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.
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.
