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.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 18

The return of Magni Thorson was one of those moments that genuinely floored me. I remember where I was when I read The Immortal Thor #17: I had the day off work (maybe the week?) and I did as I often do when I have a Wednesday off – I went to get new comics and, then, stopped for lunch. In this case, it was McDonald’s for cheap Big Mac day and, over my food, I read that issue first. I don’t know the exact moment that I suspected it was Magni that Amora had tricked Thor into bringing back to life, but it was somewhere in the pages leading up to that final reveal. I thought that it wasn’t possible that Al Ewing would bring back Magni and, then, bam, there was the forgotten redheaded child of Thor and Amora from a future that would never be.

The story of Magni Thorson is really the story that Dan Jurgens told with a variety of artists over the final 30 issues of his run on Thor. Beginning specifically with issue 50 (though, of course, that issue flowed out of the ones preceding it) and ending somewhat abruptly with issue 79, it was a story about Thor, Lord of Asgard and, eventually, Lord of Earth. (The end of issue 17 specifically points to issue 68 as the place to begin Magni’s story and that’s technically the first appearance of the character as a baby, but that’s the middle of the larger story.) The cover for issues actually bore those subtitles as the story progressed. With Odin dead, Thor took up the mantle of king of Asgard and began looking to fix Earth. It’s one of those superhero stories that crop up from time to time where the hero tries to fix the world. They end droughts and famine, topple dictators and despots, and basically go to war with the powers that be. The story unfolded roughly as you’d expect complete with nukes, Avengers, and lots of shadowy government plans to stop Thor from his plans. It’s the sort of story that I find frustrating to read at this point as the over-the-top opposition is what turns the hero into the villain that they argue he is. After so much effort spent trying to kill Thor, including decimating New York, Thor eventually conquers the world – and finds him unworthy of Mjolnir in the process.

The story jumps from 2003 to 2020 briefly and, then, to 2170. It’s in that last time period that we truly meet Magni, the prince of Asgard. At this point, Thor is gruff and somewhat cruel, married to Amora, Loki is right-hand head of security, and Magni is a genuinely good person. All of Thor’s typical goodness is in his son. Their relationship is very much an echo of the Odin/Thor relationship with Magni not wanting much to do with the pomp and circumstance of being the prince of Asgard. He befriends a human and, through her, his eyes are opened to the reality of Thor’s rule on Earth – and, particularly, Loki’s role in that, which extends even further than Thor knows into an effort to be the power behind the power, you know? As Magni grows wary of Asgard, he’s led to discover Mjolnir in the ruins of New York, left since 2003 when Thor was no longer able to lift it.

His questioning of his father culminates in him confronting Thor and demanding that he prove himself still worthy by lifting the hammer. It’s a pretty charged scene as Magni is genuinely torn between his love and loyalty to his parents and the ways that he can see they’ve erred. One moment, he’s accusing his mother of marrying Thor solely for the power, the next, he’s apologising. It’s a messy scene that’s only broken up when Desak, Destroyer of Gods returns to kill Thor (awakened when Magni lifted Mjolnir). Father and son team up against the slayer of gods and, through that battle, Thor sees how far Loki has overstepped and realises his own mistakes, finally becoming worthy again of Mjolnir. He then travels back in time, imparts his memories to the Thor he once was in an effort to avoid this future, and the Jurgens run abruptly ends. It was clearly a rushed finale that does given the whole thing a bit of a sour ending. All in all, the 30-issue story takes the tired ‘superhero fixes the world’ plot and actually sees it through beyond the usual point where it ends.

In-story, the reason for bringing Magni back makes perfect sense. Amora knows Thor is meant to die, so giving him a son for the Odin-Force/Thor-Force to pass down to lets her either be the mother of the new king or, as she eventually admits, makes her possibly next in line to receive the power should Magni die. It’s pretty much the perfect Amora the Enchantress type of plot. Hell, there’s even the unsaid possibility that lurks in her mind where Magni’s presence warms Thor up to the prospect of a romantic rekindling. I wonder if that’s the true motive... probably.

I do have two questions: how does Amora know about Magni and why does Ewing bring back Magni? I pose them together, because, as you may suspect, I have a common answer: Loki. (Always Loki!) As I’ve discussed nearly every week, Loki is the teller of this story and, as such, influences what happens to an extent. From what I know, Thor has never told Amora about the future where they were married and had Magni (though my memory may be faulty, of course), leaving that gap sitting oddly. Unless the idea was planted by the Skald, making Magni’s arrival have a purpose in the larger goal of securing the freedom of everyone.

I’ve argued that part of Loki’s efforts is to break down Thor piece by piece, separating ideas of him from his physical self. This is why the weapons that Loki, in the form of Thor’s Enemy, spurs Thor to create to escape their rune riddles (runes that come from Thor’s own name). Bit by bit, the very ideas of Thor are being scattered, made physical apart from Thor himself, leaving what? A shell that’s called Thor but contains nothing that makes Thor. By bringing back Magni, another part of Thor is made physical. That other self, the future tyrant that he never became, those memories are given physical shape in the form of the person from that time that Thor would love best, would be most happy to see. Magni is the physical embodiment of that part of Thor. Just as the weapons don’t actually remove his wit or his endurance (or his worthiness), the memory remains, yet it also has representation outside of Thor. And in the world of Asgard and magic, ideas made physical can be quite powerful.

More than that, there’s an element of disconnect between Magni and this Asgard. When Thor dies and his power flows to Magni (as shown to be true in The Mortal Thor #4), there’s incongruity at work. Magni is Thor’s son and prince of Asgard, but he’s not this Thor’s son nor prince of this Asgard. By having the legacy of the Thor – which means the legacy of Odin, Bor, and Buri aka Tiwaz – go to someone not truly of that legacy, it severs the connection possibly. Another major piece of Thor and his lineage is sent away from him, made physical in another, and cut off from the source. The very idea of Asgard is separated from the Elder Gods yet is still of Asgard, in its own way.

Going beyond the larger plot (a little), Magni also represents something else, related to the weapons of Thor: immortality. This comic is titled The Immortal Thor and we should be asking what that means. We know Thor dies, so how can he be immortal? There are many ways. The use of the Eddas points to the largest one: Thor exists as an idea, a story. Thor the Marvel Comics superhero exists because the idea of Thor lives on in Norse mythology through works like the Eddas. As I’ve said, the weapons of Thor break him down into ideas. The traits of Thor come to represent him and carry on what he was. That’s part of what Loki is trying to do, just as Loki was able to free themself from the shackles of the idea of Loki to become something new, whatever they wished, they’re trying to do the same for everyone else. Yet, the ideas of who and what Loki is still remain. Loki as a being may be free of those ideas, but they linger on as a shadow self, in a manner. The idea and the person.

