The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 25

I guess I said I’d say something about Defenders Beyond, didn’t I? The 2022 five-issue mini-series by Al Ewing and Javier Rodríguez is fairly well regarded by those that have read it. It’s a gorgeous book with Rodríguez’s art really bringing the playful energy of Ewing’s writing to life. His inventive layouts and strong line work are the book’s biggest strengths by far. I’m mentioning the book only because it’s a direct lead-in to The Immortal Thor. Honestly, it’s not a favourite of mine. It fits into that area of Ewing’s Marvel work that I’ve dipped into periodically and never been able to get into. I tried different issues of The Ultimates, for example, and, nah, not my thing. I think it’s the area where Ewing is at his most Roy Thomas and his most DC. Lots of explanations and trying to fit pieces together, particularly with regards to the cosmic element of Marvel and the various Cosmos. These elements all come up in The Immortal Thor and I’ve written in past instances of my ambivalence at them. But, that doesn’t mean that Defenders Beyond isn’t a somewhat important book if you’re looking for those Ewing-penned ‘essential’ books to go along with the series. In a big way, it bridges the gap between the also-written-by-Ewing Loki: Agent of Asgard and The Immortal Thor, particularly in the collection where the short that Ewing and Lee Garbett contributed to Thor #24/750 is included. Basically, it sets up the ‘Loki wants to free everyone’ plot and also shows how they have the Mask of Eternity.

The very Mask of Eternity that they’ve fashioned into an arrow and run Thor through with, which is part of Loki’s spell, their effort to free everyone. We’ve spent 24 issues so far watching Thor contend with the threat of the Elders Gods of Utgard, go through trials from Loki the Enemy, solving riddles based on the runes of his own name, rescuing his brother from the clutches of Oblivion, contending with the fact that his own mother is responsible for the overwhelming dangers he faces, having Earth taken away from him, regaining a son from a future that never happened, fighting his way through Utgard, and, then, holding the line at the edge of Utgard to protect Asgard and the other Realms... only to be stabbed in the back, literally. We’ll never know what the third trial and weapon representing a part of Thor would be, but we know that Loki forces the issue by taking away Thor’s physical self here in a shocking move.

The opening pages of The Immortal Thor #25 focus on the immediate aftermath with the shock of Loki’s betrayal. Even Utgard-Loki is taken aback. It’s a fairly utilitarian nine pages that greatly advances Loki’s schemes. The key lines seem to be the few words that Utgard-Loki says: “ARE YOU A PIECE IN GAEA’S GAME? OR IS SHE PART OF YOURS...?” and “WHAT AN INTRIGUING TALE YOU WEAVE, ASA-LOKI. / YOU WILL TEMPT ME TO MAKE IT TRUE.” To this point, Utgard-Loki has been depicted as being above everything, the metafictional god that exists apart from reality, but Loki’s actions place the Elder God firmly within the story, unable to actually see all that lays beyond. They’ve been set up as a false threat, not totally aware that they’re a retcon by Loki, something that may or may not be true. Even as Loki does things that astound Utgard-Loki, they continue to act like they’re above the God of Stories, unaware that they exist in the story for a specific purpose: to go away and to take Thor’s physical body with them.

The continued threat of Utgard-Loki spurs Skurge to follow through on his promise to Thor to destroy the Black Bridge that connects Utgard with the other Realms. It’s actually a moment of kindness that Loki delivers Skurge by setting this moment up, ensuring that he’s in place to enact this crucial part of their scheme. Since Skurge was able to escape Valhalla in Avengers Inc. #3, his obsession has been taking Thor’s death for him, regaining that glory that he once had when he took Thor’s place to fight to the Hordes of Hel. While he’s obviously unable to take Thor’s death for him, what he’s able to do here is have a noble death of his own that is entirely his. He takes his own death for himself. He sacrifices his life to destroy the Black Bridge and save the Realms from the onslaught of Utgard. The problem with taking Thor’s death is that, over time, Thor encounters death so frequently that saving him once becomes relatively meaningless. But embracing your own noble end? That can never be taken from Skurge, especially now that Valhalla (and Hel?) is closed off to him. As I said, it’s a kindness as Loki gives Skurge freedom from the burden of Thor’s death by giving him his own, rich in its own meaning.

This is also where we learn how Loki was able to restore the Bifrost in the first issue of this series and why there was a sense of sadness in it. The Rainbow Bridge and the Black Bridge are tied together through magic. It’s confirmed that Gaea wasn’t truly the one to unlock the gates of Utgard: Loki’s recreation of the Black Bridge as the dark opposite of the Bifrost did that. And the destruction of the Black Bridge is also the destruction of Rainbow Bridge, a symbolic (and literal) act that severs not just Utgard from Asgard, but Asgard from Midgard. It’s an act of magic and meaning that’s hard to completely understand. In the immediate aftermath, it places Asgard back in the same status that it occupies in our world, one of stories and myth. Thor was not a founding member of the Avengers, for instance; Beta Ray Bill was – a change that itself raises so many questions still unanswered.

This isn’t the sacrifice that we all knew was coming. Maybe it’s Loki’s sacrifice. Sacrificing Asgard’s connection to Earth to further their ends. It’s also a furthering sacrifice of Thor. Loki specifically goes out their way, as Utgard fades away and Utgard-Loki expresses their admiration at how everything played out, to point out that Thor’s body is still in the dark wood of Utgard and, as Utgard disappears, where exactly is that? It’s ambiguous if Utgard has simply receded into its former place in the story of the Realm Outside Realms, gate locked, waiting for someone to unlock it once again... or has it actually faded into its true beginning place of nonexistence in the story? What is a retcon before it happens? And if Thor’s body is with a piece of continuity that wiped from the story... well, what then?

What does it mean to be free? What is Loki doing? Would you know more?

*

In the middle of this issue is basically a regular-sized comic. The opening of the issue is a sort of epilogue/continuation to the previous issue. This section, drawn by Justin Greenwood, is its own thing. The epilogue/conclusion to The Immortal Thor, actually breaking from tradition by opening with the title of the issue, “The Twilight Kingdom.” Every other issue, including the prologue story in Thor annual #1 has had the title/credits on the final page. Here, it’s on the second page of the opening spread. The title alluding to both the coming darkness/winter and to Ragnarok, the ‘twilight of the gods.’ Except there is no more Ragnarok, because Thor broke that cycle when he sacrificed both of his eyes for the knowledge to see the cycle of fate that he and his people were trapped in. With that knowledge, he was able to use Rune magic to sever the thread of fate, and end the cycle of birth/Ragnarok/rebirth that the Asgardians were trapped in. But, now that Thor is dead and there is no rebirth, he finds himself in Vidbláinn, a sort of limbo or ‘lands of lost souls,’ as he calls it.

Specifically, Thor thinks, “I STAND FOR A THIRD TIME IN THE THIRD HEAVEN--VIDBLÁINN, LAND OF LOST SOULS.” The first time was in the immediate aftermath of his severing the thread of fate that kept Asgard trapped in its cycle. He was freed from the limbo by Donald Blake who was able to lift Mjolnir after it fell to Earth, resting in Broxton, Oklahoma. Vidbláinn became something of a liminal space for Thor and Blake during the J. Michael Straczynski run, a place outside of time and space where each would reside while the other was in the world – and was also treated as a common place for the two to converse. The second time was at the beginning of The Immortal Thor #17 after the Grey Gargoyle had turned Thor to stone and Mr. Hyde had shattered him, and Thor was met by Blake once again. This is the third time and it will, again, involve Blake. I almost forgot the first given how differently Ewing treats it. For Straczynski, Vidbláinn was an endless void, almost peaceful. For Ewing, it’s more like the realm the Mindless Ones come from, albeit where Thor is more a ghost than anything. A real, solid place that lacks all meaningful form and substance.

Prior to his confrontation with Blake, Thor encounters a trio of godly beings that resemble Those Who Sit On High, but may actually be Odin. The inspiration for the trio comes from The Prose Edda, specifically the section called “Gylfaginning (The Deluding of Gylfi)” where various parts of history are related to Gylfi by a trio of kings that are actually all Odin. Per the annotation by Jesse Byock in the Penguin Classics edition that I have: “he was called High . . . was called Third: High (Hár), Just-as-High (Jafnhár) and Third (Þriði) are names for Odin.” (136) Here, the trio are called Hár, Jafnhár, and Thirdi (which seems to be an Anglo version of the original name for ‘Third’) and, like, the trio in “Gylfaginning (The Deluding of Gylfi),” they grant wisdom for the one asking questions – in this case, Thor. But, where Gylfi asks more general interest questions about the gods and other things of the world that result in answers akin to relating facts, Thor’s question get into the area of prophesy.

Hár’s prophecy has already seen fruition in the pages of The Mortal Thor where Odin, seeker of knowledge, has left Valhalla and confronted Lukki about Sigurd Jarlson – and, in the most recent issue, seemed to begin presiding over three trials via Blake, who is acting, in part, at his will. Jafnhár’s trio of predictions are still unfolding with the intermittent looks in on Magni in the isolated Asgard. And Thirdi’s predictions are actually fulfilled in this issue after Thor is confronted by Blake. The actual meaning, though, remains somewhat elusive.

