Ultimate Comics: Thor

"Ultimate Comics: Thor" marked writer Jonathan Hickman's first foray into Marvel's once relevant Ultimate imprint. It lead to his taking over the core "Ultimates" title and giving him a chance to be one of the last authors that truly defined the since cancelled line of comics.

Pairing Hickman with a veteran superhero artist like Carlos Pacheco, the company seemed adamant that he starts working off Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's template. Only a year before, the penciller collaborated with Millar himself on a spin-off Ultimates mini-series that ended up as some of the writer's last work for the company. On "Ultimate Comics: Thor", Pacheco manages to work in Hitch's vein, which helps when the story constantly calls back to the celebrated artist's genre defining run. 

Without being able to actually relaunch Thor in his image, the writer is thus poised to fit his story around previous continuity, resulting in a splintered timeline that gives rise to only slight innovation. The Asgard flashbacks are perhaps most noteworthy, setting up this creative team's version of the Warrior's Three. The origin story eventually ties in to the World War Two scenes featuring Baron Zemo, with the present day sequences serving as framework.

Throughout, Pacheco's clean layouts and solid figurework help maintain the brisk pace and create strong fight sequences featuring the Frost Giants. These keep the mini-series on level with some of the imprint's more workmanlike entries, but the hurried last act prevents it from being more than a prequel to the original "Ultimates" run. By relegating the present day showdown with Loki to the previous series, "Ultimate Comics: Thor" gains a barrage of scenes featuring Nick Fury and eventually the Hulk, which genuinely rob this story of its real conclusion. Eventually, both Hickman and Pacheco end up restaging Millar and Hitch's sequences with added context, which speaks a lot to the publisher's lack of confidence in their own creative abilities. 

On the back of this story, the writer has gone on to have his own critically acclaimed run on "The Ultimates", but unfortunately it wasn't popular enough to save the imprint from swift cancellation. Still, it paved the way for his work on Marvel's mainstream "Avengers" titles, with Hickman eventually helping the publisher relaunch their entire superhero line, where Pacheco has remained a valuable asset.