Before I dive in, I have to acknowledge that you can pretty much dismiss everything I’m about to discuss if you’re so inclined. There are numerous superficial similarities that can be written off as “You’re talking about Thor comics! Of course they’re more similar than not!” But, I’m not sitting here trying to argue that Al Ewing ripped these comics off or purposefully patterned his work after them. More, I think it points to a similar sensibility and leaning between Ewing and Roy Thomas. To limit Ewing’s Thor work down to these as the blueprint ignores the numerous other sources that went into the comics, not least of all his own imagination and skill. At the same time, when rereading the first Roy Thomas run, it was hard not to see broad ideas repeated by Ewing, even if it was a small detail here and there.
What drew my attention to revisiting these comics (Thor #272-278, 283-301, and annual #7) was doing some preliminary research into my eventual look at The Mortal Thor ala my recently concluded examination of The Immortal Thor. Specifically, I recently read The Saga of the Volsungs (Penguin Classics translation by Jesse L. Byock, who keen readers will remember as the translator of the edition of The Prose Edda that I have) in an effort to gain insight into Sigurd, the namesake of the current not-Thor protagonist of The Mortal Thor. One of the most notable adaptations of The Saga of the Volsungs is Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung and I remembered that the latter part of Roy Thomas’s original run on Thor adapted that particular opera cycle. Oddly, rather than adapt the original source material directly, the comics specifically point to Wagner’s cycle as the specific work that Thomas adapts. Even issues written by Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald contain a credit like issue 299’s “Based on the opera ‘GOTTERDAMMERUNG’ by Richard Wagner as adapted by Roy Thomas.” That Thomas looked to Wagner is most likely a sign of appreciating the composer’s work along with the accessibility of it compared to translations of The Saga of the Volsungs (or The Poetic Edda, which contains numerous poems that combine to tell a version of the same story). But, what’s notable is that Thomas looked to a Germanic adaptation of a Scandinavian story in a comic about a Norse god – many elements differ significantly from the original story. In his introduction to his translation, Byock gives a brief summary:
Not only was
Wagner directly inspired by his own reading of The Saga of the Volsungs in H. von der Hagen’s 1815 German
translation, but the composer was influenced by the treatment of the saga in
Wilhelm Grimm’s Deutscher Heldensage.
Wagner appears to have been especially struck by Grimm’s interpretation of the
sibling marriage in the Norse material, and reading Grimm helped Wagner to form
his view of the central importance of The
Saga of the Volsungs and Eddic poetry. In adapting the Norse material to
his own uses, as elsewhere in writing his librettos, Wagner took many liberties
with his medieval sources, abridging, changing, condensing, and combining them
freely and imaginatively.
Drawing upon The Saga, German folklore, and the Eddas among his sources, Wagner’s work is unique, blending many influences and not retelling a single specific story in a new medium. Sounds familiar. It also means that, when Roy Thomas and company adapted Wagner’s work, there were odd differences from the original stories in The Saga of the Volsungs and The Poetic Edda, most notably the difference in one of the main character’s names, as Sigurd was recast as Siegfried. And, here, for reasons never truly explained, Thor was cast in the role of Siegfried at one point – he wouldn’t be Sigurd until Walt Simonson had him invent a human identity to continue living in New York after the enchantment that allowed him to become the mortal Donald Blake was given by Odin to Beta Ray Bill.
Thor, at one point, being Siegfried (Sigurd) is the idea that enables the adaptation of Wager’s librettos across Thor #293-300 (although, the direct adaptation happens in fits and starts). Wanting to know what Odin means when he says he won’t kill Thor again, Thor tracks down the eye that Odin sacrificed for wisdom, depicted as literally a giant eyeball that talks, and coerces it to tell the story that Odin alluded to (and would not tell Thor). The details don’t particularly matter as it’s an odd adaptation that bears little importance to Thor or to the Ewing run. How or why Thor is cast as Siegfried at one point is also unclear. Not that Odin could have sired a demi-god on Earth or been involved in the lineage of Siegfried – but why this is treated as literally a previous incarnation of Thor specifically. It seems to be an idea of convenience to allow this story to be adapted/told in the first place. If Thor isn’t put in the role of Siegfried, then why would it appear in the pages of Thor?