The confrontation between Thor and Blake solidifies Blake as the new antagonist of the story. The Serpent and the God of Lies, stepping into a role once held by Loki. In Ragnarok, Thor and the Midgard Serpent always fight to the death – an idea that Matt Fraction played with in Fear Itself where Odin’s forgotten brother Cul is called the Serpent and becomes a stand-in when they both kill one another (with Loki’s manipulations). Thor and the Serpent are forever tied together, enemies destined to fight and kill one another forever. But, the cycle of Ragnarok was stopped, so shouldn’t the forever conflict between the two have been severed/ended as well?

Instead, what we get is the continuation of the Thor/Serpent conflict combined with the continuation of the Thor/God of Lies conflict. Blake has become the Serpent and the God of Lies and the brother of Thor... three-in-one that reflects earlier, past conflicts for Thor. Blake’s attempt to kill Thor, even in Vidbláinn helps Thor to see what’s actually going on and what he must do. Loki’s narration drops from the first page to the final two of this section of the comic, but it’s apparent that this is all part of the plan. Thor, while blinded from Blake’s blast to his eyes with the hammer from Thor #27-28 that’s a dark mimic of Mjolnir, claims that he sees the spell that Loki have woven around him and, from there, he puts into place the crucial action of the issue:

Saying “FOR IF WE ARE BOTH GODS AND NEITHER MORTAL... THEN BETWEEN THE TWO OF US... / ...THERE IS A HUMAN SOUL THAT GOES  SPARE. / A HUMAN LIFE. / LET THERE BE A NEW SACRIFICE, THEN! A SACRIFICE OF ALL POWER AND PRIDE! OF MYSELF TO MYSELF! A SACRIFICE BEYEOND MERE DEATH! / LET THE WINTER OF GODS COME--/--AND LET IT COME NOW!” Thor strikes the hammer over Blake’s protests, turning to stone and enacting an old spell. Exactly what he does is known in action, but the true meaning isn’t yet apparent fully. Nor what Loki’s end goal is. That’s the frustration of the end of this first act: it’s only the first act. You can speculate all you want (andI will), but that’s all it is. I’ve been wrong before, I’ll be wrong again.

The sacrifice “of myself to myself” that Thor makes brings to life Sigurd Jarlson in the final section of the issue. If he seemed familiar, it’s because Sigurd Jarlson is not entirely new. First appearing in Walt Simonson’s Thor run, he was the replacement human alter ego for Donald Blake, whose existence was ended by Odin when he used that enchantment to allow Beta Ray Bill to transform back to his mortal self. Thor, as we know, is a god of both Asgard and Midgard, and, wishing to continue to reside, at times, on Earth, he created that human identity. It was basically Thor with a ponytail and glasses in a funny play off the Clark Kent/Superman dynamic. Sigurd appeared periodically, got a job working construction, and even lasted into the Tom DeFalco/Ron Frenz run until Eric Masterson and Thor’s souls were joined. That Thor takes the spare human soul that is half his and half Blake’s and this is the human that’s created is significant.

Going back to the Clark/Superman dynamic, I’m reminded of the speech that Bill gives in Kill Bill Vol. 2 by Quentin Tarantino where he talks about how Superman is unique in his secret identity because Superman is his true self, while Clark Kent is the assumed identity, an inversion of most superheroes. He even argues that Clark Kent is a critique of humanity with his traits being the things that Superman sees in us. Most comic fans seem to think this is a simplistic and wrong reading of the character, but it actually works here: Sigurd Jarlson is how Thor wishes to see humanity. As we learn in The Mortal Thor, he’s got a strong sense of justice and fairness, he’s self-sacrificing, and kind. He’s somewhat fearless if it means doing the right thing or protecting others. He’s also emotional and quick to anger. He’s a bit what Thor would be if he were to make himself mortal, which is exactly what he did and didn’t do.

The closest analogy that I can see is the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son where both are meant to be God, but they’re separate and different. Thor Odinson and Sigurd Jarlson are separate, distinct beings... but they’re both Thor. “And Thor so loved the world...” Dig? The most recent issue of The Mortal Thor begins with a page that caught my eye immediately and I’ve been ruminating on ever since. Thor, in Vidbláinn, speaks to Sigurd, giving him advice against the Serpent and says a line that I can’t get over: “I AM DEAD. AND YOU ARE NOT ME. YOU HAVE NOTHING OF MINE...” I know, I should stick to the finale of The Immortal Thor and not skip ahead, but it’s hard to forget knowledge gained...

Sigurd is not Thor, but he’s also not not Thor. He’s Thor without anything of the god Thor. Loki systematically stripped elements of Thor away over the course of The Immortal Thor until, at the end, Thor himself sacrifices everything else except for his idea of what a mortal man should be. The false identity that Thor once put upon becomes real... just as Odin patterned Donald Blake after Keith Kincaid, Sigurd is patterned after Sigurd, and he’s been battling against the enemies of Earth, Roxxon and the Serpent Blake.

Thor’s decision to take the two halves of the human soul to create Sigurd leaves Blake solely as a god and in his role as the Serpent. The Mortal Thor thus plays out as a modern shade of the earliest Thor stories where Loki was his main recurring adversary. Even some of his earliest supervillains have begun to pop up.

And the choice of artist for that series (who pops up at the end of The Immortal Thor #25) Pasqual Ferry is a surprising choice for a story that takes place on Earth. He’s previously had a run on Thor, illustrating the first arc of the Matt Fraction run (which included the debut of Kid Loki... recalled here by Lukki) and the post-Fear Itself story featuring Tanarus and the god-eater. He was also the initial artist of Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle written by Grant Morrison where the New Gods were trapped on Earth as mortals... An artist whose history alludes to so much brought to bear. Also a very stylistic artist whose work would rarely be called realistic. I still wonder how much this is actually the real Earth...

Jumping back to The Mortal Thor #6 briefly, I want to touch on something else. The epigraph for that issue reads “Midgârd’s veor in his rage will slay the worm,” which comes from The Poetic Edda, specifically, “The Seeress’s Prophecy,” which, in my edition, translated by Carolyne Larrington, is from the following stanza:

Then comes Hlodyn’s glorious boy:

Odin’s son advances to fight the serpent,

he strikes in wrath Midgard’s-protector,

all men must abandon their homesteads;

nine steps Fiorgyn’s child takes,

exhausted, from the serpent which fears no shame.

What’s interesting is that there is an annotation at the end of the third line: “Midgard’s-protector: one might expect this to be Thor: véorr, ‘protector’, is used to denote him in Hymir’s Poem. Logically however, ‘he’ must refer to Thor, and the serpent who encircles the earth—thus paradoxically its protector—is the object of the verb ‘to strike’.” That doesn’t like up with the way the epigraph is presented where it’s clear that Earth’s protector will kill the Serpent. But, in this translation, the role of protector is one that’s shared by both Thor and the Serpent depending on your perspective – and the fourth lines of the stanza would suggest that the consequence of Thor striking the Serpent is damage done to the world. It also demonstrates the link between Thor and the Serpent – between Thor and Sigurd and Blake. Separating them is tough, almost impossible. They’re all connected and hoping for outright victory by one could have unintended consequences.

You’ll notice the recurring number three running through this issue and the larger story. Utgard/Asgard/Midgard. Thor/Blake/Sigurd. Valhalla/Hel/Vidbláinn. The three forms of Odin and their three prophecies each. Odin/Thor/Magni. The three trials of both Thor and Sigurd. The three visits to Vidbláinn. The issue is divided into three sections with three artists. This is the final chapter of the first of, presumably, three acts. (You could even place this into the continuum of Immortal Hulk/Immortal X-Men/The Immortal Thor if you’re so inclined.) I also notice it and... yeah, have nothing. But, adding that here just to get it out there.

*

That brings this series of posts to an end. I’ll most likely return eventual for a Mortal Thorsday Thoughts when that series concludes and leads into... I don’t know what the third act would be called. It’s still so early in The Mortal Thor that were it will actually go is hard to say. It’s at the point in its run where The Immortal Thor had just done the first half of the retelling of Thor #272, recontextualising it into Loki’s narrative. It has been a pleasure to work my way through the 25 issues (and then some) of The Immortal Thor and I do hope that you enjoyed my ramblings.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 24

From a pure emotional engagement level, this is a top five Thor comic for me. By this point, there’s always a part of me detached from the reading experience, acting the critic in real time, especially with issues of The Mortal Thor. Part of me trying to fit things together and keep the big picture in mind. This issue was an exception to that mindset as I lost myself in its pages when I brought it home from the shop. Two years of buildup to this issue with the Alex Ross cover of that moment teased from the very beginning. Thor, full of lightning, hammer and axe in hand, bloodied, clothing torn, making his final stand. I remember forcing myself to slow down as I was tempted to almost skim the issue on first read. From the escape from Utgard to the destruction of the gate to the battling of the hordes (“FOR I AM THE GATE.”) to Thor’s triumph and moment of clarity of everything he wants himself to be and then... That final page turn is genuinely shocking. Or it was for me, in one of those rare experiences where you so lose yourself that you allow moments like that to shock you. Now, after admitting that, I’ll put that aside and let it sit in the back of your head.

There are two(ish) comics that come to mind as I reread The Immortal Thor #24. I use the word ‘comics’ loosely to describe a group of issues from two different creative teams. There are a few moments that recall the Walt Simonson run, including Al Ewing and Jan Bazaldua following through on a moment so famous that it was adapted in Thor: Ragnarok: when Thor throws away Mjolnir and grabs Loki, telling him that nothing will stop Mjolnir from returning to the hand that threw it, not even Loki’s head. It’s one of those moments that makes a lot of top ten lists of greatest Thor scenes/moments and it’s one of those rare ‘clever Thor’ kind of moments, so Thor recreating it with Tormod and Mejed, the hooded god of ghosts and mysteries is fitting. His big ‘clever’ moment done with the weapon that represents his wit and wisdom. It’s such a purposeful callback that it’s impossible to miss and has the added level of Loki’s touch. If Loki is the teller of the tale, it makes sense that it would be a common moment between the two that’s repeated... Thor must triumph and will do so with Tormod, so Loki draws upon their shared experience and that influences things. How much happens outside of Loki’s influence/control is hard to tell.