Another way of achieving immortality is through children. Thor had vowed not to have any children to this point, not wanting the burden of Asgard to be forced upon his child. That would make Thor synonymous with Asgard (which is what we saw in the King Thor of Jason Aaron’s run), tying the two together. By Magni arriving, by having a child to pass down something of himself, that severs his one-to-one link to Asgard and gives him another method of immortality. When he dies, there will still remain Magni Thorson. As the lineage is broken, it also retains continuity in a sense. It’s a bit of contradiction, I admit, but, sometimes, ideas are two things at once.

There’s also the idea of Magni acting as a double for Thor. As we’ve seen in The Mortal Thor, he’s becoming something of a replacement for Thor. It’s a common trope in superhero comics for the new version of a character to take over for the old one. It’s happened to Thor before with Eric Masterson and Jane Foster, so why not Magni? And, in that way, it’s another way to separate an idea of Thor from the specific person. Every ‘replacement’ version of a character is simultaneously that specific hero and something different. They embody the idea of the hero and bring their own elements to it. Miles Morales is Spider-Man, but he’s not Peter Parker Spider-Man, you know? Magni assuming the role of successor of Thor and, in a way, new Thor, somewhat separates the idea of superhero Thor from Thor.

More than that, this issue and the confrontation with the New Gods of Midgard further separates the idea of Earth from Thor – which will come into play when Asgard is severed literally from Earth and Sigurd Jarlson finds himself in New York. It wouldn’t shock me if Magni finds a way back to Earth at some point, but I could be way off... We’ll see.

Next week, it’s The Immortal Thor #19, the ‘Tales of Asgard’ artistic jam issue, and I’ll use it as an opportunity to talk about the Daniel Warren Johnson Beta Ray Bill mini-series.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 17

I don’t like Donald Blake. If you’ve been reading my writing on Thor going back a ways, then this isn’t news. As much as there are elements of J. Michael Straczynski’s run on the title that I enjoy, bringing back Blake was the biggest mistake he could make and it’s one that’s posed a challenge for subsequent writers ever since (save Jason Aaron who, rightfully, took the gift that Matt Fraction left him). Almost everyone hails Walt Simonson’s time on the title as the creative high point of Thor comics and, besides introducing Beta Ray Bill, the main thing he did in that opening four-issue story was eliminate Donald Blake. Blake was a remnant from the early days of Marvel where most of the heroes were rooted in weak ‘everyman’ types of characters that Thor had outgrown long before Jack Kirby left the title. The character and his world had evolved to the point where Thor having a mortal alter-ego was a detriment to the title, an albatross around its neck. Sure, it makes for a nice contrast for a story, but, in the longterm, having Thor weighed down to a human doctor is more hindrance than help.

More than that, Blake has been the source of so many retcons, beginning with Stan Lee doing the first (Blake was a creation to house Thor’s spirit – there was no Blake) and, then, Roy the Boy adding his own spin (actually, Blake was real) and JMS bringing him back. At least when Simonson wiped the enchantment from existence and Blake was no more, Blake was genuinely no longer a concern. By bringing him back, it always raised questions about his right to a life, to a soul, to what Odin owed him, to what Thor owed him, and the fact that those questions would never be resolved. Never. They absolutely, one hundred per cent will never be resolved to any satisfaction, because, at some point, Thor will always revert to the mean. Thor will always be Thor, so there is no room for Blake. The best you could hope for was he was an invention and he’s wiped from existence ala Simonson, or he’s sidelined and given a false life in a dream that will keep him content forever ala Fraction. That was the best you could hope for unless you’re going to make him the villain.

And that’s what Donny Cates did in Thor #9-14 in the “Prey” arc. He both ignored and used where Fraction had left the character, a bodiless head in the real world trapped in a dream world where he could have a full life. Cates conflated that dream world with the place where Blake would go when Thor was in the real world – a place created by Odin. The plot is basically that the Midgard Serpent worms his way into this place and tells Blake the truth about his existence there, causing Blake to go mad, slaughter everyone there, find the remnants of Odin-Force in himself (because he had that somehow as construct of Odin), overpower the Serpent to take his power, and, when Thor frees Blake so he can go to that place, as it’s also a place to commune with the Elder Gods, Blake breaks the cane, and goes on a killing spree of anyone with remnants of Odin and Thor’s power. By the end, Thor is free, Blake is defeated, and Loki makes Blake the new god of lies, placing him below the serpent that drips venom in his eyes.

It doesn’t end there. Instead, we come to another semi-essential Immortal Thor companion read: Thor #27-28, issues that came at the end of Cates run, around the time that he experienced the car accident that left him unable to write for quite a long time. These two issues are quasi-prologues to The Immortal Thor, co-plotted and scripted by Al Ewing. At the time, Ewing stepping in to work on these issues seemed driven by the guest appearance of Venom, whose title Ewing was (and still is, I suppose) writing, but it wound up being a bit of a tease for what was to come. For our purposes, what matters is that bits of a Symbiote combine with bits of Promethium and that drips along with the venom into Blake’s eyes. That is where we last see him until The Immortal Thor #17. In an early interview for The Immortal Thor, Ewing acknowledged the way that Cates’s run was cut short and indicated that the only request Cates had about Ewing’s work on the title was to leave Blake alone, that he had plans for him. I guess, by this point in the run, that had changed, because this is where Blake takes his first steps into mattering in the grand scheme of things.

Ewing places Blake in an unexpected role based on where Cates (and Ewing) left the character: he’s now the middle ground between Thor and Loki, in a way. He’s still connected to Thor, sharing a soul, after a fashion, but he’s also stepped into Loki’s old place as the god of lies, the nemesis of Thor. But, he’s also positioned as the Serpent, the enemy of Thor at Ragnarok. He occupies numerous roles, becoming a weird centre to things. It’s a difficult role to fully unpack and seems to be playing out in The Mortal Thor currently, a story that I’m not entirely convinced is literally occurring... at least, not in the same way as The Immortal Thor.

There’s one part of Blake’s appearance here that confuses me; or causes me pause, more accurately. Enough to send me to back issues, leafing through frantically, trying to find the referenced event. After Thor’s physical body was turned to stone by the Grey Gargoyle and smashed into pieces by Mr. Hyde in the previous issue, in this issue, he finds himself in Vidbláinn with Blake. After a quick recap of recent history, Blake says that they can speak with one another there due to Thor’s spirit being there, “AS WE DID ONCE BEFORE. / REMEMBER WHAT I SAID TO YOU THEN? / ABOUT MIDGARD’S END?” and, then, Blake shows the burning ruins of a city and says that this is the future if Thor isn’t there are the right time, in the right place, to stop it. What stopped me is that I don’t remember these two ever speaking before on this topic. I did some back-issue flipping and it doesn’t occur in “Prey” nor issue 27 and 28, not after that and not in The Immortal Thor that I can find.

