War of the Realms

Anyone who has read Jason Aaron’s long, popular and extremely well-done run on the Thor comics knows the “War of the Realms” has been a recurring event.

Here, Aaron throws in all of his history on Thor, his work on “The Avengers” title for the past couple of years, his past work with the Punisher, etc., for a Marvel crossover event that spans years, and yes, realms.

In Norse mythology, there are nine realms, all connected by Yggdrasil, the world tree. The realms include the worlds of giants (Jotunheim), the world of the gods (Asgard), earth (Midgard), etc.

In Aaron’s Marvel Universe, Asgard has been destroyed and the Norse gods have been living in various places on earth. The dark elf Malekith has defeated all of the realms except for Midgard which is his next target and the plot point of the “War of the Realms” mega-series.

Midgard is protected by Thor, Asgardians, Avengers, the Fantastic Four and plenty of other Marvel heroes but they are challenged by Malekith and his army of elves, giants and other beings.

The creative team makes this a grand saga but one filled with the expected small details and nuances readers have come to expect from Aaron’s writing.

“War of the Realms” is a world-shattering event in one very important regard — it sets the stage for Aaron’s departure from “Thor.” Aaron has created numerous memorable moments in “Thor,” including the run where Jane Foster picked up the hammer Mjolnir and became Thor.

Hopefully, he will continue his run on “Avengers” and his more recent run penning Marvel’s latest “Conan the Barbarian” title.