Odin in Thor #491.
Meant to completely upend the idea of a Thor comic, the four-part Worldengine by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato, Jr. was quite a shock when its first issue came out. A dark, messy book, full of intricate lines, hand-written diary captions, and a Thor who spoke like a typical human due to some unforeseen illness that has left him sickly and weak. In a moment of desperation, he calls out to his father for help. At this point, Thor was exiled from Asgard and had made it very clear during the previous run under Roy Thomas that he had no interest in ever returning to his father’s court. Odin arrives before Thor, a giant vision in the sky, in full armour, sitting atop a skull throne, dark eyes, and, when he spoke, letterer Jonathan Babcock used a font meant to mimic runes. He spoke of how he could see all of creation, so why was he now looking at his greatest failure? Thor indicates that he needs help, because he’s dying, and Odin says with a grin: “GOOD.” He tells Thor that he’s been insolent, disrespectful, and he’s chosen Midgard over Asgard, so this is the consequence. “DIE WELL.”
It’s such a cold and brutal version of Odin, one that still hangs in the back of my head, forever colouring how I view the character. While Odin was often capricious and quick to rash judgments, this was that side of him taken to the Nth degree. It’s the sort of transformative depiction that Ewing and artist Ibraim Roberson give Gaea in The Immortal Thor #8. A logical transformation of the character taken to an extreme that, while shocking, makes sense, particularly within the context of the run.
Taking the prologue of Thor annual #10 that tells of the creation of the Elder Gods, their war, the birth of Atum, and his slaughter of those Elder Gods, eventually transforming into the Demogorge, Ewing doesn’t really change much. He adds new gods and places the emphasis in different specific places, but it’s less about taking that story by Alan Zelenetz, Mark Gruenwald, and Bob Hall, and turning it into something new as it is placing it within a new context. It’s an interesting approach to the retcon where the only major change is the scene involving Utgard-Loki giving Gaea the key to the gates (that Thor and Loki entered somehow...!). Otherwise, he simply takes the story of Gaea wanting to prioritise the continued existence of life and change that she asks the Demiurge for a son and that son, Atum, ends the destructive war of the Elder Gods.
But, taking that same urge to protect life and stop destruction, and apply it to Gaea opening the gates of Utgard to wipe humanity from the Earth before its destructive ways permanently make life impossible? Ah, now that’s about more than just rearranging old bits of continuity from mostly-forgotten annuals. While it would then lead into some more direct social commentary in the coming issues, this element of the threat of Utgard never quite takes hold. It becomes a minor explanation for how they are no longer locked in their realm, a reason to set Thor against Dario Agger once more and fall into the trap set by Amora (with Skurge in the wings). It’s only in The Mortal Thor that we’re possibly seeing a resurgence of this element of the story, of the redemption of humanity to become worthy of the Earth again...
While I draw a connection between Ellis and Deodato’s Odin and Ewing and Roberson’s Gaea, where Odin called Thor his greatest failure, Gaea, after demeaning him, eventually calls him her mercy. He is her gift to humanity to, possibly, save them. It’s not often that we get direct allusions to Christ with Thor, but this is a bit of a big one. This also sets the stage for The Mortal Thor where Thor literally becomes a human on Earth. At the time, this issue seemed like it was meant to simply set up the confrontation with Agger and provide a bit more backstory to the Elder Gods and Utgard, but, now, it looks more like the first big sign of things to come. A promise of a Thor no longer a god, a ‘mere mortal’ on Earth, armed only with his sense of justice and a hammer, trying to avert an apocalypse created by ‘men of vision.’ Will it be enough? It’s hard to tell if Gaea thinks so here or not...
“I think, at the end there, the old man cared. / But not quite enough.”
*
The
Immortal Thor #8 breaks with what came before by
having an epigraph not from either of the Eddas. Over the course of the 25
issues (and, so far, two issues of The
Mortal Thor), the main source of epigraphs are the Eddas with Ewing only
going outside them seven times, beginning here. Looking instead to the poem
“Earth” by William Cullen Bryant, it’s a fitting departure as, with its focus
on Gaea and Marvel’s mythology, Ewing is straying from the Asgardian side of
Thor. Very little of this issue is rooted in the stories and ideas of Norse
mythology, instead focusing on that first war that so terrified Gaea that she
was willing to choose slaughtering her fellow gods rather than have the
possibility of life end; a choice she’s making again by using some of the
surviving gods to wipe out a similar threat in humanity.
A mournful poem, “Earth” is a bit of break from Bryant’s more romantic leanings (despite his breakthrough poem, “Thanatopsis” also focusing on death) with its ruminations on the trampling over nature by humanity and the destruction done to itself in war and oppression. It’s a fitting work to draw from and allude to as a whole. That’s partly what epigraphs do and Ewing continually leans on. Rarely is the single portion of a work that he chooses to quote why he’s chosen it; it’s the piece that points to the whole. He couldn’t very well have Marvel reprint the whole of “Earth” and expect readers to work their way through the whole thing. But, by picking out a piece that can be applied fairly literally (Gaea voicing her complaints in two instances, and her godly sons answering the call) that also points to a longer work that provides a more complete thematic connection, Ewing is adding to the issue. It’s a bit of an unsubtle version of an allusion, I suppose. A modernist approach to adding depth and additional meanings to the work. How far you wish to take it is up to you. Do you just stick to the epigraph? The poem? The larger body of work by Bryant? His life? How much is Ewing meaning to direct you towards? When it comes to quoting the Eddas, the connection is a bit clearer and easier to interpret. But, maybe I’m talking myself into a hole akin to a grad class I once took on Eliot’s The Waste Land that involved reading the entire works that he referenced or stole a line from...
But, despite the coming dalliance in a bit of postmodern playfulness, The Immortal Thor is very much a modernist work of fiction. One that revels in its influences and bits of culture and history that it builds itself upon. The way that continuity hangs so heavy over mainstream superhero comicbooks lends itself to modernist works, ones that take from what came before and build upon it, smash it against one another, see what happens when you take a bit from here and there and make something new out of it. And Ewing isn’t shy about this. Much like Eliot, he throws a lot of what he takes from in your face, using the letters column like Eliot used the “Notes on The Waste Land” section at the end of the poem to point the way a little... You’re meant to dig a little deeper and gain a little more insight into the work. Doing so, you may pick up bits like the closing lines of “Earth” that strike me as quite fitting here:
O thou,
Who sittest far
beyond the Atlantic deep,
Amongst the
sources of thy glorious streams,
My native Land of
Groves! a newer page
In the great
record of the world is thine;
Shall it be
fairer? Fear, and friendly hope,
And envy, watch
the issue, while the lines,
By which thou
shalt be judged, are written down.
*
Next week, The Immortal Thor #9 and Roxxon Presents Thor #1.
