SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Marvel's "The Mighty Thor" #1, on sale now.
A sci-fi/fantasy story about gods, monsters, superheroes and otherworldly politics also contains the most human moment I've read in comics in ages.
The opening page of Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman's "The Mighty Thor" #1 consists solely of panels filled with hospital equipment, supplies and signs, while Jane Foster's thoughts fill the captions, explaining in detail how Marvel's current Thor feels as she undergoes chemotherapy to battle breast cancer while in her human form.
My mother passed away several years ago following years and years of battling breast cancer. And while I was certainly sad when she died, I've never been one to dwell on it since. I don't mark the anniversary of her death, I'm very frank with my kids when they ask questions about it, with nary a tear welling up in my eyes as I answer their not-always-sensitive queries.
And yet, halfway through the first page of the new "Thor," I had a hard time continuing on with the issue.
It was the passage about "chemo brain" that got me. My mother used to joke about it, how the chemicals were cooking her brain, memories fading away as though they were being boiled off into steam. Her ability to retain new information was equally damaged, never to the degree where she'd forget she had grandchildren, thankfully, though she would often completely forget key childhood moments of mine or my sister's.
Those of you who have undergone chemotherapy will likely be hit harder than I was. Those who have had to watch as family or friends have undergone it will recognize some of what you've been told about the experience. And for some people, who are lucky enough to have never dealt with cancer at all, the page might educate, or even come across as heavy handed.
But for me, in a book that had to handle a lot of heavy lifting, from establishing the current status of Marvel's Asgard, showing just how this incarnation of Thor fits into the world of the Avengers and bringing the ever-shifting character of Loki to the forefront of the series' arc, it was an opening page filled with narration and very real medical supplies that made it something truly special.
"The Mighty Thor" #1 is on sale now.