An intricate web of through-lines fill each issue, and questions are raised that cannot be fully satisfied in these 19 issues alone.

Aaron’s run was one of consistent, ever-growing weight, a snowball of change rolling downhill over the Big Two’s ever-constant return to normalcy. Revisiting the stories, it’s almost overwhelming to recognize how deeply realized and carefully considered each relationship is - it feels neglectful, that is to say, to read this volume without preceding it with the previous two so that the full impact of this book can be felt. This feels almost quaint, given our present X-Circumstances.

We’ve left Freya wounded, current Thor enraged, and old Thor revealed to be imprisoned in an unknown location in space, and we return to a montage as if the book feels the need to re-establish itself before getting back to the proper story. We spend an issue with Loki, telling the story of a dragon-born, Viking Hulk with which a pre-Mjolnir Thor is entangled, and while it’s a great setup for later conflict (and a moment to revel in guest artist Rafa Garres’ particular brand of epic excess), it’s an abrupt aside. Even as we commit to Jane’s role, the volume keeps reminding us of the past Thor via single-issue myth-building segments that toss us back in time. The book has an up-in-the-air quality that rides the razor’s edge of that illusion of change. It’s a welcome change for a book that deals almost exclusively in abstracts. It’s a level which Thor, by his very nature, cannot reach, and that creates a barrier between reader and hero that does not exist for your Peter Parkers or Kamala Khans. Jane is, ultimately, instantly endeared to the reader, and all the lofty, myth-heavy moments are anchored by an understanding that this hero is suffering and human while her cancer is never dealt with as the threat it maybe should be, its presence nonetheless tethers us to our own level of humanity. It’s a brilliant bit of storytelling, this contrast between mortality and godhood.

The Mighty Thor, Vol. 3 by Jason Aaron