I don’t think they ever did speak like this before. It’s presented so matter of factly and is about an idea that we’re quite familiar with in this run, so, on a cursory reading, it seems perfectly normal. Except, Blake is the god of lies, picking up the mantle and power of Loki. He lies to Thor, positions himself in a role he’s never held, and it becomes a fact, of sorts. The story changes. Ewing plays with this idea when Blake shouts “DON’T I HAVE AN HONEST FACE?” while reverting to his Symbiote/Serpent look. While Blake is now a hybrid being, someone who shares aspects of many, a Chimera, it seems that his specific role in this story is to share a piece of Loki. His reference to Thor dying means that he’ll die or, “MAYBE IF YOU DIE, I’M FREE.” rings some bells regarding Loki’s apparent purpose in the grand scheme of things.

The ensuing attack on Thor by the creatures of the Vidbláinn while Blake watches seems like another dry run/test to see what may or may not happen if Thor were to die, for real. What sort of freedom would that mean, for Blake... for everyone? This is a preview, of sorts, of what transpires in The Immortal Thor #25 where Thor does sacrifice his after-life and what that means. And, if you’ve read that far ahead, you’ll know that Blake doesn’t die when Thor dies. Only his soul disappears, leaving the Serpent. My theory is that Blake is part test case for Loki, part aspect of Loki ala Utgard-Loki. A tool to advance their cause.

For me, this doesn’t necessarily redeem Blake as a character. He’s fallen into a role somewhat similar to that of Ben Reilly, a character I actually quite like. As a clone of Peter Parker, he’ll never get to be the real Spider-Man. He’s occupied the role on a couple of occasions for a time, but, due to the real world nature of the franchise, much like Blake holds back Thor, Reilly can never be Spider-Man. But, the character keeps getting brought back until that metafictional reason for his inability to live his preferred life is used as motivation to become a villain. That is what I truly hate in modern superhero comicbooks: when editorial reasons is used as in-story justification. Blake will never be a proper person because Thor will always be Thor. Reilly will never be Spider-Man, because Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Instead of using these realities as reasons to not engage with characters whose stories are confined, they’re instead twisted and reshaped, tried to be made useful and interesting... I’m not convinced that Ewing will pull it off with Blake. Maybe not to my satisfaction, at least.

Next week, I’ll discuss the implications of the second half of The Immortal Thor #17 via issue 18 and revisit the Dan Jurgens run with Thor #68 specifically, but maybe more.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 16

The villains that Al Ewing chooses for Dario Agger’s group of “Gods of Midgard” are amongst the oldest to appear in Thor stories in the comics. Not a complete list of the oldest – even the oldest human villains – but amongst them. All four predate other human villains like the Absorbing Man or the Wrecking Crew. In most cases, the four chosen have gone on to actually be villains more for other heroes than memorable as “Thor villains.” Mr. Hyde is probably thought of as a Daredevil foe more than Thor’s – while the Radioactive Man has had a lot of appearances over the past couple of decades in a variety of places, most notably as a member of the Thunderbolts. Grey Gargoyle even had a moment as a bit of a major Iron Man villain thanks to turning Paris to stone in Fear Itself. Looking through their respective histories, all four are very much characters of the Marvel Universe at large with only the Grey Gargoyle actually appearing in a Thor comic proper in the 21st century. Basically, after their first appearances in Journey into Mystery, they all went off to be villains at large rather than staple Thor villains.

Their first appearances, both in comics and as Thor villains, occur over a 21-issue span of Journey into Mystery, beginning roughly a year into Thor’s time headlining the title. During that first year and interspersed were a variety of other villains like Loki and other Asgardian threats, several low-level human threats that kind of fizzled away, and one human threat that remained a somewhat recurring Thor villain, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man. Radioactive Man is a bit of an outlier, but, once Human Cobra (as he was originally known) is introduced in issue 98, nine of the ensuing 16 issues featured Human Cobra, Mr. Hyde, and Grey Gargoyle in some combination:

Journey into Mystery #93 – Radioactive Man

Journey into Mystery #98 – Human Cobra

Journey into Mystery #99-100 – Mr. Hyde

Journey into Mystery #105-106 – Human Cobra and Mr. Hyde

Journey into Mystery #107 – Grey Gargoyle

Journey into Mystery #110-111 – Human Cobra and Mr. Hyde

Journey into Mystery #113 – Grey Gargoyle

Their order of appearance in Journey into Mystery is how they show up in The Immortal Thor #16: Radioactive Man, Cobra/Mr. Hyde (same panel, teaming up), and, then, Grey Gargoyle. There are other allusions, like Radioactive Man’s arrival in New York recalling his original arrival in the city, walking through customs with impunity – or the way he tries to discredit Thor in front of the police being a variation of his original hypnosis of the hero, or even Thor throwing Mjolnir away. And the attacks of the other three are pretty much what those three do. It’s all very effective. Further disrupt the idea of Thor as a hero on Earth and, then, kill him. But, why these four? Of all of the superhumans that Dario Agger could recruit, why these four who have failed so many times before?

As Thor follows the body of the Radioactive Man across town as it’s propelled by Mjolnir, he thinks “[...] I AM MADE TO SEEM THE VILLAIN--AND HE THE HERO. NOT AN AUSPICIOUS START, THOR.” And so we return, once again, like a broken record, to the teller of the tale. Part of Thor’s identity is tied in his superhero persona on Earth and, if Loki is to destroy all that makes up Thor, then that part must be targeted as well. Amora, Skurge, and Dario did part of the job with their Roxxon Thor, but that still left lingering doubts. What Thor is real? If there are two, which one is good? Which one bad? There’s no way to know. So, you go back to the beginning and his earliest superpowered human villains, all working together to, first, make Thor seem the villain and, then, kill him – at least in a manner that will last on Earth. They supplant the God of Thunder as Gods of Midgard, filling the void his absence leaves. That seems important somehow: something for something.

I know, I remain fixated on this approach to reading these comics, but I can’t see any other. It’s all one story with one direction and purpose. For any of these issues to be throwaway stories that don’t contribute to that larger story seems wrong. Maybe it’s right, who knows. I’ve decided to give Ewing more credit than that with respects to this story.

The way that Thor’s image is meant to be remade before some of his earliest villains kill him is a variation on a retcon. By reliving those early days, it’s like a retcon in real time. It doesn’t change the past at all, but it does change the perception of the past. Like, maybe Thor was always bad and these four were always good, that everyone misinterpreted what happened. A spell that travels back through time, remaking history. It’s not entirely dissimilar from Skurge destroying the bridges and that disconnecting Thor (and Asgard) from Earth. The events remain, but something shifts. This would be more of a collective delusion than that, though. Like a reinterpretation of history where the facts aren’t so much in dispute as what they mean is. It fails, of course. I’m not convinced that it was ever meant to work completely, its true purpose to add to the cumulative effect of knocking bits off Thor until nothing is left, reducing him to bits and pieces, literally here.

