The Unworthy Thor #1

History

Writer Jason Aaron had been architecting Odinson's unworthiness since Original Sin #7 (2014), where he scripted Nick Fury whispering a secret that caused Thor to drop Mjolnir — with the specific words already recorded in Aaron's personal Thor notebook years before they were published. Aaron confirmed publicly that the mystery's answer, 'Gorr was right,' had been planned from the start of his run on Thor: God of Thunder (2012), making the entire arc a single seven-year storyline. French artist Olivier Coipel — already established as one of the premier Thor visual interpreters through his earlier work on the 2007 Thor relaunch with J. Michael Straczynski and The Mighty Thor with Matt Fraction — was reunited with Aaron for the five-issue miniseries, which launched in November 2016 under editor Wil Moss and editor-in-chief Axel Alonso as part of the Marvel NOW! (2016) publishing initiative. Aaron told Marvel.com he relished writing both The Unworthy Thor and The Mighty Thor simultaneously, calling the chance to work with Coipel and Russell Dauterman at the same time 'an extravagance of riches.'

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Jason Aaron with pencils and inks by Olivier Coipel, colors by Matthew Wilson, and letters by Joe Sabino; edited by Wil Moss, Charles Beacham, and Tom Brevoort.
• Published on-sale November 2, 2016, with a cover date of January 2017; issued as part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! (2016) publishing initiative.
• The story's internal title is 'The Hammer from Heaven' — the first chapter of a five-issue miniseries following Odinson's cosmic quest to locate the Mjolnir of the deceased Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610).
• Issue #1 features the in-continuity reappearance of Beta Ray Bill as a significant supporting character alongside Odinson, as well as Nick Fury in his post-Original Sin role as 'The Unseen,' the moon-bound former Watcher-powered spy who reveals to Odinson that another hammer exists.
• The Unworthy Thor #5 — the miniseries conclusion — finally disclosed what Nick Fury whispered to Odinson in Original Sin #7 (2014): the three words 'Gorr was right,' a revelation Aaron stated had been written in his Thor notebook since the very beginning of his run on Thor: God of Thunder (2012).
• The Ultimate Universe Mjolnir introduced as the miniseries' central relic later became the weapon that transformed Volstagg into the War Thor in Mighty Thor #20 (2017), and its shards were used by Jane Foster for a final transformation during the War of the Realms event.
• The issue carried at least seven variant covers at launch, including editions by John Cassaday, Pasqual Ferry, Bryan Hitch, Stonehouse, and John Tyler Christopher, reflecting Marvel's heavy retail variant program of the era.
• The complete five-issue run was collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 978-1302906672) and subsequently reprinted in Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Vol. 4 and Thor by Jason Aaron Omnibus Vol. 2 (ISBN 978-1302953850).

Other variants of The Unworthy Thor #1 (6)