THE WAR OF THE REALMS #1

    
The War of the Realms is Marvel's big crossover event this year. They didn't have one last year, and DC hasn't had one in awhile. I kind of wish they'd just go away, as they're rarely ever good (can you remember one that was excellent?). The other problem is that Jason Aaron is writing this, and the last time he wrote a big Marvel event it was probably the worst one of all time (Original Sin...the one where The Watcher was murdered...this was back in 2014). I used to love Aaron's books. I thought he was one of the best comic book writers out there. Scalped was great. Southern Bastards started off great until it only released one or two issues a year and then disappeared. His first storyline on Thor with The God Butcher, Gorr, was exceptional. His Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine was great, as was his Ghost Rider run and Punisher: MAX run. So what the fuck happened? His Thor book has become boring (last year, his "The Death of Thor" storyline not only didn't end in the death of Thor...but Jane Foster, who was Thor and was dying of cancer, is in remission this year). His run on Avengers is terrible. Perhaps he's just writing too many books these days. Or maybe he just ran out of good ideas. Either way, he lost his mojo. The War of the Realms is supposedly a story he's been building to for a decade ever since he started writing Thor. I say supposedly because that's horse shit. Malekith, the main villain in TWOTR, was in Aaron's second storyline in Thor years ago and no war of the realms was ever hinted at. If Gorr, the God Butcher, shows up at the end of TWOTR then maybe this would make sense and things could tie back into the beginning. The problem is Gorr is long dead. And TWOTR is pedestrian at best. The basic storyline is that Malekith has declared war on not only the realms in the Thor universe, but also Earth. So in this issue we get to see a bunch of goblins and elves and creatures attack New York City. Like with any big event book, we get huge deaths that are utterly meaningless when these dead characters will come back in a year or two (remember The Death of Wolverine a few years ago? How'd that end up?). Thor's dad and brother, Loki, are killed in this issue. The best thing about this book is that art by Russell Dauterman and the wonderful cover by Arthur Adams. The book certainly looks great. But Aaron's writing isn't up to par. I've always said that Aaron, who used to be Marvel's best writer (Donny Coates has taken that crown these days), should be writing their best book, The Amazing Spider-Man. But Spider-Man does a lot of talking in this issue and his jokes are cringe-inducingly awful. I really don't know what happened to Aaron, but he's already lost the war. **