Next issue, we’ll keep on following this path with a look at the human side of Thor’s soul in The Immortal Thor #17 and what exactly Donny Cates did to Donald Blake.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 15

The three weapons that Thor must gather in preparation to journey to Utgard is a subplot of the run with Loki in his form as the Skald and Enemy of Thor pitting Thor against the riddles of himself via rune magic to have Thor earn these weapons. What I find interesting is that Thor is known for his trio of weapons/tools of great power, as described in The Prose Edda: “He, too, has three choice possessions. One is the hammer Mjollnir. Frost giants and mountain giants recognize it when it is raised in the air, which is not surprising as it has cracked many a skill among their fathers and kinsmen. His second great treasure is his Megingjard [Belt of Strength]. When he buckles it on, his divine strength doubles. His third possession, the gloves of iron, are also a great treasure. He cannot be without these when he grips the hammer’s shaft.” Despite these being the three items Thor is known for, these are not the three weapons Loki has him earn.

In The Immortal Thor #15, Thor resolves the problem of absorbing the power of Zeus by channeling it into a belt that can house it and help him contain it, Yolgjörd, not Megingjard, despite acknowledging the idea of Thor’s belt of power by mentioning that Thor fashions Zeus’s power “Into the shape he associated with his strongest self.” That gives him Tormod, the ax that holds his cleverness and, now, Yolgjörd, the belt that holds the power of Zeus. Now, these are both variations on his known tools, Mjolnir and Megingjard, which suggests that the third weapon (never obtained due to his banishing Loki in this issue) would be a play on his gloves of iron. Al Ewing doesn’t give Thor the weapons he’s most known for: he creates new variants. It’s a surprising choice for a run that references the mythology of Thor and the Aesir so much, but is rather keeping with his approach.

While Ewing draws upon the stories found in the Eddas for inspiration, weaving elements into existing Marvel continuity, and expanding details into something quite different, it is all in the service of something new. The Immortal Thor exists in a place beyond the Eddas with Odin dead and Thor as the king of Asgard. To have Thor gather his familiar tools would mean that he’s still the same Thor, that he hasn’t grown or learned or increased his abilities. But, Thor is still Thor and these are riddles of runes related to his name, so the weapons he would fashion to solve the riddles would still conform to the ideas associated with him. Instead of a hammer, he makes an ax. Instead of a belt of power, he makes... er, a different belt of power. Or, more accurately, his endurance. These new weapons, while recalling the old, do serve different functions. If the original trio were all centred around Thor’s strength and ability to fight, these new ones are more subtle, representing his wisdom and his endurance, things needed more by a king than a warrior possibly.

Looking ahead and at the third unknown weapon, I’m left wondering what it would have been and how Thor having it would have changed anything. He doesn’t get it due to his exiling Loki here, somewhat out of nowhere. Yet, if you’ll recall, Thor dies in Utgard not because he was lacking in magical weapons, but because Loki stabbed him through the back with Eternity’s Arrow. Moreover, that was Loki’s plan it seems all along, so how could a third weapon have saved Thor? What would have been different?

Or, perhaps a different question: where does the idea to banish Loki come from? This is a story told by Loki and I’ve theorised that certain elements of the tale come more from the teller than anything else. As Thor threatens Loki, they don’t seem particularly bothered by their brother’s anger or what he may be about to do. I don’t think Loki makes Thor banish them necessarily, more that the teller of the tale nudges things in a certain direction and Thor is more than glad to see it through.

That said, given the nature of the magical weapons and their origin, I don’t see the point in Loki pushing for their own banishment. If the goal of their plan is to somehow use Thor to free everyone, then not following through on the third weapon seems like an impediment. Each of the weapons were obtained/created to solve/answer a riddle – a rune-magic riddle featuring a rune of Thor’s own name. More than that, the weapons represent a part of Thor’s self. So, he externalises a part of himself to overcome another part of himself. Using himself to cancel out himself. It suggests a plan that involves Thor eliminating pieces of himself metaphorically until there’s nothing left, freeing himself of himself. Add that to the idea of the Utgard gods being an invention of Loki, a magical retcon generated when they recreated the Bifrost and they become further externalised ideas of Thor and the other gods. Toranos is the ur-skygod, Utgard-Loki, the ur-trickster, etc. And who is Thor set against as the seeming architect of their unleashing on the world? His own mother. It is about Thor fighting against parts of himself and it doesn’t seem like denying a third (or fourth or fifth or, etc.) weapon that places an idea of Thor in the physical world, outside of him, to be the smart play.

But, Loki is part of the story, too, and the teller must be true to the tale, eh?

The topic of the belt had me thinking about the last time he wore his belt of power. For all that the belt and gloves are associated with Thor as an idea, they’re not tools he often resorts to using. Over the decades of comics, there’s only been a handful of times that he’s wore either. Their most notable use was by Red Norvell when he sought to replace Thor, first to take Sif, and, then, at the behest of Odin when Thor chose Earth over Asgard. The main time that I can recall Thor wearing them for a specific purpose in a big way was at the end of the second year of the Dan Jurgens/John Romita, Jr. run on the title when Thor battled Mangog and Thanos (or a clone of Thanos), and needed further weaponry to be able to match the power of the two of them.

Odin enchanted the Belt of Power, Shield of Life, and Gauntlet of Tomorrows for Thor to use against them. In the original issues, the story ends with the hero triumphant. However, in Thor #24/750, Dan Jurgens returned with numerous past creators to tell the story of the immediate aftermath where Thor refuses to give the enchanted weapons up. Odin, realising that the power is too great for Thor, that he would soon give into it too much, is forced to demonstrate the danger of keeping them. Faced with the returned Mangog, Thor battles the beast for hours and, as he is about to go for the kill, Odin removes the illusion and Thor is faced with Balder, who he has been fighting the entire time. The shock of nearly killing his friend in a battle rage causes him to see how far he’d given himself over to the weapons.

What Thor does with the power of Zeus, using it to create a belt to house it, separate from himself, stems from this lesson. The endurance he has isn’t to simply withstand the onslaught of Zeus and to channel that power, it’s to endure the temptation of the power. Much of this run is about Thor considering the great power at his disposal and how he wields it. When he tricks Toranos into taking on the power of Thor, he tells the Elder God that the power of Thor is the power to hold the storm back, to not give into the urge to unleash all of his might. While it’s a recent story, Ewing has been drawing upon the Jurgens run quite a bit – and has a story himself in the same issue, one that bridges the gap between the end of Loki: Agent of Asgard and Defenders Beyond, but that’s for another time.

And that’s why his banishment of Loki surprises me enough to think that Loki had a hand in it. Compare it to how Thor handles his audience with Amora later in this issue, and his treatment of Loki seems reactionary. In this run, Thor is usually more thoughtful and even-tempered. But, right after crafting the belt, he lashes out at Loki and banishes them from Asgard. It stands out.

