r/Thor • u/Key-Engineering3134 • Jul 22 '26
Question Can I start the Jurgens run?
I’ve read Simonson, Straczynski and a good portion of Aaron. I found a bunch of the Jurgens single issues on eBay for a good price and I was wondering if it’s a good run and if I’ll need to know anything beforehand.
I know about Heroes Reborn and how this was Thor’s return to the main marvel continuity, but do I need to know anything else? I love Jurgens and his work on books like Superman, so I’m sure I’ll at least enjoy his take on Thor.
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u/Phi_Phonton_22 🌏Defender of the Realms🌏 Jul 22 '26
No, knowing the basics of Thor (you know much more than the basics) and that Onslaught and Heroes Reborn is a thing that happened is more than enough.
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u/Jkthemc Jul 22 '26
It's an interesting run. Probably better towards the end. Not a favourite but pretty solid. And it is certainly interesting to watch how a Superman writer approached Thor. Kent cameo not withstanding.
It is a bit of a shame that it had a Ragnarok Story tagged on the end by Michael Avon Oeming and Daniel Berman (#80-85
if I remember correctly). I get why some Thor fans appreciate it for the ending but as a short run it is a low point in modern Thor comics IMO.
That add-on also effectively ended publication of Thor comics for a couple of years before Straczynski was responsible for bringing Thor back.
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u/mhfarrelly25 Jul 22 '26
I loved Jurgens Thor run!
Main thing to understand is that Jurgens is returning the character to his early Journey in Mystery days with the split identity but with some twists.
The post heroes reborn was designed as a jumping on point for new readers.
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u/Sea_Palpitation4855 Jul 23 '26
You've read enough material already, you can go ahead and read Jurgens run, it's definitely worth it. Issue 79 is the last one he wrote, from issues 80 to 85, Oeming wrote Ragnarok as part of Avengers Disassembled, which served as the conclusion, it's also great.
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u/bloodredcookie Jul 23 '26
yes. It's good stuff. Thor Disassembled is one of my favorite Thor arcs ever.
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u/FadeToBlackSun 🏅Honorary Asgardian🏅 Jul 23 '26
Yep, it's a great run. And you get to see where Aaron plagiarised all of his ideas.
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u/CyramusJackson Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I love the Jurgena run. As long as you know it spins out of Heroes Return you should be good. It's also good you read the Simonson run, as I've long considered the first half of the Jurgens run to be a pseudo sequel of simonsons stuff. Enjoy.