Which leads to the other comic that I’m reminded of while reading this issue: the initial storyarc of Kieron Gillen’s tenure on Journey into Mystery where Loki works behind the scenes of Fear Itself to help defeat the Serpent, even if it means the death of Thor. That story has Kid Loki and his allies doing a variety of things that flitter under the surface of Fear Itself, giving that story a greater depth and meaning. This was the issue where it really felt like The Immortal Thor was Fear Itself with little bits and teases of Journey into Mystery existing somewhere out there and we can’t read it. Like Matt Fraction knew what Kieron Gillen was doing but Marvel refused to publish it, so Fraction grabs a panel here, an idea there, made Kid Loki the narrator, and teased them in Fear Itself, knowing that we’d never know the real story. Except here it’s all Al Ewing and, maybe, at some point, we’ll get something closer to the full story.

The parallels to Fear Itself/Journey into Mystery as fairly obvious with the old gods returning to threaten Earth, Thor standing in opposition despite the prophesized death that will come as a result, meanwhile Loki manipulates events to their own end, and it eventually culminates in Loki ensuring Thor’s death as he triumphs over those old gods. But, taken with the Tormod moment, I’ve been wondering: is this meant to be Loki drawing upon things that happened already? After all, Loki folds in the Demiurge, Atum, the Elder Gods, Utgard, Skurge, Magni, Amora... there are various allusions and repetitions of previous stories. Loki continually throws the past at Thor, pelts him with his own history, albeit in altered forms. Loki tests him (and the way Utgard-Loki tests him!) and has him craft weapons to represent himself. Thor must kill or defeat his forefather gods. It’s a modernist text made up of the history of Thor until Thor moves through it all, defeats it all, makes peace with it all, and we reach that second-last page, that ultimate moment of Thor having overcome everything about himself to reach the moment where he looks around, see Skurge on the Black Bridge and, beyond him, Sif with Loki narrating

And beyond him... just now arriving at the very further end of the bridge, just barely in his sight...

...was she who was his love in song and in story.

In that moment, Thor knew many things, and knew them with a perfect, crystal clarity.

He knew that he had been a fool, but foolishness was over. He knew who his true love had always been.

He knew that time ahead--with her--would be as boundless as the fields of childhood on the very last day of autumn.

He knew that everything would be all right now.

And, then, of course, Loki stabs him with arrow fashioned from Eternity’s Mask and Thor dies. That Thor dies at that exact moment is important, in that moment of total clarity and wisdom, where Thor has such a clear idea of himself, of who he is meant to be, if only on such a personal level as his relationship with Sif. It’s a moment where Thor actually reverts to an idea of Thor, the Thor of the stories in Norse Mythology. He sees Sif and his realisation is that who he is is the Thor of story and legend. Those half-known stories written down in The Eddas where Thor and Sif have two sons and we know nothing of their lives together... where you might as well call it a fairy tale that ends with “and they lived happily ever after.” This is Thor at his most pure as far as an identity is concerned. Not a full person or even a full character... an idea. And, once he’s been stripped down to this, Loki kills him, freeing him of everything that he was.

(It’s probably a coincidence that, beginning with the panel where Mejed dies, right through that final splash where Loki kills Thor, it’s nine panels. Right?)

There’s more to this issue from Utgard-Loki’s metafictional games and their inability to escape the rules of the games to the hilarity of Mejed, the smiter, who is just a muscular man wearing a sheet over his head to look like a ghost. To tie into NRGL coming from Egyptian mythology, Mejed seems to be based on Medjed, “the smiter” who is a pretty minor deity and look like one of the ghosts from Pac-Man with legs, which is pretty much what we get here, except crossed with the Juggernaut a little. But, Mejed being the god of mystery and his defeat being a trial that gives Thor a moment of clarity makes sense. The ultimate mystery is death and Thor seemingly overcomes it to be given a glimpse of what his life is meant to be... before he dies. It’s just a cruel joke, after a fashion.

Next week, the final Immortal Thorsday Thoughts as I discuss The Immortal Thor #25 and Defenders Beyond.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 23

Let’s return to Thor #272, the original trip by Thor and Loki to Utgardhall, later recounted/retconned in The Immortal Thor #6-7. In that original story by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, adapted from The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, Thor and Loki travel through the land of giants, following Skrymir, to Utgardhall where they encounter Utgard, the lord and master of Utgardhall. In the original Edda, it’s Utgarda-Loki specifically named as the king, which is how Utgard is presented in Thor #272. He’s shown as an older man wearing a crown and fur-lined robes, declaring himself “master of Utgardhall,” and, by all respects, the sole ruler of the land. When Loki retells the story, fashioning it into the larger context of Utgard as a Realm-Outside-of-Realms where some of the Elder Gods fled to avoid death at the hands of Atum, Utgard becomes Utgard-Loki as designed by Alex Ross, and it introduces itself to Thor and Loki as “MOON-KING, MONSTER-TAMER, MASTER-MAGICIAN OF UTGARD’S HALL... / ...YOU MAY KNOW ME AS THE UTGARD-LOKI.” It’s a shift from the ruler of Utgardhall to something more nebulous, still retaining the word ‘king,’ but adding a modifier along with numerous other titles. Yet, Utgard-Loki still takes on the grandeur and role of ruler of that Realm... in that retelling and throughout The Immortal Thor when we see Utgard.

So... Kemur, the minotaur at the centre of NRGL the endless city in Utgard, representing the idea of kingship. But, not the king of Utgard? I guess this is where you could argue that my hyper-literal brain is trying to impose too much order. If you look into Kemur/Kemwer, you find yourself into some Egyptian god stuff where Kemwer could refer to Horus or to Mnevis, a bull god, that was originally its own being, but was eventually subsumed into the idea of Atum-Ra as his physical manifestation or as the soul of Ra. The centre of worship for Mvenis was in Heliopolis, a large city and major place of religious worship. Funnily enough, the Mnevis bull was second to the Apis bull... Yet, Kemur is clearly drawing upon, for our purposes, more the Minotaur of the Labyrinth. Ewing is mixing and matching lots of influences, which complicates any background.

But, there are two things about the Mvenis bull that stand out as relevant to Kemur and this issue: that it was the second-most important bull and that it’s conception was eventually subsumed into Atum-Ra. The fact that the Mvenis bull was second to the Apis bull in importance is what I was trying to get at with referencing The Prose Edda and Thor #272: Kemur is second to Utgard-Loki (at best) in Utgard. He may be the embodiment of the idea of a king, but he doesn’t rule Utgard. He’s more like the Minotaur trapped at the centre of the Labyrinth, fed virgins by the King of Crete. He rules his area, but there is a larger world. This strikes at the central point of much of the discourse on kings in this issue, about their cowardice, their lack of rule through anything other than fear and force... Kemur is a pathetic creature living in the centre of a larger god, uninvolved in the true goings on in Utgard, content to sit on his throne and pretend himself important.

That the Mvenis bull began as its own god until eventually becoming the physical embodiment of Atum-Ra is, perhaps, where Ewing began to formulate the idea of Kemur. The big revelation of Kemur is that, when confronted by his half-brother, Atum, the god-slayer, instead of battling him in a battle to end all battles to determine the fate of the Elder Gods, Kemur ran, praying to his half-brother that he wouldn’t be killed. While not subsumed by Atum as the Demigourge, his fleeing is admitting defeat. Atum beat Kemur via forfeit and Kemur’s physical existence is like being an aspect of Atum, a reminder of Atum’s supremacy and power. Kemur is second to both Utgard-Loki and Atum.

He’s also half-brother to Thor (and great-great uncle) being the son of Gaea and Tiwaz. That detail is almost too easy to gloss over in this issue. While Thor, king of Asgard, fighting Elder God Kemur, god of kings, already places Kemur in a place of external embodiment of Thor, by making him share the same mother and Kemur’s father be Thor’s great-grandfather, Kemur is placed that much closer to Thor. There’s a bit of Kemur that recalls old King Thor from the Jason Aaron run. The old king that sits on his throne in his empty city, ruling over no one, clinging to the idea of being a king despite having no true kingdom. The king as tyrant is also a version of Thor that we’ve discussed previously from the Dan Jurgens run and the future that Magni comes from. Basically, Kemur is what Thor could be. The king that rules for the sake of being a king. The Thor that would be weighed down by the idea of Asgard, the burden of his lineage – hence why Kemur is also family.

Kemur is eventually brought low by three things: Thor’s belt that represents his endurance, the assistance of Skurge and Hermod, and Loki shooting the Eternity Mask (now an arrow) right between Kemur’s eyes.

The importance of belt becoming the ring that leads Kemur by the nose is that Thor’s endurance is also his spirit of will. His unwillingness to bend from who he is, to always remain true to his ideals. By using this to defeat Kemur, it’s the dominance of his strength of character over the idea that he could ever become the tyrant king of various futures. It’s also the first Elder God defeated, in part, by one of the magical weapons that Thor brings with him to Utgard. He will face at least two more Elder Gods and he has...

