Editor's Note: Thor: Ages of Thunder arrives in stores tomorrow, April 30.

I've been interested in reading Thor: Ages of Thunder ever since I heard that Matt Fraction was going to write it. When I saw the first black-and-white previews of Patrick Zircher's artwork, my interest in the book grew even further, and by the time the coloured art previews started to show up online, I couldn't wait to read it. However, what I wasn't aware of until I began to take a look at the book was that it was an oversized issue, with the story told in two parts: the first illustrated by Patrick Zircher and colourist June Chung, and the second illustrated by Khari Evans, Victor Olazaba, and colourist Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic.

I was initially disappointed that Zircher wasn't going to be illustrating the entire issue. Luckily, however, the standard of art in both halves is high, and the book manages to maintain a consistent look across both sections despite being illustrated by completely different art teams. Zircher's work in the first section is incredibly detailed, and I can't imagine how long it must have taken him to produce these illustrations. Chung's colours maintain a delicate balance between adding depth and detail to Zircher's linework without overwhelming it, and the result is an atmospheric and convincingly medieval tone that suits the Asgardians well. Khari Evans' work in the second section is less detailed and is perhaps stylistically closer to traditional comicbook art, but still manages to capture the otherworldly nature of Asgard effectively. Evans displays a strong sense of storytelling, with large, barren panels effectively conveying the desolate nature of the realm of the Frost Giants, and some very dynamic battle sequences which really help to sell the sheer scale of Thor's adversary.

Both artists employ a "widescreen" approach that almost exclusively utilises full double-page spreads of multiple panels to tell the story. I assume that this is an intentional choice by writer Matt Fraction, and it works well, opening up the world of Asgard with large central images without resorting to uneconomical full splash pages in an attempt to dazzle the reader. Zircher and Evans' artwork is impressive enough without these kinds of devices, and I'm sure that both artists will win over a substantial amount of new fans with their work here.

Fraction's story focuses squarely on Asgard and Thor's role in the pantheon of Norse gods, with no concessions at all to Thor's role in the wider Marvel Universe. It's probably the first Thor story that I've read in which he doesn't interact with regular human beings in an Earth-based environment, and it's all the better for it. It allows Fraction to play the concept of Thor and the Asgardians completely straight, playing up the mythical quality of the characters via some deceptively simple plotting which makes good use of many established Asgardian concepts at the same time as Fraction invents some new ones. I don't know enough about Norse mythology to know whether Fraction is drawing on existing stories or coming up with his own legends, but the stories of Ages of Thunder feel timeless and authentic enough that they could well be pre-existing Norse tales of legend. Fraction reinforces this timeless quality with repeated plot points and imagery (such as the deafening sound made when Thor defeats a Frost Giant), which gives the story a cyclical feel and a sense of rhythmic inevitability.

Another attraction of this book is the refreshingly uncompromising characterisation of Thor. Fraction's tale presents a take on a Thor who hasn't yet integrated himself into the fabric of the shared Marvel Universe, and hasn't taken on many of the superhero tropes that would make him such an accessible part of the Lee/Kirby stable of characters in the early 1960s. In fact, this doesn't feel like a superhero book at all: Thor is a selfish, sulking, yet brutally powerful force of nature who is more reminiscent of mythical characters like Achilles of The Iliad than he is of his usual superhero colleagues. His abilities still provide amble opportunity for impressive spectacle, but his motivation for his good deeds is hardly what you'd call heroic. In many ways the book is all the better for it: whereas the smiling Kirby-designed version of the character was a toned-down version of the Thor concept, modified to make him more palatable to readers in the 1960s, this feels like the real deal.

It's taken me a while to come round to J. Michael Straczynski's core Thor title, as despite some great art and some moments of great storytelling, it feels as though there have been sections that have been a chore to wade through before we can get to the good stuff. Ages of Thunder, however, couldn't be more different: the writing is direct, simple, straightforward and uncompromising, the artwork is excellent, and the strong mythical quality that Fraction brings to his storytelling makes the book instantly attractive. This is definitely worth picking up, both for Thor fans and newcomers to the character alike.

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