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.