Next week, I’ll discuss The Immortal Thor #16 and dive into the villains of the issue.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 14

And so we come to the fifth comicbook released during the time of The Immortal Thor that ties into it and could be incorporated into the ‘official’ canon that is this story: The Immortal Thor annual #1. It has the obvious signifiers of being somewhat essential or quasi-essential or, at minimum, worth slotting between issues of the monthly like written by the series writer, Al Ewing, and explicitly mentioning the larger plot points of the series, and events from this issue popping up later (Blackjack O’Hare, specifically). There’s one crucial detail that separates it, though, like Avengers Inc. #3 that makes it maybe less essential than other comics related to this run:

It’s not narrated by Loki.

If there’s one common feature across The Immortal Thor it’s Loki’s narration. I would argue that it’s the most important element of the book, the key feature that colours everything we experience yet is almost invisible. Ewing’s choice to tell this story through Loki telling the story is important and has carried on into The Mortal Thor, because this story is as much about Loki as it is Thor (maybe more). Avengers Inc. #3 being narrated by Janet Van Dyne like every other issue of that series makes sense and, while tying into The Immortal Thor, still functions very much as its own thing. The other tie-in issues all function as an extension of The Immortal Thor and they’ve all followed the lead of the main series in their approach with Loki narrating and folding into his larger story in some way.

Now, Roxxon Presents Thor #1 doesn’t feature Loki’s narration specifically, either. However, as I discussed in my post on that issue, the nature of that comicbook meant that Loki’s narrative influence is subtle yet still felt. Plus, that issue was something else entirely, a fiction within the world of the comic we’re reading, so it would naturally get a little latitude with how it functions. This annual, on the other hand, is firmly within the same world and, if it’s meant to be part of the larger narrative of The Immortal Thor, should function by the same narrative rules.

Ewing acknowledges this in the issue, actually. The annual is the third in a series of connected summer annuals that tell the story of the formation of a new Infinity Watch, each annual focusing on one of the Infinity Gems Stones, with this one being Power. It revolves around the Champion’s quest to regain the lost Stone, Thor seeking it out as something to assist with his conflict with Utgard, and the current holder, Powerstone. Thor’s entry into this story has him talking with Loki, recapping for those who haven’t kept up, and, at the end of their scene, Loki tells Thor, “HEED MY WARNING, THOR. I CAN’T HELP YOU--NOT WITH THIS. / IT’S NOT MY STORY TO TELL.” At which point, Powerstone’s narrative caption pops up with “TOO RIGHT! IT’S MY STORY!”

This is fairly explicit in passing the narrative baton from Loki to Powerstone, so the lack of Loki’s narration is a purposeful choice on the part of Ewing. There are a few reasons that I can see for this choice. The first is that he wants to keep this annual at arm’s length. Unlike the other tie-in comics, this one truly does not factor into the larger story and he doesn’t want to pretend like it does. Ewing has a habit of being an excellent team player in that any way he can have his books join in, he’ll do it. He’ll find a way to bend his story to fit whatever event or crossover is happening, and, usually, do it quite well. Given The Immortal Thor’s popularity at the time, it’s likely that Marvel was going to do an annual with or without Ewing and he volunteered so it could fit in with the main series as smoothly as possible, while still keeping it at arm’s distance.

Which leads to the second reason: this isn’t his story really. This is an Immortal Thor comic that’s actually part of another story, so he’s making a little meta joke about the way that this is part three of the Infinity Watch annuals where Derek Landy is the actually the main writer (and writes the backup feature which is a story running through all of the annuals). Unlike Giant-Size Thor #1, which was also part of a separate line of titles, that one was more a thematic line of ‘Giant-Size’ issues where Ewing could do a little one-off that thematically works with the larger Immortal Thor story while not being absolutely essential. This issue is less thematically related and more plot-related in a manner that does not matter.

And, as it is not Ewing’s story really and it does not matter, by making it Powerstone’s story, it allows for Ewing to lead into a style and tone that doesn’t quite fit with the monthly series. This is a bit of a goofy slapstick issue that fits quite well with the himbo nature of Powerstone. If Loki were telling the story, it could still be funny, but it would be a different sort of funny. It would be witty and clever, while this is broad physical comedy akin to a Jim Carrey movie or a Looney Tunes short. While I was critical of issues 11 and 12 with the introduction of Braggi’s narration not actually altering the tone of the issues in noticeable way, Loki passing off the telling to Powerstone does make a marked difference in how this issue is told compared to the monthly.

Altogether, it creates an effect where it’s an Immortal Thor comic written by Al Ewing, but it’s actually part three of another story and he wants to be very clear that this is not like the monthly comic. Like he wants us to know that this isn’t part of that story and he doesn’t want to be a jerk about it either. It’s a neat trick that walks a fine line that still leaves me debating how ‘essential’ I consider it. He goes out of his way to imply that it’s not part of the larger story of the series, yet the way he does it is so purposeful and in keeping with the way he’s telling that story that it kind of backfires and brings it in. Which was maybe his actual intention.

For the record: it goes in my reading order right after issue 12, then Giant-Size Thor #1, then issue 13...

But, we’re past that, all the way to issue... 775? The Immortal Thor #14 is, apparently, ‘Thor legacy #775,’ a bit of parallel numbering that Marvel does to have their cake and eat it too. They can have endless relaunches and number one issues, while also recognising the decades-long history of its titles. Thor anniversary issues have always been weird due to the numbering of his series being an evolution of Journey into Mystery’s numbering, which Thor didn’t enter into until issue 83. So, while Marvel would mark those big issue numbers (1, 12, 24/25, 50, 75, 100, etc.), they have historically also marked issues ending in 82 as the 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, etc. issues of Thor comics in what is another version of having their cake and eating it too. Before you skip ahead, they don’t do that with legacy 782 here, which is fine, because they don’t really do it with legacy 775 either. Aside from the caption on the cover of The Immortal Thor #14 proclaiming “IT’S THOR THE ALL-FATHER VERSUS ZEUS THE SKYFATHER IN THIS EPIC 775TH ISSUE!” there is nothing special or traditionally celebratory about this issue.

Instead, it’s simply the next issue of The Immortal Thor, following up on the previous where Thor, Hercules, and Loki are in a dark dimension confronted with Zeus. We learn that Zeus is basically a dry run for Thor, given to Gaea as a baby to save him from Cronus’s murderous consumption, imprinted with the Wheel, and Thor’s current test. His first test in a different dimension was to solve the riddle of the rune Raidho, which is one of Thor’s own runes. Here, again, under the spell of the rune Uruz, another one of his own name, Thor must confront another aspect of himself. He must face his forefather in the skygod pantheon of those who command lightning. It’s in the solution to the problem he faces in Zeus that The Immortal Thor annual actually makes the compelling argument for its inclusion into the official canon of the series: Thor defeats Zeus in a very similar manner to how Powerstone defeats the Champion.