That Hermod and Skurge assist him, fighting alongside him as equals, speaks to his strength as a king. These are both Asgardians that are subject to his rule, but they don’t fight here because he orders them to. There is an element of duty, but earned duty. They feel affection and devotion to Thor not just because of his title, but because he treats them as fellow warriors, equals on the battlefield, willing to fight and die beside them. They follow Thor as their king because they want to. Again, he’s not the tyrant king that commands subjects who obey only out of fear, he inspires them to follow him and be willing to trust in him.

And Loki’s entrance and slaying of Kemur with the Eternity Mask fashioned into an arrow is the first symbolic killing of Thor. The foreshadowing of what’s to come. Loki stepping back into the story to influence its direction, because, otherwise, it will not go where it is supposed to. Ideally, Thor would have come to Utgard with all three weapons, but he only has two, and that’s not enough. Loki kills one physical representation of Thor before they will kill Thor, their narration addressing their guilt and reluctance to do so. But, another element of who Thor is is slain here, stripping him of another aspect of himself, if only symbolically.

Next week, Thor dies for real.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 22

Despite its structural conceit and technical skill, The Immortal Thor #22 is probably the most straight forward issue of the series. Almost all of the usual subtext and themes are sacrificed upon the altar of the gimmick of the issue wherein the majority of the pages can be read either before or after each page that precedes and follows it. I give Al Ewing all of the credit in the world for making a comic that pulls off that feat, because it’s actually pretty remarkable. But, it also means that the storytelling needs to be so precise that the transition between pages is where much of the importance lies. Do you move onto the next or back to the previous? Either way, it must make sense and flow, even in repetition.

The plot of the issue is straight forward: Thor and Skurge, trapped in NRGL, the Elder God that is the endless city, battle their way through the creatures that are also NRGL, encountering both Hermod and Heimdall, both thought lost to a death beyond the Realms. Which, of course, is true, given that Utgard is a Realm outside of the Realms. The conceit of the issue is that Utgard-Loki sets us on the path of the issue and we advance or go back by the flip of a coin. Hence why pages must make sense in either direction. Eventually, when we (and Thor, Skurge, etc.) make it through, the issue ends with the embodiment of the image upon Utgard-Loki’s coin representing heads: the bull/minotaur. Yet, even in a relatively straight forward issue (if you’re lucky), there are still bits and pieces of interest.

The framing where Utgard-Loki takes charge of the narrative, including flat out preventing Loki’s usual narrative captions from addressing is the ‘meat’ of the issue, as it were. The conceit of the coin that moves you forward or back, of leaving your progression to chance or luck – or fate – is meant to mirror the journey that Thor has already taken. Guided by some unseen force that appears random and without motive. Yet, the path is straight, a road that heads in two directions. Even if you seem to go back, the story continues and, eventually, you move towards the fated end. Thor encounters Toranos, manages to progress past that challenge, yet encounters him twice more. Thor passes Loki’s test/riddle... and, then, must solve another. Thor journeyed to Utgard... and so has returned. To go forward, you sometimes go back.

And, like Loki being the unseen author of Thor’s tale, providing a framework and correcting things, we’re also reading a story seemingly constructed by Utgard-Loki – but all of it is really Al Ewing and Jan Bazaldua with Matt Hollingsworth and Joe Sabino. They are the storytellers and the story is their work. Utgard-Loki, the coin, the whole thing... it’s not actually luck or fate, it’s just a comic and the idea that, we in real life, would flip a coin to determine which direction we go is them breaking the rules, in a way. They’re breaking the illusion, which actually works against the point of the comic, which is to show Thor, Skurge, Hermod, and Heimdall trapped in the endless city that is NRGL. Theoretically, the coin technique could trap the reader in the comic, never allowing them to finish it, but it also pushes them out of the comic. After all, how engrossed can you be if you’re flipping a coin at the end of each page? The natural flow of the comic is broken, making it nearly impossible for a reader to actually lose themselves in its pages, even if for a few minutes. It’s oddly paradoxical.

The coins that Utgard-Loki uses are never shown to actually contain both sides. We see each displaying a single side. Whenever they’re flipped, one always comes up tails and one always comes up heads. It’s implied that both contain each a heads and a tails, yet... Utgard-Loki is the archetypal trickster god, so, when it flips a coin right to introduce the idea that we may move forward or back, that the coin flipped is the one that shows heads suggests that it’s all a lie. If you look closely at the panel where it’s turning in the air, you can only see heads, no tails. We’re only meant to move forward. There is no going back. Even the repetition of the past is different, has a different meaning, plays out differently... it’s always moving forward.

The two coins contain various meanings, some of which is told by Utgard-Loki. The design of each is specific, containing both an image and a familiar rune.

For tails, per Utgard-Loki: “THE SERPENT ENCIRCLES YOU AS IT EATS ITSELF. CIRCLES THE WORLD, AN ENEMY PROPHESIED BUT NEVER DEFEATED. / THE COIN TAKES YOU BACK TO WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU’D LEFT BEHIND.” It has the image of the serpent as Ouroboros along with the rune raidho, the rune of journeys. (“Now I’m going back to Canada on a journey through the past...” the man sings.) Looking back, the snake eating its own tail, the way that this comic is built upon the work of the past, referencing it over and over again, a modernist work that is ultimately self-referential. The journey of Thor through time, through stories. But, also, when Thor encountered the riddle of raidho, he crafted Tormod, his ax of wit and wisdom. After all, when taking all of these pieces of the past, of feeding stories into this story, isn’t that showing off cleverness and knowledge? But, the serpent also points to the Midgard Serpent, Thor’s past and future enemy. His past and future deaths. In this series, the serpent is not just the Midgard Serpent, though, it’s Donald Blake. His past self, the other half of his soul, his future self, after a fashion. As Thor moves forward, he’s actually moving back towards Blake. And, as enemies, since they are, in fact, one being (in a sense), isn’t their conflict the Ouroboros?

For heads, per Utgard-Loki: “NOW THE COIN IS WITH YOU. IT MOVES YOU ON, PUSHES YOU FORWARD... BUT TO WHAT? FOR WHAT? / WHAT WAITS AT THE END OF THE MAZE?” It has the image of the bull’s head along with the rune uruz, the rune of endurance. You get through it. You make your way through the maze to the end of the comic. The story goes on and on. Literally, the issue ends with Kemur, the Elder God that looks like a bull/minotaur. But, he’s not the only one that has that imagery. Dario Agger is also the minotaur associated with money. He keeps coming back, his corporation Roxxon a constant threat to Earth, which Thor is trying to save. But, also Utgard-Loki’s head, as it appears to us, resembles the image on the coin. The horns and the skull-like face. After Kemur lies Utgard-Loki. And after Utgard-Loki is Loki, whose headgear also makes them resemble the bull. And both Utgard-Loki and Loki wish to move Thor forward, move the story forward, for their own ends. Just as Dario wishes to progress. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Progress. The line going up? Each bull just another enemy to move past on the way to that eventual serpent thought left in the past. Because you don’t journey through the story, you endure it. You live it.

Later in the issue, Utgard-Loki makes their presence known again with the phrase “THAT’S THE QUESTION, ISN’T IT?” in response to two different questions. Because Utgard-Loki is a liar and a trickster. In this page, we’re almost tricked into thinking that there’s only one coin, that it’s a fair even choice between going back and moving forward. In the second panel, Utgard-Loki holds the tails coin in their right hand (on our left). In the third, it looks like they’ve flipped the coin, now showing heads mid-air, yet the fourth panel, showing the coin in rotation still only shows heads. I can’t see any suggestion of the serpent eating its tail. Because, as Utgard-Loki tells us, the coin is the lie that tricks us into repeating our actions, day after day. Our dreary lives spent in toil for coins to survive, doing the same tasks, living the same routines... except, the coin is actually propelling us forward. Making us think we’re journeying through frustrating repetition while we’re actually enduring our lives, always going forward. Utgard-Loki boiling our lives down to this pathetic imagery as justification for the destruction of humanity at the hands of the Elder Gods.

“HOW MANY COINS ARE THERE? / DO YOU KNOW?”

*

If Utgard-Loki is heads, NRGL is tails... the endless maze, the Ouroboros...

With NRGL, Ewing adds a bit of playfulness and looking beyond the Norse pantheon for the denizens of Utgard. The name seems a reference to Nergal, a Mesopotamian god associated with war, death, and disease, translated from Sumerian as “lord of the big city,” specifically the underworld. Using the dual meaning of that translation, Ewing envisions a literal lord of the big city in the sense that NRGL is a living city, endless (immortal), and able to be whatever it desires. But, NRGL is also a literal underworld in that gods that die in a certain way go to. The underworld that NRGL is lord of is the oblivion that awaits the gods if they die beyond the Realms. Heimdall came here in Valkyrie: Jane Foster #3, while Hermod was obliterated by the Oblivion-possessed Tyr in The Immortal Thor #12. If you’ll recall, Tyr was given to the In-Betweener by Loki in an effort to learn something... perhaps, an alternate route to Utgard?

In Valkyrie: Jane Foster #3, after being killed by Bullseye, Heimdall’s request to not be taken to Valhalla is honoured by Jane in her new role as the last Valkyrie. Instead, she takes him to the edge of the Realms/reality and sets him adrift to cross beyond. We never see what happened, nor is it ever hinted that it could be Utgard. But, just as Loki retcons reality, so too is Ewing retconning his own work to accommodate the needs of the current story being told. Utgard is literally the ‘Outyards,’ the Realm that’s not a Realm, outside the Realms and the universe. The way that Jane takes Heimdall to get there is through Heven and Hades where the anti-Yggdrasil lies. There’s a bit of play with passing through two places that signify an afterlife, but are also not the traditional Valhalla/Hel dynamic that exists for Asgardians typically.

