War of the Realms #1, Marvel '19

Arthur Adams cover (standard edition).

War of the Realms #1 is the opening chapter of Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman's 2019 Marvel event series, the culmination of Aaron's years-long Thor run that built Malekith's conquest of the Ten Realms into a full-scale invasion of Earth. Published April 3, 2019, this first issue drops Asgard's war directly onto Manhattan, pulling in virtually the entire Marvel hero roster as Malekith and his dark elf armies bring the battle home. It is the main-series launch of one of Marvel's larger event productions of the era, written by Aaron at the height of his tenure on the Thor titles and illustrated by Dauterman, whose design-forward work defined the look of the surrounding Thor run.

The issue arrived with one of the more expansive variant programs of the year, with cover treatments from Arthur Adams, Russell Dauterman, Marko Djurdjevic, David Finch, Sana Takeda, Joe Quesada, Walter Simonson, Amanda Conner, Victor Hugo, Greg Horn, and others, including a 1:500 black-and-white wraparound incentive variant. The standard cover is by Arthur Adams. For collectors building a complete run of the event or the surrounding Thor era, this is the opening issue that kicks off the central storyline running through the tie-in titles.