Powerstone’s victory involves him, as holder of the Power Stone, sucking the power out of the Champion via thinking (albeit idiotic thoughts), while Thor sucks the power out of Zeus through endurance and will. Funnily enough, the solution comes in part via Hercules, who is generally viewed as someone who’d fall squarely in the middle of Thor and Powerstone in the brains department. He’s also the one that realises that Nyx has found a true place of power that is preferable to war on Earth in an effort to conquer it for what that’s worth. But, defeating Zeus and taking on his power, along with the mark of the Wheel, doesn’t actually solve the riddle of Uruz. Not even the wisdom of idiots can do that...

Instead, we’ll see how Thor does that next week along with Thor vol. 6 #24/750.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 13

As we begin the second half of The Immortal Thor, changes happen to the title. The first is that, having firmly established the Elder Gods, Al Ewing no longer focuses on retcons to plant the seeds for the story nearly as much. Instead, he shifts from looking back to looking forward, beginning to build more on existing stories. Issues 13 through 15 build upon two Avengers stories that he co-wrote No Surrender and No Road Home along with his Guardians of the Galaxy run, taking up those plot points and weaving them into the larger story of Thor and his collision course with the gods of Utgard.

While teased since the prologue story to The Immortal Thor, Thor’s confrontation and death with the Elder Gods of Utgard becomes the main focus of the second year of the title. Everything points towards Thor’s journey to Utgard and his confrontation with his fate. The seeds for this confrontation have been planted, the motives of Gaea and the gods created and made appropriately dire, and Thor’s path set.

Ewing’s ability to take what’s come before and continue to build upon it across different works is impressive. It was January 2020 when Zeus said that the wheel has turned in Guardians of the Galaxy #1 and, taking that phrase, Ewing made it a central idea of The Immortal Thor over three years later. He’s not the first writer to build these epic stories out of bits and pieces of mini-series and one-shots and cut short runs until they all collide in surprising ways that reward the faithful that stuck with it from project to project across a decade. Mainstream superhero comicbooks is a modernist medium that way. Stories built of stories built of stories. You don’t even need to have read them – I’ll admit that I have not.

I’ll also admit that these three issues, while practical in their advancement toward Utgard, suffer from feeling out of place. If you squint a bit, you can see some thematic elements with Thor progressing through godly business from his own family to another pantheon of the same age, all on the road to the Elder Gods. There’s some muddiness in the way that Thor is suggested to be a progression from Zeus, though, that stands out, and the entire story all adds up to Ewing wrapping up old business. Maybe not so forward thinking, unless you subscribe to the idiom that you need to bury the past before you can move on or however that goes. All of which is my way of saying that change isn’t always for the better and we’re in for some aimless, rambling three weeks, perhaps, so get ready.

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The second change is the debut of Jan Bazaldua as the regular artist of The Immortal Thor, in that she will draw at least some of every issue going forward. I would throw out some stat about the number of artists in the first year versus the number of artists in the second, but issue 19 kind of skews things when looking at lists of names. But, ignoring that, Bazaldua is the visual look of the second half of the year after the first devolved into a rotation of artists after Martín Cóccolo departed. Her visual style isn’t a great departure from that of Cóccolo, which surprisingly adds to the visual continuity of the series. There’s a bit more Olivier Coipel in Bazaldua’s style with the broad faces yet with thicker, more carefree line work.

Her work on the second year of the title is a bit underrated, I find. Gone is the energy and hype of the initial issues, well into the dull middle section of the story where it feels a bit like the book is treading water until it can get to Utgard. I don’t entirely buy that idea and part of what keeps it somewhat exciting is Bazaldua’s visuals. She adds drama and energy when it’s needed.

*

The third required reading comic is Giant-Size Thor #1, something of a throwaway issue. While referenced in The Immortal Thor #13, it is actually pretty far from required reading. The entire premise of the issue is based on treating the title of the comic as the literal point with some aliens kidnapping Thor and using him to pilot a Giant-Size Thor mech. That’s the plot. Get the joke? Eventually Hercules arrives and Thor frees himself and the day is saved and the bad guys punished and all of that. It’s a fine issue where the initial play on the title actually hits in the right way to produce a laugh.

The most notable element of the issue is the way it reuses panels from Ragnarok, the story that ran in Thor (1999) #80-85, where Thor, in an effort to gain the knowledge that Odin once sacrificed an eye for, tears out both of his eyes, specifically in issue 83. The panel where Thor realises what he must do and goes to tear out his remaining eye is one of the most memorable panels, for me, in all of comics. Brian Level does his best to recreate Andrea Dell’Otto’s work here, but doesn’t quite capture the shock and horror of the original, which partly resided in the previous panel having the same blocking.

The callback to that story rests on the idea of Thor’s sacrifice to gain the knowledge necessary to save his people from the endless cycle of Ragnaroks, to see the circle of the threads of fate, and cut that thread. That was a sort of freedom that Thor sought to give the Asgardians. It initially meant the freedom to die and stay dead. Eventually, it was, theoretically, the freedom to determine their own fate. Now, Loki seeks to give them all even more freedom and the story ends with Loki’s narration asking what Thor would give “In time to come, when a new sacrifice is needed?” It’s a loose pointer to the eventual sacrifice of his life (and more?) in Utgard and beyond. Ever the one to join in when there’s an event or a series of throwaway one-shots, Ewing does his best to deliver something not entirely throwaway.

Next week, I’ll discuss the other throwaway tie-in one-shot The Immortal Thor annual #1 along with The Immortal Thor #14.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 12

Originally introduced in Thor #355 by Walt Simonson and Sal Buscema, Tiwaz was a familiar-yet-mysterious stranger who saved Thor’s life after he seemed to perish in an avalanche at the end of the previous issue. Living in a home of ice in the seemingly barren area far north of Asgard, he and his ice creations nursed Thor back to health – both physically and emotionally following the death of Odin in the fight against Surtur at the end of issue 353. Over the course of several days, Tiwaz gave Thor various bits of advice and, before supper each day, made Thor wrestle him to earn his food. Before Thor leaves, he finally bests Tiwaz (a task only two before had accomplished) and, after, Thor has left, the punchline is when the giant of a god talking to his eagle says that Thor is his great-grandson, making him Buri, the originator of the Asgardian lineage.