Much of Immortal Thor is spent revolving around various afterlife locations and their relationship with these seemingly eternal gods. The story literally starts with an unending war between the Elder Gods that is ended by Atum who absorbs and digests them, causing them to flee. Utgard is held behind a locked gate, basically an eternal afterlife for the gods that sought shelter there. Removed from existence, it’s a sort of limbo existence. Which is also the way that Vidbláinn is described, the other big afterlife of the series – one that Thor has already visited and will visit again. Where Skurge is threatened to go should he die again. It’s interesting that neither Heimdall nor Hermod went there when they were removed from the universe by different than usual means. And, when Thor dies in Utgard, that’s where he goes. And these various places all relate to Loki’s quest for freedom for all. Die enough times, live enough afterlives, and...?

With NRGL, there are two additonal details that struck me when doing the bare minimum online research. A logogram used for Nergal from the Middle Babylonian period forward is ^dU.GUR, which was originally associated with Ugur, an attendant deity to Nergal. It’s hard not to see the visual similarity to Utgard. Maybe that was what sparked the initial connection.

For comics, the name Nergal also brings to mind John Constantine. Nergal is the demon that Constantine summoned at the Casanova Club to combat the demon summoned by Astra Logue and the result of that is the big moment of guilt that hangs over Constantine throughout his life. Nergal became a regular antagonist to Constantine throughout Hellblazer and is sort of representative of the only demon that holds any upper hand over him consistently, if only because of that initial mental scar inflicted when he was younger. Bringing up Constantine and words like ‘magic’ and ‘trickster’ in relation to Loki and Utgard-Loki isn’t a direct clue to anything. If anything, it’s a very faint allusion where connections are visible without much true meaning. If pressed, there’s something in Loki sacrificing others in pursuit of their larger goal that recalls Constantine’s willingness to let others pay the price for his actions. However, Constantine is usually reactive, while Loki is fully active here.

The final bit on NRGL: the continued use of the word ‘maze’ in this issue is misleading. NRGL is not a maze, it’s a labyrinth. That’s part of the trick of the coins: the only way is forward and there is only one path. A maze is a contained, winding path puzzle with various false branches that shunt off from the one true path; a labyrinth only has one winding, twisted path that you can’t veer off from. That’s this issue, the story. It may seem disorienting and like you’ve gotten lost, but it’s always a direct route from A to B. And, at the end, is a minotaur...

Next week, the minotaur and the king in The Immortal Thor #23.

1 in the 6160 – Ultimate Endgame #1

[While I plan to return to the regular 6 in the 6160 series of posts, stopped dead in its tracks by the daunting task of being a critic mired in traditional western superhero comics trying to reckon with Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men. So, I have retreated and returned via what would be something of a safe space for the likes of me: an event comic. Ultimate Endgame #1 dropped this week, the beginning of the end of the Ultimate Universe, the culmination of the two-year countdown initiated at the end of Ultimate Invasion #4, and Deniz Camp’s first big swing at an event comic after paving the way via The Ultimates. There will be spoilers, so, if you haven’t read the issue yet, maybe bookmark this for a later return – or even just leave it as one of your many tabs that you may or may not read before you either go on a mass-closing spree or your browser crashes and your beloved opened, unread tabs are all wiped from existence like so much a [REDACTED].]

1 – “How do you stand the disappointment?”

Let’s just jump to the end. The dome over The City has opened and our foursome of ostensible heroes (Iron Lad, Doom, America Chavez, and Spider-Man) have entered, or, rather, been sucked inside a new time bubble that contains The City anew immediately after the dome falls. Inside, The City looks like shit. A complete post-industrial nightmare of pollution. The Children attack, they’re unbeatable, until the foursome is saved by Death’s Head 22 and a cadre of Deathloks, and, then, taken back to Immortus, who is presumably Howard Stark, but may also be the evolution of Kang, who was either Howard or Tony Stark, where they’re told that finding the Maker in The City isn’t a problem, because the Maker is The City, cut to:

The central node of the City, a sickly giant tree in the centre, with the Maker’s face as the trunk.

The evolution of The City and the Maker is to become Krakoa.

If Ultimate Invasion set up the path of this Ultimate Universe under the influence of Warren Ellis, specifically Planetary, then Ultimate Endgame ends it under the influence of Jonathan Hickman. What springs to mind, specifically, is the way that this issue uses Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1 as something of a template to reference and respond to. That issue, which began an aborted run by Hickman and Esad Ribić was a genuinely exciting issue to read upon release. It felt fresh and new, and gave off the impression of everything falling apart at once.

Camp uses that idea of various locations where things fall apart in an interesting way. While the Hickman/Ribić issue centres around Nick Fury and SHIELD monitoring all of these situations, including Tony Stark getting taken out, a conflict with Asgard, the appearance of/engagement with The City, and ends with Fury staring into space, eyes wide, declaring that he doesn’t know what to do, the Camp issue approaches the chaos initially as a positive. The world is falling apart in revolution. The chaos is the unmaking of the status quo and, instead of being on the side of Fury and that status quo, we’re rooting for the downfall. It’s a clever reversal that gives the issue a different sort of tension. A hopeful one where it’s building to the moment when the dome falls and The City re-engages with the world.

In that tension is the fear that everything will go south immediately. That all hope will be lost. And that’s what happens. Everything falls apart in a similar fashion to how things go in Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1: where The City sucked in members of Fury’s team there, it sucks in our foursome here. Where death and destruction rains down on Fury’s forces there, it’s Fury that emerges from nowhere to rain down death and destruction on the Ultimates.

The prologue in Ultimate Endgame #1 where the Maker’s destruction of the Eternals is shown even relates to the opening of Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1, which shows the Maker and his batch of Children finding the spot to build The City. Before building his City in this universe, the Maker destroys and replaces another... Olympia is, after all, something of an earlier version of the Maker’s City. An eternal city populated with its superpowered children that are continually replenished upon death. Except, where Olympia is eternal stasis, The City is meant to be eternal evolution. And the Maker becoming The City (and shown as a tree in its centre) is a clear reference to Krakoa, it’s also the Maker becoming the Machine at the heart of Olympia. The Maker has now become what he destroyed and is he now facing a new version of himself...?

One of the key visual similarities that I found interesting is the way that the Children look identical in both comics. When The City reveals itself in both comics, the Children are the same bald beings with the same mechanical attachment, the same uniforms. Camp and artist Jonas Scharf could have gone in any direction with the Children. After all, the Children in Ultimate Invasion didn’t look exactly this way. Instead, they chose the visual callback of that initial encounter with The City and its Children in Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1 where the Children were similarly overwhelming to Captain Britain and his team after they’re sucked into The City.

The biggest difference is that, while I appreciate Ultimate Endgame #1 upon reflection, the experience of reading it was almost the opposite of what it was like to read Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1 when it came out. While Ultimate Comics Ultimates #1 was the beginning of something, Ultimate Endgame #1 is the ending, the one that we’ve been waiting for and anticipating for two years... and what can live up to those hopes? The experience of reading Ultimate Endgame #1 somewhat mirrors the events of it. The anticipation, the waiting, the countdown to the moment... and, then, it doesn’t go how you thought it would. Is that good? Is that bad? It’s an experience, I’d argue and one that I’m appreciating more and more...

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 21

The central conflict of The Immortal Thor #21 is between Thor and Skurge as the former is determined to not let anyone die on his behalf and the latter is determined to die on Thor’s behalf. Skurge’s entire purpose in this series has been to die instead of Thor. For every tease and prophecy of Thor’s death, Skurge has tried to insert himself into Thor’s place, standing before the Utgard Gods, and being struck down while the Thunder God and All-Father may live. It’s why Skurge conspired with Odin to escape Valhalla via dying, why he aligned himself with Amora and Dario Agger, and why he petitioned Ullr to make him a new Bloodaxe. Just as Thor has weapons crafted from his very identity, so too does Skurge have a new weapon tied to his soul. A real unstoppable force meeting an unmoveable object situation, you know? Of course, they both give in. Thor agrees to let Skurge accompany him to Utgard and Skurge agrees to accompany Thor to Utgard.

It all stems back to Thor #362 by Walt Simonson, where, after retrieving mortal souls stolen by Hela, Thor and his fellow Asgardians seek to escape Hel. In the process, it’s revealed that Skurge, who stood against them, had been tricked by Hela into thinking he was assisting Amora when it was another. This revelation causes Skurge to realise that his whole life has been being someone else’s weapon. The Executioner pointed by women in a direction with no agency of his own, treated as nothing more than a pet. “I LOVE, THEY ALL LAUGH AT ME,” he tells Baldur after striking Thor from behind, knocking him unconscious, as the Thunder God prepared to guard the Gjallerbru, the bridge out of Hel, from the pursuing army of the dead. His first real choice for himself is to take Thor’s place and guard the bridge, to protect his fellow Asgardians from Hela’s army of the dead, armed with nothing more than two machine guns. Skurge standing on the bridge, gunning down the dead is an image so powerful that it was used in Thor: Ragnarok. It was an act that resulted in Skurge’s death but also made him immortal. Thor surely would have died on that bridge just as Skurge had, and Skurge took that death, and proved that he was more than Amora’s lapdog.

