10 Best Comic Books Of The Decade

3. The Mighty Thor - Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman & Matt Wilson

Marvel Comics/Russell Dauterman & Matt Wilson

Before Jason Aaron took the reigns on Thor in 2012, it would've been near enough blasphemous to suggest that anyone could think of equalling Walt Simonson's revered run on the character. And yet, here we are, seven years later, with a truckload of evidence to suggest that yes, Jason Aaron's Thor may very much be the greatest run the character's ever seen.

Aaron, who's now set to hand the reigns on the Odinson to Donny Cates next January, has written dozens upon dozens of issues all about the God of Thunder, and while his original 25 issues with Esad Ribic are exemplary - as are those he orchestrated alongside Olivier Coipel, Mike Del Mundo, Christian Ward, Tony Moore and others - it is Mighty Thor that arguably represents his finest stint on the character.

Authored alongside Russell Dauterman and colourist Matt Wilson, Mighty Thor did away with the Odinson as the main character and replaced him with a mysterious new woman in the title role. Although her identity would be kept under wraps (as would the cause behind the Odinson's nascent unworthiness), it was eventually revealed that Jane Foster herself was the new Thor, and that she was suffering from cancer at the same time.

Every time Jane picked up Mjolnir, her treatment was effectively rendered useless. And still she wielded the hammer, determined to protect Asgardia from a tyrannical Odinson, and the machinations of the Dark Elf Malekeith.

The word 'stunning' gets thrown around a lot with comics criticism, but the word feels apt here, with Dauterman and Wilson combining to impart some of the most incredible visuals ever seen in a Marvel comic. Those two and Aaron all combine to impart something truly special. It's doubtful we'll ever see a Thor book like it ever again.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.