And as a lot of people had speculated, it's Donny Cates.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/10/04/donny-cates-takes-over-thor-in-2020-with-nic-klein-and-matt-wilson/

Thoughts on the cover?

Idk how I feel about that headband. I miss his classic helmet/headband. Other than that, it's fine. He could be a bit bulkier though.

I'm already kinda suspicious about the cover since there's also a photo of some of the interior panels shown at NYCC floating around. In those, Thor has the Destroyer arm and one eye, so wondering if this is someone else wielding Mjolnir or possibly and alternate universe Thor. I just don't think it's Thor Odinson, especially after a few folks pointed out Cates being a huge fan of Aaron's run on Thor, I don't see him undoing much, if any, of Aaron's writing.

I think his new suit looks pretty dope tbh.

Still not a fan of the Destroyer arm. The headband looks a bit strange too. Other than that it looks fine.

I honestly have no idea who Cates is.

@thor321 Aaron no more fam!

really hoping that this is 616 thor.

Looking forward how cates will bring the arm and eye back.

Cates is currently writing Absolute Carnage, Silver Surfer Black, and is the writer who created Knull the Symbiote God.

"From Stan Lee and Jack Kirby all the way to the legendary run I am so foolishly following, by the great Jason Aaron, it is beyond an honor to enter the golden halls of Asgard, and to pave the path (far beyond the fields we know...) for the Thunder God himself."

oh well...

Not sure that headband and elf hair. Make him look like a LOTR elf like a blonde Elrond but buffier...

Armor looks good. Hope Thor gets his respect

That cover has a J. Michael Straczynski run vibe, no?

@antithetical:

To undone stuff you have to acknowledge it, right? When you don't acknowledge canon then its Aaron's school... When you do acknowledge canon some things can be changed without necessarily being retcons, now depends in what you want to change, stuff like to have (from its creation) a sentient storm inside the hammer and make Odin always unworthy of the hammer, can not be more than cheap retcons.

You guys that kept reading Aaron's run on Thor can say otherwise but iirc Malekith made Thor's arm disappear with his magic not necessarily destroyed/disintegrated, and since its a Gods arm and Thor has insane durability it can be intact somewhere waiting to be found... Aka one of issue #1 plot points...

That said the part where the new Writer has the necessity to say several times that he is a big Aaron fan is a decisive negative factor for me...

@asgaard: I did mention at the time when Aaron had Thor lose his arm that it may not have been destroyed and could reappear in some way in the future, whether that's what happens here remains to be seen.

@antithetical:

OK... In the link you posted...

The prince is now a king. All Asgard lies before Thor, the God of Thunder. And after many months of war, the Ten Realms are finally at peace. But the skies above the Realm Eternal are never clear for long. The Black Winter is coming. And the God of the Storm will be powerless before it.

The new writer could do something about the (stupid) Sentient Storm too, i honestly don't know how people in their perfect mind can like this concept... Sure that a R.I.P for the Sentient Storm has a really high probability to enter the stupidity realm (Sentient Storm & Black Winter lived happily ever after) but if that is the price to not cringe with character Mjolnir... DO IT...

I'm hype. Cates wrote Thor for 4 panels in his Venom run and it was better then anything Aaron's done since God of Thunder. I'm thoroughly enjoying Silver Surfer: Black and have heard great things about his Venom run. Plus the fact that Cates is really building Knull up and this Thor run seems like it's going to be the culmination of it has me excited. I'm really hoping to see Surfer in this Thor run, which I think is pretty likely with what's going on in Silver Surfer: Black(and maybe some crossover with his guardians?).

Even in some of the Cates stuff I'm not the biggest fan of like Thanos wins, he builds an interesting world and keeps it interesting. Plus, the two biggest problems with Thanos wins was Thanos's characterization(which has been that way for a while) and the power levels, but I'm not super concerned about the second part.

He's writing Venom, which I've heard great things about, Silver Surfer: Black, which is one of the better Surfer stories we've gotten in a while, and is the architect of current Cosmic Marvel, which is the first time it's been interesting since 2010(if not as good). At his worst like in Thanos: Wins, his runs are fun, but it seems like he's really been building to this.

honestly, he looks like an Elf from LotR.

still better then his previous look.

Yeah, my initial thoughts are that the "Black Winter" will tie in with Knull in some way.

I hope the Mighty Thor will return!

As a Sentry fan I loved what Cates did with the character. If Cates writes Thor how he has written Sentry then you Thor fans may finally be liberated from the Aaron regime. Also dig this new look.

really loving his work so far, kinda not happy about the potential worthiness issue

I think it is something else Danny would be a fool to go that root,Jason has gone that road before ...did it end well?

@lazarus4tempest:
i dont think aaron cared about reception, word on the streets was he antagonized Thor fans who called him into question online

And that is the sort of arrogance that well thinking human beings won't tolerate , these nowadays writers think they can just stuff anything down the consumers throats

@lazarus4tempest:
its kinda an issue both fans and writers have to face
the serial montly nature of the comic medium combined with multple authors touching multiple issues theres only so much different stories you can tell over 80 decades of writing until you have to change the character entirely.
i just dont htink monthly issues are the best for long standing characters if you're trying to serve character credibility, consistency and power levels on multple teams with multiple writers.

@phisigmatau: It all comes down to editorial discipline. Shooter was able to reign over, arguably, Marvel's greatest era in terms of consistency. Continuity was upheld pretty well. Sure, he ticked off some writers and is a polarizing figure but look at how many excellent runs on the big titles there were. X-Men, Thor, Avengers, Iron Man, etc. all had seminal runs during his era. The rare time there were deaths they mattered and it was only when he got axed that Marvel started drifting away from continuity and went with some fairly idiotic creative ideas (Spider-Man "Clone Saga", Eric Masterson Thor, etc.)

good point, protect the characters, from the top down1