Over the years, Skurge has appeared and reappeared and, while Thor #362 is held in high esteem, one of the many high points of the Simonson run, that esteem made subsequent creators want to use Skurge – and each use lessened the meaning of that issue and the story is contained. So, Al Ewing used that lessening as fuel for Skurge’s story, his metafictional redemption arc that will culminate with him guarding the black bridge that leads to Utgard and giving his life to sever the Utgard Gods from the universe outside that Realm. It’s a dead simple story and that what makes it work so well. Simple motive, simple payoff, big emotion, big impact. It’s what wins Thor over in this issue as they fight. He can’t deny the longing for meaning in Skurge, a man whose life wasn’t what he wanted it to be, but was able to find satisfaction in death – a death that became increasingly meaningless. By no means is Thor prepared to let Skurge die for him, but there’s meaning in fighting and living, in stopping the Utgard Gods from destroying the Earth and Asgard.

We know that both die and go to Vidbláinn, but, when the two join forces, the dying is unimportant, if only for a moment. What matters is their willingness to stand beside one another, to journey to a strange land, and fight for something bigger than both of them. They’re both willing to die and that’s more important than actually dying, if that makes any sense. Sometimes, it’s the offer...

And, they do enter Utgard here. It seems important that Thor doesn’t go alone, just as he didn’t go alone the first time. If you’ll recall, both Thor and Loki were tested, so it would be unfair for Thor to face the test alone. Something I’ve also been mulling over is that Skurge holds a third weapon tied to his soul, a soul that once took the place of Thor’s soul in death. Is Skurge also meant to be a physical representation of Thor, after a fashion? And, if so, is Skurge’s new Bloodaxe the missing third weapon – or a substitute? Is that why Ullr was willing to craft it for Skurge and tie it to his soul? Knowing that Thor was missing that final weapon, his older brother sought to compensate and give him one, even if it is wielded by another, a soul brother? (As The Immortal Thor #25 and The Mortal Thor has shown, the soul is a key element of this story.) After all, as we’ll see, Skurge’s presence and assistance helps Thor survive the Utgard Gods until Loki kills him, something they said they would do, if needed.

And speaking of which...

Who is ‘Thanos?’ In the context of the issue, Thor is meant to think it the embodiment of Death – his death, specifically, or how he conceptualises it after the vision of his death as presented by the Black Winter in Thor #6 (the Cates/Klein run) where he saw Thanos holding Mjolnir, studded with the Infinity Stones and an army of zombies superhumans (as shown again in The Immortal Thor #20). Yet, why would Death appear here? Does it fit with the rest of the series? And why does Loki’s narration end as soon as the confrontation with Skurge begin here at the gates of Utgard?

Well, I have two theories, each equally plausible: it is actually Loki or Utgard-Loki. I would make separate arguments for either, but I’m not entirely certain it matters which it is. Most of the reasons to argue for either overlap and are complicated by the next issue where Utgard-Loki usurps the narrative and Loki’s narration is nowhere to be found (the only issue where that is the case). That ‘Thanos’ stands on the other side of the gate suggests Utgard-Loki as the more likely figure, half-taunting half-testing Thor in his steadfastness to run towards his fate – his death. The line “NOTHING SO SMALL AS THAT” suggests Utgard-Loki, who usually appears giant (but Loki’s ego putting them above Thanos works as well). It also tracks with the previous visit to Utgard Hall where Thor and Loki first encounter Skrymir, later revealed to be Utgard(-Loki), a disguise before making it to Utgard proper where the true form of the God-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is revealed.

After Thor and Skurge pass through the gates and walk through the giant forest, they soon find themselves boxed in, trapped by Utgard-Loki within the very panels of the comic, growing smaller and small until the Elder God holds them, the storyteller of this Realm. Thor says that they’ve “TRANSCENDED FROM PROSE TO POETRY--FROM HARD TRUTH TO FLOATING, FLOWING METAPHOR,” which is similar to the differentiation between Loki and Braggi. If Loki’s storytelling is prose, then Utgard-Loki is also poetry, metaphorically holding Thor and Skurge within their narrative in Utgard.

Then, was ‘Thanos’ metaphor? A representation of Thor’s fated death, teased by Utgard-Loki, challenging Thor to face it by passing through the gates? I still allow the possibility that it was Loki doing the same, albeit for their specific purposes, knowing that the taunting of ‘Thanos’ would prompt Thor to eventually make peace with Skurge and venture into Utgard with the Executioner at his side. After all, Skurge destroys the black bridge, which also destroys the Bifrost, and that all seems to be part of Loki’s scheme... Perhaps, ‘Thanos’ was merely an assurance that Skurge would be there to accomplish that task.

A slight nudge of the story.

Next week, The Immortal Thor #22, the endless city, and the final death of Heimdall.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 20

When Thor kills Toranos, it’s not the first predecessor that he’s killed. I don’t believe, in the many times that Odin has died, Thor killed him. Nor am I talking about his uncle, Cul the Serpent, when they killed one another at the end of Fear Itself. What I’m referring to happened in Thor #600, during the J. Michael Straczynski/Olivier Coipel/Marko Djurdjevic run, where Loki used his magic to bring Bor, father of Odin, to the present day and cloud his mind so that he saw everything as demonic threats to kill. Despite his efforts to subdue his grandfather peacefully, Thor wound up killing him and, as a result, was banished from Asgard. In a sense, that’s what happens in The Immortal Thor #20.

The central scene of this issue is the return of Toranos, which, at the end of the previous issue, was implied to be a threat of similar scale and magnitude as Toranos’s attack on New York City in the first two issues of the series. Instead, it’s not an attack, but a warning in the form of Toranos nailed to his wheel. “The wheel turns,” as it were. There are two pieces of note in this scene (maybe more once I start working my way through them), so I’ll start with the obvious one that continues my often repeated arguments about the larger story: Thor kills Toranos.

Toranos is the retconned Elder God of Utgard that preceded Thor as a sky god. The original god of thunder and storms. The way that Toranos is presented, in a sense, is as the platonic ideal of the idea of Thor as a god. Thor is meant to be the bastardized watered down version of Toranos. In reality, you could argue that he’s the refined, evolved version of this particular archetype as evidenced by the way that his modern perspective ‘infects’ Toranos and, ultimately, makes Toranos more like Thor. The idea of Thor is a stronger one than the idea of Toranos. But, the idea of Toranos is still the root of the idea of Thor, so, when Thor kills Toranos, he’s killing off a piece of his own identity. Another part of Thor manifested in physical form so, when it is destroyed, a part of Thor is destroyed, all in service of Loki’s efforts to free Thor from being Thor, idea by idea, piece by piece.

However, I’ve also argued that the Utgard-Gods (and Elder Gods at large) are not only a retcon by Al Ewing to build out this older pantheon and link it to Thor for the purposes of this story, it’s actually a retcon made by Loki in their telling of the story. A false sense of the old and the base ideas of the gods to fight against, to overcome, to transcend. Part of what enslaves the likes of Thor and the other Asgardians (and enslaved Loki) are these ideas of what it means to be a god. By forcing Thor to confront the basest idea of himself, one that’s a bit more akin to the Thor of mythology than the current Marvel Comics character, Thor isn’t simply destroying a part of himself, he’s freeing himself from himself. He’s choosing to be something else. When Thor declares that his true power isn’t in the storm, it’s in the power to hold the storm back, he’s stepping out of a cage of what it means to be the Thunder God.

And, of course, the real twist is that Thor kills Toranos not out of malice or anger or hatred. It’s not an effort to kill that part of himself that he wishes to be gone. In essence, when he gave Toranos a sense of him compassion, he did that. Instead, when he kills Toranos, it’s out of the very compassion that set Toranos apart from his peers. Toranos dies at the hands of compassion more than once. I don’t know, that idea makes me chuckle a little. Thor’s compassion for Earth causes him to make Toranos feel compassion, which causes Toranos to argue on behalf of Thor and Earth, which causes the Utgard-Gods to nail him to wheel, which causes Thor to kill him out of compassion. The gods destroy no matter their motives, I suppose...

The betrayal of Toranos also sets the Utgard-Gods in undisputable opposition to Thor. It’s a sign that his fated confrontation with them is unavoidable, as is his death. His victory against Toranos is turned into a defeat. But, it also sets up Utgard-Loki as a more deadly and heartless enemy than previously thought. Until this point, it was set up as the Utgard-Gods against the Asa-Gods, in a sense. The old against the new. And, here, the new had managed to win over a member of the old and, instead of taking that as a sign that an accord could be reached, the old reacted by killing their fallen brother.

Utgard-Loki killing Toranos to further his purposes is also the warning, the message sent to Thor, if he were clever enough to notice. He’s not, unfortunately. As the Skald, Loki is unable to insert foreshadowing that teases Thor’s eventual death via puncture wound at the hands of Loki. If Thor were more observant, he would see his sibling’s all-too-clever warning. “Go to Utgard and your Loki will betray you and run you through until you die.”

*

The epigraph for this issue is a bit of a mystery to me. Said to come from “The First Lay of Sigurd Fafnicide” in The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson, I’ve never been confident that I’ve found it in my copy of The Poetic Edda as compiled and translated by Carolyne Larrington. The epigraph in this issue reads:

                        Now part we, now farewell!

                        Fate may not be withstood.