This is the first appearance of a ‘mortal Thor.’ It’s actually advertised as such in the next issue teaser of issue 295, while issue 297 has a caption box on the first page proclaiming “CONTINUING THE STORY OF THE MORTAL THOR!” While Ewing does not seem to be repeating the specifics of story of Sigurd in The Mortal Thor and most immediately connect the name Sigurd Jarlson with the human identity invented by Walt Simonson, that the second act of Ewing’s story so lines up with the second big story of Thomas’s run is a strange coincidence (if it is one).
Even stranger is the lead-in to the Eye of Odin showing the story of Siegfried is that it shows the previous Ragnarok and fallout where we see versions of the Aesir more Norse mythology accurate and following “The Seeress’s Prophesy” from The Poetic Edda where Ragnarok occurs, but some gods survive to begin anew. It somewhat fits into the conception of the Marvel Aesir undergoing various cycles of Ragnarok, but, in a more Thomasian move, it seems like an effort to begin the process of fitting Jack Kirby’s DC work into a continuum with his Marvel work. If you’ll recall from the first page of The New Gods, those gods came out of the destruction of the previous gods who looked suspiciously like the Asgardians from his work on Thor. If that is th Fourth World, then Thor and company are the Third, suggesting two previous versions. Here, Thomas gives one. It only seems like a possibility since this run on Thor was also largely built around bringing Kirby’s Eternals characters into Marvel continuity, less than a year after that title was cancelled by (you guessed it) Roy Thomas.
He begins the process in Thor annual #7 (drawn by Walt Simonson!) giving a forgotten (by Thor) story of Thor encountering some Eternals around a thousand years prior, folding them deep into Marvel history and, in the then-present day, continues Kirby’s story about the threat of Arishem’s judgment in 50 years. In the process, Thor learns that Odin is stymieing his efforts to stop the Celestials and aid the Eternals in trying to save the world. He even learns of Odin kneeling before a previous Host of the Celestials. Eventually, this is how the story of Siegfried is, somewhat, tied into the larger story as we see how Odin made a deal with the Celestials to not interfere in exchange for the Celestials to not cut off the gods’ (as Odin has assembled the council of all of the various human pantheons) connections to Earth. Now that the Fourth Host has Arishem standing in judgment of the Earth, Thor is cast into conflict with Odin over how to save the world.
This plot is echoed in the threat of the Utgard gods threatening to destroy the Earth and Thor’s learning that Gaea is the impetus/ally of those gods. What makes this such a fitting repetition is that the Celestial threat is actually resolved in Thor #300 by Gaea giving a dozen Young Gods to the Celestials for study in exchange to avert Arishem’s judgment. I’m actually surprised that her intervention to save humanity isn’t referenced by Thor as it’s such a reversal. Here, she actively stops one set of powerful god-like beings from destroying life on Earth (at least sentient life); in Ewing’s run, she lets loose a different group of Elder Gods to do that very thing. The lack of a reference is almost suspicious given the way that Ewing, like Thomas, loves to show his work.
It’s the overall attitude/approach of Thomas’s run on Thor that brings to mind Ewing’s – the way that disparate threads of continuity are merged with mythological stories and current plots to try to create a cohesive whole, all while making it very clear where the different ideas are all coming from. It’s an effort to, like Wagner, make one cohesive work out of a ton of different elements. It may be a big coincidence that different elements of this run line up with Ewing’s current story, but, given that Ewing directly referenced the first issue in the on-again/off-again Thomas run on Thor, it seems unlikely that he didn’t keep reading any further. What’s unclear is where the Ewing run is going as the similarities/references are fairly high level conceptual. Referencing a mortal Thor patterned in some way after Sigurd/Siegfried, the threat of ancient gods that seem above/more powerful than the Aesir, the role of Gaea in saving/destroying humanity... If any of this is purposeful, it’s more a winking reference than a straight rip-off or even homage.
Moreover, with Thomas’s departure from the title around issue 297 with Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio completing the story that Thomas started and the Doug Moench run following soon after, there is no third big story to reference for a hint of what comes after The Mortal Tor, even though it’s only real tie is the reuse of the idea of a mortal Thor referencing Sigurd/Siegfried. Maybe we’ll see deeper connections moving forward, which is why there have been few specific references or allusions from a writer that generally isn’t shy about making them.
