The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 09

As playfully enjoyable as The Immortal Thor #9 is with its metafictional games and visuals that prey upon our willingness to view everything depicted in comicbooks as a factual representation of what’s going on... it’s all a bit obvious, isn’t it? Roxxon Presents Thor #1 is even more so. If you’ve read them, then you should have a fairly firm grasp on the point as it were. So, where does that leave us? To twiddle our thumbs, pretending that I wrote another 1200 or so words, eventually departing with a smile and a wink until next time...? While that would free up my evening and allow me to spend more time with my family instead of sitting in my basement office, pounding at this decade-and-a-half-old laptop, if all the same to you, I’d like to see if my rambling can lead somewhere, anywhere, unexpected.

The first question that keeps running around my head is not a polite one, but, I feel, must be asked and pondered: do you think Greg Land is in on the joke?

I don’t mean the larger joke of Roxxon Presents Thor #1 with its over-the-top corporate sponsorship bent. I’m sure he got that. But, does he get why he was chosen as the artist? Why Marvel would pay him his, I assume, fairly hefty page rate to draw a fake comic that’s sold at a lesser cover price than the series it ties into and, more than likely, sold less than that monthly series? Why, of all the available artists, he was amongst the most suited to draw this specific comic to deliver the proper effect? It feels a little mean to pull at this particular thread and, yet, I’m not the one who published the comic.

After all, when parody comics are produced, the chosen artist(s) usually affects a specific style apart from their own or deliver visuals so over the top that the intent is unmistakable. In Land’s case, while the content of the script requires some humorous visual elements, he mostly draws the issue as he would any other, with a glossy sheen unlike anyone else. His art looks like the slop that a company like Roxxon would put out because it’s the sort of slop that a company like Marvel puts out. For a time, Land was one of the publisher’s ‘hottest’ artists, lambasted by the critics, loved by the masses, no doubt, in part, due to his habit of referencing porn stars for his posing (I’m looking at one panel of Loki that’s got everything but the cock in his mouth). At times, Ewing leans into it (the two-page beach scene) and the effect is downright perfect. An artist’s entire visual style turned into a punchline.

Land’s contribution to this issue isn’t the substance, it’s the style. Any artist could draw this comic and it would contain the same characters in roughly the same poses. They could even imitate Land’s style and maybe deliver some truly hilarious takes on some inappropriate photo references. They wouldn’t be Greg Land and that authenticity is what takes the idea of this comic to another level. There’s a specific meaning to his name in the credits, an entire back catalogue of comics and ‘swipe files’ posts that get brought along as added meaning. It’s a crucial modernist element in this obviously postmodern comicbook. It’s like if DC had gotten Rob Liefeld to draw that Doom Force one-shot.

And I wonder if he knows and what that’s like.

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Roxxon Presents Thor #1 is the second of the ‘essential’ comics that accompany The Immortal Thor and is probably the most required of reading. Even within that narrow band, it’s actually fairly skippable. Your mileage will vary on the jokes. When it first came out, I found it an entire comic that could have been a few select panels intermingled with a regular issue; when I reread it as part of the whole, it hit a bit better. Upon further review, there’s one panel in particular that jumps out as not quite fitting into the purpose of the comic despite seeming to on the surface.

On the final page, the third panel has the Minotaur arrive with a bag full of money, accompanied by Gaea (looking far more like her usual depicting than she did in The Immortal Thor #8) and she says to Thor, “--AND YOU MUST HAVE PATIENCE! IF CHANGE IS NECESSARY, IT MUST COME SLOWLY... LEST THE MORTAL WORLD BECOME TOO MUCH A PARADISE!” This bit of dialogue (and Gaea’s inclusion) plays off her role in unlocking the gates of Utgard, bringing Toranos to Earth to destroy humanity as punishment for its destruction of the world, and why would a comicbook created by the Enchantress include that? The point of this comic is to push Roxxon, self-parody Roxxon, and present a version of Thor that will influence how humanity views him, which will then impact who he is on Earth. Why is there a reference to Gaea’s efforts to protect the planet from humanity? How does Amora know about that? And, when the comic shifts to Thor reading it, muttering “THIS IS NOT WHO I AM,” where did we last hear him say something similar when being told a story about himself?

Let’s jump back five whole pages from that Gaea panel to a large panel that takes up the bottom third of a page where Loki, looking very much like how they looked for their first many years in Thor comics, laughs gleefully, “HEEE HEEE HEEE! YET MY PATHETIC DRONES HAVE BOUGHT ME PRECIOUS TIME--TO WEAVE MY MAGIC! / FACE THE ILLUSIONS OF LOKI, THOR--HE WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN, AND WILL ALWAYS BE--THE GOD OF LIES!” If you’ll recall, this all exists within the narrative that Loki tells. They are the narrator of The Immortal Thor, the one who remade the black bridge that leads to Utgard, the one whose Skald magic retconned the Utgard gods into the story of the Elder Gods and their and Thor’s journey to Utgardhall. We’re meant to view this as nothing more than Loki-back-as-villain in a jokey fake comic wherein Amora uses the former god of lies because they are the most well-known Thor villain and, presumably, because she doesn’t like Loki. But, is this Loki signing their work?

After all, this comic is a crucial part of a spell that would pay off later, where Thor’s image on Earth no longer matches up with reality. No longer the same hero that people remember, he becomes this glossy corporate creature. A mascot, a logo, something that couldn’t possibly be real and walking around, making it so much easier to detach the reality of Thor and Asgard from Earth later, shifting them all back into the realm of myth and fiction. And it’s all done under the guise of Amora and Skurge using Dario Agger for their own purposes... “YET MY PATHETIC DRONES HAVE BOUGHT ME PRECIOUS TIME--TO WEAVE MY MAGIC!”

And so we continue to dance around the title of the series, The Immortal Thor. Thor dies. He’s died before, he will die – hell, Thor dies in the next issue! So, how is he immortal? It feels fairly obvious to me... but, we’ll leave that for next week, where I’ll discuss The Immortal Thor #10 and The Mighty Thor (2011) #13-17.

The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 08

It’s actually a little shocking how little Al Ewing changes to the story of Gaea, Atum, and the Elder Gods. The biggest change, by far, was the taking the idea of Utgard and applying it to the pre-existing mythology of the Marvel Universe. If you ignore adding certain gods and their connection to Thor via retcon, the largest change is one of tone, particularly when it comes to Gaea. Looking at the past appearances of the Earth Goddess, it’s genuinely shocking to get this lumbering figure with vines for hair, something more primal and monstrous, something cold and unforgiving. It’s not the mother that we expect – nor Thor. While there are some obvious influences like the Green from Swamp-Thing from Alan Moore on down, the one that I thought about was a little less obvious, yet appropriate for a Thor comic:

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.”

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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.

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Next week, The Immortal Thor #9 and Roxxon Presents Thor #1.