While it’s not unusual for Al Ewing to reference a different name of a poem, there’s nothing in my copy that quite matches that title. There are numerous poems of Sigurd and Gudrun, but none specifically called the first lay of Sigurd in any way. The closest I’ve come to finding this epigraph is from the last stanza of “A Short Poem about Sigurd” and it’s not as close a match as I’d normally like:

‘Much I have said, I would say more,

if fate granted me more time for speech;

but my voice fails, my wounds are throbbing,

I told only truth and now I must depart.’

There are commonalities between the two and, maybe, Ewing cut down the four lines of the version he’s quoting into two for effect. If you take the second and fourth lines of the version I have and reverse them, it’s a rough approximation of the epigraph of the issue. Looking through the other Sigurd/Gudrun poems, there isn’t any passage that comes close to the epigraph. Proceeding as if what I’ve quoted is the passage Ewing selected, the full stanza is more revealing and fitting for the issue than the epigraph, in a ‘spot on’ sort of way. It very much fits with Toranos’s message for Thor. Probably a bit too much. It seems to narrow in on Toranos specifically and, at best, alludes to the future fate of Thor, though that hasn’t arrived yet.

The epigraph, by contrast, is more vague and general. Thor has three departures in this issue and the epigraph could apply to all three, particularly with the idea that fate can’t be stopped. Thor is fated to die, so, if he didn’t leave Freya or Toranos or Sif when he does, he would eventually. There is no avoiding the fate that lays ahead of Thor.

As this is meant to be the beginning of the end of the series, it’s also a fitting epigraph to begin the final six-issue story. I don’t know if Ewing manipulated the stanza as it appears, but, if he did, it was to great effect.

Next week, I’ll discuss The Immortal Thor #21 and the sacrifice that Skurge hopes to maintain.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 19

The Immortal Thor #19 is titled “Tales of Asgard” after the old backup feature that originated in the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee run. Compared to the regular stories in Journey into Mystery/Thor, those backups were focused more on stories inspired by Norse mythology and driven more by Kirby than Lee. It was a chance for Kirby to really dive into the mythological aspect of Thor and Asgard rather than the regular superhero fare. If it weren’t for that element getting added into the mix and his continued push to have Thor stories take place outside of New York and Earth in general, it’s hard to say if Thor would be the character that he is now. Certainly, The Immortal Thor owes a debt to Kirby’s instincts to delve into what separates Thor from the rest of Marvel’s superheroes.

“Tales of Asgard” takes a different approach from any issue of The Immortal Thor to this point, not featuring Thor and, instead, kind of flittering around the various Asgardian subplots that have been germinating in the title. In addition, each page is drawn by a different artist with regular artist Jan Bazaldua handling bookend duties with the first and last pages. Given the different approach of the issue, I’m going to follow suit and go through it page by page to offer something not entirely unrelated to annotations, but also not at all annotations. The entire issue was lettered by Joe Sabino and, while I’ll indicate the line artist for each page, it’s not clear who coloured what necessarily (but it is in some cases), so here are the credited colourists (I wish I was able to figure it out, but, alas, I’m not that good): Matt Hollingsworth, Espen Gaundet Jern, Juan Ferreyra, Rod Reis, Frank D’Armata, Phil Noto, and Edgar Delgado. (And, if there are any spelling errors, blame me and the stylised font of the credits page...)

Cover (Alex Ross): A nice painting, but misleading cover for an issue where Thor does not appear. It seems like Ross may have been going for something symbolic with the World-Tree in the background and Thor on his throne and, if so, it doesn't land. Given the lead time for his covers, there is the odd one where the painting doesn't quite match the contents. It would have made more sense for a cover focusing on Amora and Magni, or Asgard as a whole somehow. This image suggests an issue focusing on Thor as king, inhabiting that role specifically. You could have swapped this for issue 15's cover and probably had better matches for both.

Page 0 (the epigraph): It’s been a while since I’ve discussed an epigraph for an issue of The Immortal Thor. Unlike some of the early ones, I found that, as the series went on, the choices were less clever and a bit more like Ewing was looking for anything that would fit, even if the connection was rather obvious. Ewing attributes it to “Gudrun’s Incitement” from the Elder Eddas. In my copy of The Prose Edda, it’s the final verse in “The Whetting of Gudrun” and it reads a little less obtuse (or, ironically, poetic):

‘To all warriors—may your lot be made better;

to all ladies—may your sorrow grow less,

now this chain of griefs has been recounted.’

The poem is Gudrun lamenting her past mistakes, even as she just urged her sons to go take revenge for the death of their sister. It’s paired with “The Lay of Hamdir,” which tells of the attempt at revenge. There’s a connection between the way this issue revolves mostly around Amora the Enchantress wrestling with her choices and if it’s worth going through with her scheme for power, while her son from a future that has not existed, Magni, travels Asgard, trying to find a place for himself in this strange world that’s both familiar and different. And, Ewing also chooses an epigraph from a poem that isn’t about the gods explicitly. It’s about people, not focused on the likes of Odin or Thor, much like the issue that follows (though they be gods mostly).

Page 1 (Jan Bazaldua): The issue begins with Sif watching Thor fly away from Asgard while Loki introduces the issue as not being about Thor, but his kingdom – a tale of many tales. We can guess why Ewing would want to shift focus and spent some time with Asgard without Thor. It gives him a chance to advance various subplots and give a variety of characters their own moments to shine. It allows Bazaldua to get a little reprieve from the rigors of the monthly schedule, only drawing two pages in this issue, which, no doubt, allowed her to continue drawing the remaining issues of the series. It’s also a brief pause before the final push to the end of The Immortal Thor. A bit of a breather before Thor’s final confrontation with Utgard ramps up. For Loki, it’s a reminder to us that their plan may focus on Thor, but requires so many others to see through, and this story moves many of them into place. It’s a chance for the Skald of Asgard to tell tales of Asgard, not just its king.

Page 2 (Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding): Introducing one of the recurring plots of the issue, Magni goes off to explore Asgard at the suggestion of Sif. Getting Jurgens and Breeding to draw the page is a callback to Magni’s origins in the run that Jurgens wrote. While Jurgens did step in to draw the odd issue here and there of that run, I’m not sure he ever drew Magni then. Ewing also draws upon the connection that Magni had with Sif in that future where she advises him on the ways that Thor had fallen and who he used to be. Sif acted as a bit of a mentor figure, which is why Magni is so at ease around her. There’s also foreshadowing in the way that we go from Sif watching Thor depart to Magni arriving right away.

Page 3 (Luciano Vecchio): Vecchio lays the page as a singular art piece, using circular images and patterns to give the look of a tapestry or stained glass in structure. The panel at the bottom left featuring Odin, Thor, and Magni is completely ornamental, showing the lineage of Asgard’s throne, while Amora the Enchantress spies on Magni and spells out her plot to have Thor’s power go to her son and, then, if something should happen to Magni, that the power may flow back to his other parent. The bottom middle panel contains the key to Amora, a character that Ewing absolutely nails: “THE MOST TERRIBLE CRIME... TO GAIN THE MOST UNIMAGINABLE POWER... / IS THAT TRULY WHO I AM...?” That dichotomy between the scheme and the guilt defines Amora so often. She’s tempted to do immoral actions for selfish gain, but she knows that they’re immoral and struggles with that. She wants to be good, truly. She’s weak and she’s afraid. She’s felt powerless and alone too many times to not put herself first, because she’s felt that the world doesn’t care. That question about if this is who she is, someone who would bring her son from a future that never happened to life only to kill him for power... It is. But, she’s also going to regret it immediately.

Page 4 (Karen S. Darboe): Amora truly loves Skurge. Not as much as she cares for herself, but, as much as she can care for another being, that’s what she feels for Skurge. Of course, the conflict presented here is laid out explicitly: Amora would save Skurge over Thor, and Skurge wishes to take Thor’s death upon himself. I enjoy the way that Ewing uses Thor’s death as two motives for Amora where she wishes him to die to save Skurge, returned from the dead, and to further her scheme to gain the power of Odin’s lineage. And the tragedy is that Skurge wants the opposite – and isn’t even mad at her. He loves her and accepts her for who she is, even it means being her pawn sometimes. Ewing draws upon the full history of the characters and packs a lot into just a few panels of interaction.

Page 5 (Jorge Fornés) and Page 6 (Juan Ferreyra): The next two pages focus on Beta Ray Bill, a character pretty hard done by in the Donny Cates/Nic Klein run. In the first arc, when Thor became the new herald of Galactus to hunt down and destroy the Black Winter, Bill took exception with this choice due to Galactus killing his people. During the fight between Thor and Bill, Thor destroyed Stormbreaker. While Thor later tried to apologise, making Bill Asgard’s Master of War. Daniel Warren Johnson followed this up in a five-issue mini-series that had Bill struggle with his lack of mortality, trapped in the body of the horse-faced warrior. It sent him on a quest (with Skurge and Pip the Troll) to, first, find Odin to remake Stormbreaker and, then, to take Surtur’s Twilight Sword as a replacement. He actually defeats Surtur, takes the Sword, and beheads the fire giant, which also ties back into his origin where it was Surtur’s forces that destroyed Bill’s homeworld. Using the Twilight Sword, he is now able to transform between his warrior and mortal selves once again. Yet, as we see on these pages, he still struggles. Magni’s words of his legend in the future that will never be bring no comfort and he shuns Sif’s entreaties of friendship and affection. The brief time holding Mjolnir again in the fight against Toranos was enough to remind him of all that’s he’s lost. It’s hard to say if there’s a way out for Bill given the downward spiral he’s endured beginning with the destruction of his people at the hands of Galactus through the loss of Stormbreaker. The DWJ mini is a pretty depressing read of a man who’s completely lost where everything he gains brings no solace. If there’s any hint of a positive in the future, it’s that Bill replaces Thor in the memories of Earth for his superhero history. Unfortunately, that looks like another thing to lose with Bill acting like another physical embodiment of an aspect of Thor as part of Loki’s scheme. I guess we’ll see. Fornés and Ferreyra while not artists of the same style as DWJ bring similar energies to their pages.

