The Immortal Thor #19 is titled “Tales of Asgard” after the old backup feature that originated in the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee run. Compared to the regular stories in Journey into Mystery/Thor, those backups were focused more on stories inspired by Norse mythology and driven more by Kirby than Lee. It was a chance for Kirby to really dive into the mythological aspect of Thor and Asgard rather than the regular superhero fare. If it weren’t for that element getting added into the mix and his continued push to have Thor stories take place outside of New York and Earth in general, it’s hard to say if Thor would be the character that he is now. Certainly, The Immortal Thor owes a debt to Kirby’s instincts to delve into what separates Thor from the rest of Marvel’s superheroes.
“Tales of Asgard” takes a different approach from any issue of The Immortal Thor to this point, not featuring Thor and, instead, kind of flittering around the various Asgardian subplots that have been germinating in the title. In addition, each page is drawn by a different artist with regular artist Jan Bazaldua handling bookend duties with the first and last pages. Given the different approach of the issue, I’m going to follow suit and go through it page by page to offer something not entirely unrelated to annotations, but also not at all annotations. The entire issue was lettered by Joe Sabino and, while I’ll indicate the line artist for each page, it’s not clear who coloured what necessarily (but it is in some cases), so here are the credited colourists (I wish I was able to figure it out, but, alas, I’m not that good): Matt Hollingsworth, Espen Gaundet Jern, Juan Ferreyra, Rod Reis, Frank D’Armata, Phil Noto, and Edgar Delgado. (And, if there are any spelling errors, blame me and the stylised font of the credits page...)
Cover (Alex Ross): A nice painting, but misleading cover for an issue where Thor does not appear. It seems like Ross may have been going for something symbolic with the World-Tree in the background and Thor on his throne and, if so, it doesn't land. Given the lead time for his covers, there is the odd one where the painting doesn't quite match the contents. It would have made more sense for a cover focusing on Amora and Magni, or Asgard as a whole somehow. This image suggests an issue focusing on Thor as king, inhabiting that role specifically. You could have swapped this for issue 15's cover and probably had better matches for both.
Page 0 (the epigraph): It’s been a while since I’ve discussed an epigraph for an issue of The Immortal Thor. Unlike some of the early ones, I found that, as the series went on, the choices were less clever and a bit more like Ewing was looking for anything that would fit, even if the connection was rather obvious. Ewing attributes it to “Gudrun’s Incitement” from the Elder Eddas. In my copy of The Prose Edda, it’s the final verse in “The Whetting of Gudrun” and it reads a little less obtuse (or, ironically, poetic):
‘To all warriors—may your lot be made better;
to all ladies—may your sorrow grow less,
now this chain of griefs has been recounted.’
The poem is Gudrun lamenting her past mistakes, even as she just urged her sons to go take revenge for the death of their sister. It’s paired with “The Lay of Hamdir,” which tells of the attempt at revenge. There’s a connection between the way this issue revolves mostly around Amora the Enchantress wrestling with her choices and if it’s worth going through with her scheme for power, while her son from a future that has not existed, Magni, travels Asgard, trying to find a place for himself in this strange world that’s both familiar and different. And, Ewing also chooses an epigraph from a poem that isn’t about the gods explicitly. It’s about people, not focused on the likes of Odin or Thor, much like the issue that follows (though they be gods mostly).
Page 1 (Jan Bazaldua): The issue begins with Sif watching Thor fly away from Asgard while Loki introduces the issue as not being about Thor, but his kingdom – a tale of many tales. We can guess why Ewing would want to shift focus and spent some time with Asgard without Thor. It gives him a chance to advance various subplots and give a variety of characters their own moments to shine. It allows Bazaldua to get a little reprieve from the rigors of the monthly schedule, only drawing two pages in this issue, which, no doubt, allowed her to continue drawing the remaining issues of the series. It’s also a brief pause before the final push to the end of The Immortal Thor. A bit of a breather before Thor’s final confrontation with Utgard ramps up. For Loki, it’s a reminder to us that their plan may focus on Thor, but requires so many others to see through, and this story moves many of them into place. It’s a chance for the Skald of Asgard to tell tales of Asgard, not just its king.
Page 2 (Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding): Introducing one of the recurring plots of the issue, Magni goes off to explore Asgard at the suggestion of Sif. Getting Jurgens and Breeding to draw the page is a callback to Magni’s origins in the run that Jurgens wrote. While Jurgens did step in to draw the odd issue here and there of that run, I’m not sure he ever drew Magni then. Ewing also draws upon the connection that Magni had with Sif in that future where she advises him on the ways that Thor had fallen and who he used to be. Sif acted as a bit of a mentor figure, which is why Magni is so at ease around her. There’s also foreshadowing in the way that we go from Sif watching Thor depart to Magni arriving right away.
Page 3 (Luciano Vecchio): Vecchio lays the page as a singular art piece, using circular images and patterns to give the look of a tapestry or stained glass in structure. The panel at the bottom left featuring Odin, Thor, and Magni is completely ornamental, showing the lineage of Asgard’s throne, while Amora the Enchantress spies on Magni and spells out her plot to have Thor’s power go to her son and, then, if something should happen to Magni, that the power may flow back to his other parent. The bottom middle panel contains the key to Amora, a character that Ewing absolutely nails: “THE MOST TERRIBLE CRIME... TO GAIN THE MOST UNIMAGINABLE POWER... / IS THAT TRULY WHO I AM...?” That dichotomy between the scheme and the guilt defines Amora so often. She’s tempted to do immoral actions for selfish gain, but she knows that they’re immoral and struggles with that. She wants to be good, truly. She’s weak and she’s afraid. She’s felt powerless and alone too many times to not put herself first, because she’s felt that the world doesn’t care. That question about if this is who she is, someone who would bring her son from a future that never happened to life only to kill him for power... It is. But, she’s also going to regret it immediately.
Page 4 (Karen S. Darboe): Amora truly loves Skurge. Not as much as she cares for herself, but, as much as she can care for another being, that’s what she feels for Skurge. Of course, the conflict presented here is laid out explicitly: Amora would save Skurge over Thor, and Skurge wishes to take Thor’s death upon himself. I enjoy the way that Ewing uses Thor’s death as two motives for Amora where she wishes him to die to save Skurge, returned from the dead, and to further her scheme to gain the power of Odin’s lineage. And the tragedy is that Skurge wants the opposite – and isn’t even mad at her. He loves her and accepts her for who she is, even it means being her pawn sometimes. Ewing draws upon the full history of the characters and packs a lot into just a few panels of interaction.
Page 5 (Jorge Fornés) and Page 6 (Juan Ferreyra): The next two pages focus on Beta Ray Bill, a character pretty hard done by in the Donny Cates/Nic Klein run. In the first arc, when Thor became the new herald of Galactus to hunt down and destroy the Black Winter, Bill took exception with this choice due to Galactus killing his people. During the fight between Thor and Bill, Thor destroyed Stormbreaker. While Thor later tried to apologise, making Bill Asgard’s Master of War. Daniel Warren Johnson followed this up in a five-issue mini-series that had Bill struggle with his lack of mortality, trapped in the body of the horse-faced warrior. It sent him on a quest (with Skurge and Pip the Troll) to, first, find Odin to remake Stormbreaker and, then, to take Surtur’s Twilight Sword as a replacement. He actually defeats Surtur, takes the Sword, and beheads the fire giant, which also ties back into his origin where it was Surtur’s forces that destroyed Bill’s homeworld. Using the Twilight Sword, he is now able to transform between his warrior and mortal selves once again. Yet, as we see on these pages, he still struggles. Magni’s words of his legend in the future that will never be bring no comfort and he shuns Sif’s entreaties of friendship and affection. The brief time holding Mjolnir again in the fight against Toranos was enough to remind him of all that’s he’s lost. It’s hard to say if there’s a way out for Bill given the downward spiral he’s endured beginning with the destruction of his people at the hands of Galactus through the loss of Stormbreaker. The DWJ mini is a pretty depressing read of a man who’s completely lost where everything he gains brings no solace. If there’s any hint of a positive in the future, it’s that Bill replaces Thor in the memories of Earth for his superhero history. Unfortunately, that looks like another thing to lose with Bill acting like another physical embodiment of an aspect of Thor as part of Loki’s scheme. I guess we’ll see. Fornés and Ferreyra while not artists of the same style as DWJ bring similar energies to their pages.
Page 8 (Rod Reis): In Jane Foster: Valkyrie, Jane took Heimdall beyond where gods usually go, so he could see something he’d never seen before. Ewing co-wrote that series with Jason Aaron at the time and, here, we get to see where Heimdall has gone after his death. The living city in Utgard where Hermod has also gone, obliterated by Tyr earlier in the series. This is a bit of a tease for what’s coming in the series and Rod Reis’s art style gives it an otherworldly feeling, somewhat reminiscent of Mike Del Mundo’s time on the title.
Page 9 (Juann Cabal) and Page 10 (Gleb Melnikov): Another pair of pages that seem to go with one another, focusing on Ullr, still in Asgard. Page 9 begins with Ullr responding to Loki’s narration, somehow able to perceive their storytelling. There are a few who are able to perceive Loki’s schemes to a certain extent. Usually, it’s been Elder Gods like Tiwaz or Utgard-Loki, or the previous Skald of Asgard, Braggi. When we last saw Ullr, he predicted Thor’s death and seems to be housing Athena and Zeus in the hopes that their influence will change that, though Athena draws the death card for Thor. Yet, Skurge coming to Ullr, asking him to make him a new axe to help steal Thor’s death and this seems to present the Yew-God a chance to assist his younger brother. It’s not quite explicit that Ullr is working to save Thor and, possibly, thwart Loki’s plans, but that’s the implication of these pages. Most of the story plays out in front of us, but I like these little bits that peak behind the scenes to suggest the larger plot, not just Loki’s efforts to advance it, but others who may influence it and may, in fact, be working against Loki.
Page 11 (Steve Skroce): No significance that I can think of for Skroce to draw this page other than he’s a great artist (my affection goes back to X-Man) and it’s the closest you get to ‘empty filler’ in this issue. But, it also hews closely to the “Tales of Asgard” title by having Magni enter a tavern to find the Warriors Four doing what the Warriors Four do in a tavern, and leave. It’s just a window into what goes on in Asgard with Thor’s best warrior friends.
Page 12 (Leonard Kirk): Kirk was Ewing’s partner on Avengers Inc. whose third issue took place in Valhalla, making him an appropriate choice to draw this page spotlighting Odin in Valhalla. It’s just Odin brooding on the impending death of Thor, somewhat similar to the previous page (beyond the similar setting of a tavern/hall) with Ewing taking the chance to give a quick update on a character in the larger Asgardian world. The line “...AND HE DOES NOT VISIT ME HERE...” is possibly foreshadowing of what happens after Thor dies where he does not go to Valhalla as you’d expect.
Page 13 (Cafu): Cafu was the artist on the aforementioned Jane Foster: Valkyrie series, so he returns to draw Amora impersonating Foster in an effort to gain entry to Valhalla. We get Amora’s guilt in the aftermath of her encounter with Skurge as she realises that her scheme cost her the chance to see her son, Iric, who it seemed she wanted to resurrect (and it was he, on the previous page, who alerts Odin to someone at the gates). She comes to Valhalla to see him and is refused entry. As usual, when she wants something, she’ll use every trick at her disposal to obtain it, including impersonating the final Valkyrie.
Page 14 (Phil Noto): Balder was dead before Magni grew, having opposed Thor somewhat early in his reign as tyrant king of Earth in that future. This page is a nice contrast between Balder’s approach to life and what Magni is looking for, which is something more akin to the life that Thor leads. I think it’s sweet that Ewing carved out a page for Magni to spend time with his uncle, who he’d no doubt like very much... even if they have dramatically different ideas of how best to spend their time.
Page 15 (Martín Cóccolo): The original artist of The Immortal Thor returns for a scene between Tiwaz and Utgard-Loki. The more I reread this page, the more hollow it comes across. Two Elder Gods that seem not aligned acting cordial with one another. Tiwaz seemingly fine with whatever plans Gaea and Utgard-Loki have for Thor, Asgard, and Midgard. At first, Utgard-Loki’s final words, promising that they won’t come to Andland, Tiwaz’s realm, repeating the phrase “NOT TO ANDLANG...” seem ominous, like it’s a trick, but, as we see at the end of the issue, it’s merely him alluding to Toranos coming to Asgard.
Page 16 (Lee Garbett): For my purposes, this is probably the most important page of the issue. Lee Garbett was the artist on Loki, Agent of Asgard, which was written by (guess who) Al Ewing. It was the followup to Loki’s adventures after Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers, picking up where Kieron Gillen left the character and ran right up until Secret Wars where the universe ended. Garbett rejoined Ewing in Thor #24/750 for a story that followed from the final issue of Agent of Asgard and led into Defenders Beyond. Which, is to say, Garbett drawing the Loki page of the issue is a good choice. Loki is in the form of the Skald – or the Enemy, if you will. Tiwaz is well aware of what Loki is doing and seems willing to remain at a distance from it. The interaction is interesting given that Tiwaz’s role as an Elder God tied to Gaea and the Utgard-Gods and so on is a retcon by Loki. So, like Ullr and others, Tiwaz is aware of Loki’s spell and storytelling, yet is also captive to it. His passive nature, willing to wander and safeguard his home, somewhat influenced by Loki, because Tiwaz is here in the story and Loki is the Skald. And we get a couple of details about Loki’s scheme, particularly that the confrontation in Utgard is just the end of the first act (which is Ewing’s way of describing the end of The Immortal Thor as well), but also that their involvement is not certain. This plays into my question about the third weapon that Thor was meant to obtain prior to journeying to Asgard – and what the involvement of Skurge thanks to Ullr’s assistance means in relation to that. Loki indicates that they will end the first act if they have to, suggesting that the plan isn’t for Loki to kill Thor as it plays out. That’s the fallback position... A reminder that, while Loki is the storyteller, they don’t have absolute control over the story.
Page 17 (Humberto Ramos): Amora’s story in this issue concludes with her visiting her other son, Alvi. Drawn by Strange Academy artist Humberto Ramos (which Iric and Alvi appeared in), it’s the final step in her attempt to assuage her guilt, looking to Alvi for some sort of comfort. Instead, he reminds her of her numerous schemes that treated her children as bargaining chips for her own gain. What should be cause to have her reconsider her plans to use Magni for her own gain, confronted with her past bad actions, only calcifies her in the certainty that her plan is the way to move forward. She’s hurt and her response is to shut out the world and only focus on herself rather than taking to heart that Alvi says. It’s the classic “If you think I’m bad, then I’ll show you have bad I can be” response.
Page 18 (David Baldeón): The artist of The Immortal Thor annual #1 returns to draw the update on Blackjack O’Hare who came to Asgard in that issue. Here, meeting Magni and seemingly finding that they are kindred spirits, two souls in the search for adventure and maybe helping folks out. It’s a fitting end to Magni’s tour of Asgard and, if he’s to be the next Thor, adds a bit of the cosmic into his story. But, it’s also different from Thor. Thor has never been the type to have a sidekick, especially a cyborg bunny type of sidekick, giving Magni a little bit of his own identity. Yet, it does recall Avengers: Infinity War and that version of Thor teaming up with Rocket and Groot, so Magni is echoing another version of his father that doesn’t exist. You could say that he’s embodying that idea of Thor, in a way...
Page 19 (Gavin Guidry): The new Bloodaxe is forged and Skurge has paid a huge, terrible price eagerly. Ullr seems to have a sense of what is coming and Skurge’s role in it. A third weapon is crafted here, not for Thor, but for who will stand next to Thor... That Ullr leads into the coming of the Utgard-Gods as Toranos approaches the Bifrost could foreshadow Skurge’s role in breaking both bridges with this axe, which spells his doom as well. Like a lot of the references and allusions in this issue, Ewing is fairly subtle. He places words and characters and ideas next to one another with their full meaning often revealed later.
Page 20 (Jan Bazaldua): And it ends back on the Bifrost with Sif, not watching Thor depart, but the coming of Toranos to Asgard, a fitting end to the issue, setting up the next.
There’s a lot in “Tales of Asgard,” much of piecemeal and allusion rather than direct statements of advancing things. After all, this is Thor’s comic and Thor’s story, so there’s only so much that can occur without him. As you dig into the artist choices, most are fairly appropriate for their pages, more than I thought at first glance. This issue reads like a throwaway issue, one of little importance beyond entertainment and as a breather before Shit Gets Real in the final six issues, but it’s not. At least, I don’t think it is.
Next week, we begin the end of The Immortal Thor and The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts.