In The Immortal Thor, that makes him the Utgard-Odin in another retcon. While I find Al Ewing’s interpretation of Tiwaz a little less charming, a little more obvious and open, he retains a bit of playfulness in the spirit of the Simonson version, and he provides a helpful counterbalance to the other Elder Gods that we’ve encountered. Funny, charming, caring, and not trying to kill everyone are but a few of the defining characteristics of Tiwaz, a contrast to the main three Elder Gods we’ve encountered so far. You’d almost fear for a Gaea-like makeover for Tiwaz at this point. In the place of Tiwaz’s wrestling matches, his request for a battle of wits in exchange for Tyr’s rune (which is also that of Tiwaz) is never a serious impediment. He’s the kindly old (great-) grandfather who wants to pull a coin out from behind your ear or take you on a nature walk to share his wisdom. Beyond a retcon to work him into the pantheon of Elder Gods, his role is to narrow the conflict to a certain sect of those beings.

This is not a war between the new and the old necessarily, it’s one between the new and the old-that-think-themselves relevant. In Thor #355, Tiwaz told Thor that he was once a sky god that wearied of that role and had retired from being a god – was this, in part, how he defeat Atum? In Thor annual 10, the other side of Atum, the Demigorge, was not able to digest and absorb Thor into his being, because it was not his time. Atum defeated and slew numerous Elder Gods because it was their time. According to Tiwaz, he “WON WITH WILE AND WIT—AND WENT MY WAY,” suggesting that it’s possible that he won, in part, because he had no intention of remaining a god (and said with some impressive alliteration). Instead, he got frozen, was licked free by a cow, founded the Asgardian lineage and, at the right time, bowed out respectfully. Tiwaz is a lively old god that believes in and champions life, much like Gaea.

Or, alternatively, there’s a simpler explanation presented: he shares a rune with Tyr, the god of war and he sired a warrior’s lineage of gods. Tiwaz is presented as a summation, to an extent, of Asgard. The wandering and wisdom of Odin, the strength of Thor, the wit of Loki... the war of Tyr? While Tiwaz emphasises “wile and wit” as the keys to victory, in what aspect? It would be easy to assume that it’s the sort that we see in Loki, but it could easily be the “wile and wit” of war. He defeated Atum not through overwhelming power; he won through strategy and tactics. That doesn’t necessarily clash with my first explanation, if that was his strategy, after all. More to indicate that, underneath the (great-) grandfatherly image of Tiwaz, his rune is also that of a god of war. In his first meeting with Thor, he made him wrestle and, here, it’s a battle of wits. The epigraph of this issue points to the full description of Tiwaz and the children of Odin with the combination of serious, thoughtful, and joyful, “and in war daring,” hitting the nail on the head.

As for Tyr, my focus remains on why exactly Loki fed him to the In-Betweener and the Skinner box. There’s a clue, I believe, in the moment when Tyr’s rune is returned to him, causing the aspect of Oblivion inside to flee. (“If something’s there, nothing cannot remain.”) Bragi, narrating as the poet Skald, describes Tyr’s scream turning into a physical form: “The Serpent of the End made his escape.” A poetic manner to describe part of the physical manifestation of Oblivion, it’s the word ‘serpent’ that caught my eye, notably pointing towards the Midgard Serpent. In the story of Ragnarok, Thor dies in battle with the Midgard Serpent – the same being that corrupted and tied itself to Donald Blake. The connected imagery of Blake and the Serpent continues in The Mortal Thor, but it points to the Midgard Serpent being a servant of Oblivion (or aspect/representation), a creature of destruction.

To take it further and, once again, place it in the possible context of Loki’s larger scheme: the Serpent inhabiting Tyr freed his rune (soul) from his body, killing him, in a sense, but also distilling him to the pure essence of his idea. The immortal Tyr, if you will. But, that also left the danger of the physical remains inhabited by the Serpent. Thor already has this opposite number tied to his soul: Donald Blake, corrupted by the Serpent. As we see in The Immortal Thor #25, even after Thor dies, Blake continues to try to kill him. Blake/the Serpent is destruction incarnate and the question is how to free Thor from Thor without unleashing this dark form already tied to him? The experiment of Tyr in the box to learn “how a god must die,” seems like a failed attempt to thread this particular needle.

But, that’s my too literal logical attempt to fit everything into a neat little box. Next week, I’ll not doubt try to do the same with The Immortal Thor #13 and Giant-Size Thor #1.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 11

G.O.D.S. is a series by Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, and Travis Lanheim that sought to work that ol’ Hickman magic on the magic/high level cosmic side of the Marvel Universe that he had just recently done for the X-Men, was in the midst of doing for the Ultimate Universe, and, is currently, doing for the low level cosmic side of the Marvel Universe in Imperial. It launched with a triple-sized ten dollar first issue and was done after eight issues – not the plan. It kinda hit the market poorly and fell somewhat flat on the rebound. Slow, featuring mostly new characters, and about an area that Marvel has always struggled to sell (as they soon reconfigure it again in the wake of their latest event), it never quite caught on. It didn’t have the juice of the X-Men or the Ultimate Universe, while was a little to constrained to hit like Hickman’s creator owned work... too square for the cool kids, too cool for the square kids, y’know?

Me, I always kinda dug it. It was different. Weird. Didn’t know where it was going. And, because I’m that sort, I enjoyed trying to see where it was just DC characters with the serial numbers filed off.

Before Hickman returned to Marvel to take over the X-Men line of the books, he had one foot in the door at DC, set to take over the Legion of Super-Heroes and who knows what else. Now, when you see that G.O.D.S. stars a roughish magician with great hair and a trenchcoat, it’s not too hard to see who Wyn is meant to be. Pay attention and you can see bits of the Fourth World and Dr. Fate and Eclipso amongst other elements of DC’s magic/high cosmic side. Trying to match everyone up in G.O.D.S. with their possible DC counterpart could be a fun game for another time. I mention this for two reasons: I enjoy pointing it out since I didn’t see nearly enough people (aka everyone who read it) do so and it could be part of the book’s flaw that led to its decisive commercial failure. (A failure I’m apt to point out that stems not just from sales, but from the creative team involved. This is an A-List (for Marvel) creative team and much like a book like Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., it’s not simply a matter of sales alone, but sales that don’t justify the page rates of the people making the comic. It’s important to remember details like that if you’re going to wade into the sales side of the industry... which I’m not.)

While I’m sure that Hickman took whatever germs of an idea for the never-happened DC book and changed them enough for Marvel, G.O.D.S. is, at its core, still rooted in those DC ideas of an organised magical system. You would think that with its roots in the grounded, real world sensibility that Marvel would lend itself to systems that explain the organisation of the Natural Order of Things and the Powers that Be and concepts of magic and gods, because organising these things into systems with the boxes and labels and neat charts make it all make sense in a clean, practical, material way. But that’s wrong. That’s what you do in DC with its roots in large mythological beings where you’d think that clear explanations would kill the magic, drag it down to Earth, and sully the whole appeal. That, too, is wrong.

In Marvel, these attempts at explanations and ordering fall flat, because these are things well beyond the world outside your window. Gods and magic are beyond us, so trying to bring them down to that level in that manner doesn’t work. Dr. Strange works because he’s just a dude. Brief glimpses/encounters with the likes of the High Tribunal work because it’s just a fleeting moment with this immense otherworldly power that remains aloof and mysterious whose actual existence is unknowable. You try to ground that too much and it loses that real world sense of wonder and terror. It becomes just another beaurocracy but in space or something. I think that Hickman understood this to an extent and tried to keep the focus of the book as much as he could on the human-level elements. But, even then, it often felt a little bit too much like Sandman and Hellblazer for it to work completely in this context. DC is just endless pantheons and no one loves a good chart outlining name, rank, and serial number like pantheons. Read the Eddas and, half the time, that’s all either of them are: lists of names and relationships. A universe of pantheons welcomes organisation and explanation. Trying to fit everything into a neat spreadsheet is not how the real world works and, as much as it is decidedly not the real world, Marvel’s heart is always that gentle lie.

Which brings me to Al Ewing, a writer who has dedicated a not insignificant portion of his time at Marvel to trying to force it all to make sense. Part of the reason why I’ve always struggled to get into Ewing’s work at Marvel is that my previous attempts all seemed to occur on books where part of the goal was to be this generation’s Roy Thomas or Mark Gruenwald, trying to deliver a unified theory of how it all works on a cosmic level. While I have no doubt that he truly loves the work of Jim Starlin, one of the things that Starlin is great at is not over-explaining a lot of the concepts that he just let loose at Marvel. He’s never given Thanos a detailed origin story or gotten into the workings of Eternity and Infinity. His stories were always filtered through Thanos and Adam Warlock with the larger mysteries remaining. Even stories that posited to suggest some tidy origin usually revealed themselves as a red herring with something larger lurking above. Or, to put it another way, Starlin didn’t do a proper Star Fox story until 40 years after he created the character.

Now, there are lots of people who love what Ewing has done at Marvel and I can see why. It sounds inventive and inspired, logical and neat and tidy, and, for the reasons outline above, that bores me. It doesn’t fit. In The Immortal Thor #11, Bragi gives a brief explanation of what seems to be the broad concept of G.O.D.S., but also the order of things as established by Ewing:

THE COSMIC CHANGED, FROM SEVEN INTO EIGHT--FROM ODD TO EVEN, POETRY TO PROSE. / THIS NEW REALITY, A SCIENTIST CHOSE--SO THERE’S A SYSTEM TO THE WEAVE OF FATE, A HIERARCHY BROKEN INTO TWOS. / THE MAGIC FIGHTS THE SCIENCE, TIME FIGHTS SPACE, OBLIVION’S AGAINST THE TRIPLE FACE OF JUDGMENT. (WHO WE HOPE CAN NEVER LOSE.)

Part of this actually comes from Hickman as Ewing alludes to the destruction of the old universe and creation of a new one in Secret Wars by Hickman and Esad Ribić (the scientist is Reed Richards). The series of destruction/rebirth attributed to the nature of the Marvel Universe, while accurate to existing continuity, being put into a system resembles the endless Crises of DC and the way that those have been numbered in the years preceding this issue. That that has become such a central tenet of DC is a hint right away that it doesn’t necessarily belong at Marvel.

An apparent contradiction that exists by bringing the lore of G.O.D.S. into The Immortal Thor is reconciling one set of higher beings with another set. Namely, who came first: the High Tribunal and company or the Elder Gods? You can fit this conflict into the duality described in the issue, one set of creator/elder gods against another to determine from whom all flows... But it seems like, in this book, Ewing runs up against a wall of fitting everything into a tidy explanation. It’s an odd series of contradictions that traditional mythology is all about trying to explain the unknowable, yet often leaves the relationships vague in the grand scheme. The Asgardians are gods and, yet, not. One of many pantheons that seems to shift and change depending on the run. Very rarely organised in any real fashion.

Until you get an issue like The Immortal Thor #11 that brings together a very specific portion of the pantheon: Gathering of Odin’s Daughters and Sons. It seems apropos that, as the series revisits the G.O.D.S. teaser at the end of the first issue where Tyr got into the box that it jumps its furthest into something that recalls, if only vaguely, a meeting of the Endless. Prose becomes poetry and it doesn’t feel quite right anymore, particularly when Ullr shows up. There’s a definitive tonal shift with a big bearded poet taking over narration. This issue (and the next) fight against the established way this series functions as Loki’s narrative is hijacked by Bragi the former Skald of Asgard, the poet who immediately undercuts Loki. After all, Bragi is the one who raises the absence of Tyr to the group and sends them on their quest to find and, if necessary, rescue their lost brother.

A small thing about this issue: while it becomes about seeking out Tyr, we’re never actually told explicitly why Thor brought together the children of Odin. It flows into Bragi bringing up Tyr and Thor seemingly aware of Tyr’s absence and ready to seek him out, but it’s never stated outright that that’s what Thor gathered them to do (though is heavily implied, albeit at the same moment that Bragi enters the story and exerts control). In fact, Thor seems surprised by the arrival of Bragi and, then, downright shocked by Ullr, the god of doom. If, when he said that all of the children of Odin weren’t there yet and that he wanted to wait, and only three children were missing... well, why was Thor surprised at the arrival of two if the purpose was to find the third?

These two issues are as much about the conflict between Loki and Bragi as anything. The key phrase comes shortly after Bragi’s arrival and he begins to duel with Loki over the narration of the story – the telling of the story we’re reading and the characters experience: “Each story told is wover as a lie.../...all poetry is spun to speak a truth.” Bragi arrives along with Ullr, seeking to thwart some elements of Loki’s larger scheme. What happens? They seek out Tyr who was put in the box by Loki to learn something Loki wants to know – and save Tyr from that knowledge, while revealing Loki’s schemes for Thor. There’s only so much that can be done to aid their brother against the schemes of their sibling as it is a battle of narratives. Bragi narrates that Loki wished “...to learn the trick of how a God must die” and it’s a curious phrasing. Not ‘might’ or ‘could’ or anything less definitive than ‘must.’ The emphasis may be on ‘die,’ but it’s the ‘must’ that catches my eye. The version of Tyr that is in the Skinner Box is Tyr and not. As we see, the essence of Tyr is gone, replaced by oblivion – basically, Tyr dies a death of sorts and is free of himself (from himself?). Later, Thor dies at Loki’s hand and becomes free of himself as well. The idea of Tyr lives on, as we’ll see next issue, but is separate from the god; we see that Thor lives in on, but the idea of Thor is also separate. While Tyr is separated by Oblivion, Thor is separated by Eternity... nothing versus everything... another duality.

I don’t intend to always make these pieces about the grand schemes of Loki, it just sort of becomes that. I’m a bit of a one-track-minded fellow, a little too literal, meant more for prose than poetry, honestly. And, on that, I’ll end this here. Next week, we’ll continue with The Immortal Thor #12 and also pay Tiwaz a visit in Thor #355.