Page 7 (Valerio Schiti): Schiti drawing this page is a callback to his first regular work for Marvel, Journey into Mystery with Kathryn Immonen starring Sif. That was the continuation of the series after the Kieron Gillen-written Kid Loki run ended. Sif has been a constant in The Immortal Thor, the other character that appeared in the prologue story with Thor. As Asgard’s guardian and Thor’s ex-girlfriend, she occupies a special place to advise Thor. Here, her page is both a quick reminder that her current role came at high cost, the death of her brother Heimdall, and acts as a transition to the next page...

Page 8 (Rod Reis): In Jane Foster: Valkyrie, Jane took Heimdall beyond where gods usually go, so he could see something he’d never seen before. Ewing co-wrote that series with Jason Aaron at the time and, here, we get to see where Heimdall has gone after his death. The living city in Utgard where Hermod has also gone, obliterated by Tyr earlier in the series. This is a bit of a tease for what’s coming in the series and Rod Reis’s art style gives it an otherworldly feeling, somewhat reminiscent of Mike Del Mundo’s time on the title.

Page 9 (Juann Cabal) and Page 10 (Gleb Melnikov): Another pair of pages that seem to go with one another, focusing on Ullr, still in Asgard. Page 9 begins with Ullr responding to Loki’s narration, somehow able to perceive their storytelling. There are a few who are able to perceive Loki’s schemes to a certain extent. Usually, it’s been Elder Gods like Tiwaz or Utgard-Loki, or the previous Skald of Asgard, Braggi. When we last saw Ullr, he predicted Thor’s death and seems to be housing Athena and Zeus in the hopes that their influence will change that, though Athena draws the death card for Thor. Yet, Skurge coming to Ullr, asking him to make him a new axe to help steal Thor’s death and this seems to present the Yew-God a chance to assist his younger brother. It’s not quite explicit that Ullr is working to save Thor and, possibly, thwart Loki’s plans, but that’s the implication of these pages. Most of the story plays out in front of us, but I like these little bits that peak behind the scenes to suggest the larger plot, not just Loki’s efforts to advance it, but others who may influence it and may, in fact, be working against Loki.

Page 11 (Steve Skroce): No significance that I can think of for Skroce to draw this page other than he’s a great artist (my affection goes back to X-Man) and it’s the closest you get to ‘empty filler’ in this issue. But, it also hews closely to the “Tales of Asgard” title by having Magni enter a tavern to find the Warriors Four doing what the Warriors Four do in a tavern, and leave. It’s just a window into what goes on in Asgard with Thor’s best warrior friends.

Page 12 (Leonard Kirk): Kirk was Ewing’s partner on Avengers Inc. whose third issue took place in Valhalla, making him an appropriate choice to draw this page spotlighting Odin in Valhalla. It’s just Odin brooding on the impending death of Thor, somewhat similar to the previous page (beyond the similar setting of a tavern/hall) with Ewing taking the chance to give a quick update on a character in the larger Asgardian world. The line “...AND HE DOES NOT VISIT ME HERE...” is possibly foreshadowing of what happens after Thor dies where he does not go to Valhalla as you’d expect.

Page 13 (Cafu): Cafu was the artist on the aforementioned Jane Foster: Valkyrie series, so he returns to draw Amora impersonating Foster in an effort to gain entry to Valhalla. We get Amora’s guilt in the aftermath of her encounter with Skurge as she realises that her scheme cost her the chance to see her son, Iric, who it seemed she wanted to resurrect (and it was he, on the previous page, who alerts Odin to someone at the gates). She comes to Valhalla to see him and is refused entry. As usual, when she wants something, she’ll use every trick at her disposal to obtain it, including impersonating the final Valkyrie.

Page 14 (Phil Noto): Balder was dead before Magni grew, having opposed Thor somewhat early in his reign as tyrant king of Earth in that future. This page is a nice contrast between Balder’s approach to life and what Magni is looking for, which is something more akin to the life that Thor leads. I think it’s sweet that Ewing carved out a page for Magni to spend time with his uncle, who he’d no doubt like very much... even if they have dramatically different ideas of how best to spend their time.

Page 15 (Martín Cóccolo): The original artist of The Immortal Thor returns for a scene between Tiwaz and Utgard-Loki. The more I reread this page, the more hollow it comes across. Two Elder Gods that seem not aligned acting cordial with one another. Tiwaz seemingly fine with whatever plans Gaea and Utgard-Loki have for Thor, Asgard, and Midgard. At first, Utgard-Loki’s final words, promising that they won’t come to Andland, Tiwaz’s realm, repeating the phrase “NOT TO ANDLANG...” seem ominous, like it’s a trick, but, as we see at the end of the issue, it’s merely him alluding to Toranos coming to Asgard.

Page 16 (Lee Garbett): For my purposes, this is probably the most important page of the issue. Lee Garbett was the artist on Loki, Agent of Asgard, which was written by (guess who) Al Ewing. It was the followup to Loki’s adventures after Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers, picking up where Kieron Gillen left the character and ran right up until Secret Wars where the universe ended. Garbett rejoined Ewing in Thor #24/750 for a story that followed from the final issue of Agent of Asgard and led into Defenders Beyond. Which, is to say, Garbett drawing the Loki page of the issue is a good choice. Loki is in the form of the Skald – or the Enemy, if you will. Tiwaz is well aware of what Loki is doing and seems willing to remain at a distance from it. The interaction is interesting given that Tiwaz’s role as an Elder God tied to Gaea and the Utgard-Gods and so on is a retcon by Loki. So, like Ullr and others, Tiwaz is aware of Loki’s spell and storytelling, yet is also captive to it. His passive nature, willing to wander and safeguard his home, somewhat influenced by Loki, because Tiwaz is here in the story and Loki is the Skald. And we get a couple of details about Loki’s scheme, particularly that the confrontation in Utgard is just the end of the first act (which is Ewing’s way of describing the end of The Immortal Thor as well), but also that their involvement is not certain. This plays into my question about the third weapon that Thor was meant to obtain prior to journeying to Asgard – and what the involvement of Skurge thanks to Ullr’s assistance means in relation to that. Loki indicates that they will end the first act if they have to, suggesting that the plan isn’t for Loki to kill Thor as it plays out. That’s the fallback position... A reminder that, while Loki is the storyteller, they don’t have absolute control over the story.

Page 17 (Humberto Ramos): Amora’s story in this issue concludes with her visiting her other son, Alvi. Drawn by Strange Academy artist Humberto Ramos (which Iric and Alvi appeared in), it’s the final step in her attempt to assuage her guilt, looking to Alvi for some sort of comfort. Instead, he reminds her of her numerous schemes that treated her children as bargaining chips for her own gain. What should be cause to have her reconsider her plans to use Magni for her own gain, confronted with her past bad actions, only calcifies her in the certainty that her plan is the way to move forward. She’s hurt and her response is to shut out the world and only focus on herself rather than taking to heart that Alvi says. It’s the classic “If you think I’m bad, then I’ll show you have bad I can be” response.

Page 18 (David Baldeón): The artist of The Immortal Thor annual #1 returns to draw the update on Blackjack O’Hare who came to Asgard in that issue. Here, meeting Magni and seemingly finding that they are kindred spirits, two souls in the search for adventure and maybe helping folks out. It’s a fitting end to Magni’s tour of Asgard and, if he’s to be the next Thor, adds a bit of the cosmic into his story. But, it’s also different from Thor. Thor has never been the type to have a sidekick, especially a cyborg bunny type of sidekick, giving Magni a little bit of his own identity. Yet, it does recall Avengers: Infinity War and that version of Thor teaming up with Rocket and Groot, so Magni is echoing another version of his father that doesn’t exist. You could say that he’s embodying that idea of Thor, in a way...

Page 19 (Gavin Guidry): The new Bloodaxe is forged and Skurge has paid a huge, terrible price eagerly. Ullr seems to have a sense of what is coming and Skurge’s role in it. A third weapon is crafted here, not for Thor, but for who will stand next to Thor... That Ullr leads into the coming of the Utgard-Gods as Toranos approaches the Bifrost could foreshadow Skurge’s role in breaking both bridges with this axe, which spells his doom as well. Like a lot of the references and allusions in this issue, Ewing is fairly subtle. He places words and characters and ideas next to one another with their full meaning often revealed later.

Page 20 (Jan Bazaldua): And it ends back on the Bifrost with Sif, not watching Thor depart, but the coming of Toranos to Asgard, a fitting end to the issue, setting up the next.

There’s a lot in “Tales of Asgard,” much of piecemeal and allusion rather than direct statements of advancing things. After all, this is Thor’s comic and Thor’s story, so there’s only so much that can occur without him. As you dig into the artist choices, most are fairly appropriate for their pages, more than I thought at first glance. This issue reads like a throwaway issue, one of little importance beyond entertainment and as a breather before Shit Gets Real in the final six issues, but it’s not. At least, I don’t think it is.

Next week, we begin the end of The Immortal Thor and The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts.