Asgard with it, and both Thor and Donald Blake are MIA. By the end of the  first issue, the only significant events have been that Thor is sorta back, and Donald Blake is back, and he's in Oklahoma and he's got his cane again. Oh, and Thor fights some demons.

This would be excruciating stuff if it weren't so well done. JMS is in his element here, and uses language well to conjure a sense of the world of the gods that was...and the world of the gods that will be once again. Oliver Copiel is a nice match to this material, and one gets excited about the potential going forward as hopefully more gods and monsters show up to revive Asgard to its original greatness.