The Immortal Thor #1-5

The Immortal Thor #1-5

Originally released in 2023

Written by Al Ewing

Art by Martin Coccolo

I've read the Immortal Hulk series (or at least some of it), but I hadn't read the Immortal Thor yet.  In both cases, Al Ewing seems to be taking these franchises in a new direction while also bringing them back to basics in a sense.  For the Immortal Hulk, that meant taking the Hulk in a more grotesque horror-themed direction, while with the Immortal Thor, it means going back to Norse mythology.

The narration feels like a story being told around a campfire, prompting the reader if they want to learn more and sounding like something that has been passed down the ages.  Both Martin Coccolo's panels and Alex Ross's covers add to this sense of grandeur and give the comic a larger-than-life feel.

Ewing's writing emphasizes Thor's nature as the god of storms beyond just thunder and lightning, having him tell a snowstorm off for darkening Asgard. (the storm listens and promptly leaves)  Odin currently resides in Valhalla, and Thor now holds the power and responsibilities of being All-Father.

However, Ewing's writing and Coccolo's art also emphasizes the mysterious, unknowable, and primordial nature of mythology.  While traveling to New York City to relax, Thor tries to get a storm to calm down.  It doesn't listen, because an older, darker power is controlling it.

My jaw almost dropped when I saw this panel, even on the smaller visuals of a phone, and the art continues to impress when we see who was responsible for the massive bolt of lightning.

Toranos is some kind of elder god of thunder, being to Asgardians what Asgardians are to humans.  He looks like a massive sentient storm cloud that was vaguely shaped like a human, and the panels that feature him emphasize his sheer scope - before him, Thor is the size of an ant, and seemingly about as powerful as one.

Thor barely manages to banish Toranos to the far reaches of the universe, but he uses Odin's power to do so, which requires the Odin-Sleep to recharge.  Before he can drift off, Loki comes to him with a question that, for most of Thor's life, would inevitably lead to chaos and betrayal: "do you trust me?"

Loki takes on the role of a trickster mentor here, forcing Thor to use his brain to overcome the trials that Loki sets before him and to prepare him for what's to come.  The sibling bond between them is great, and I've said it before, but I like how Loki's developed in recent years, with him/her now being a heroic-leading wildcard than a cackling villain.

Once he's recovered, Thor sends Loki off to do some recruiting, feeling like he has to talk to one particular person without Loki's involvement.  I practically said "yes!" when I saw who it was.

Whenever the Marvel Cinematic Universe covers the X-Men, I really hope they do Storm justice.  Her interactions with Thor here are great - they both wield similar powers, but they use different aspects of it and treat it differently, and with some kind of war about to happen on Mars and a group of genocidal bigots called Orchis plotting to exterminate all mutants, Storm doesn't particularly care about being drawn into Thor's shenanigans, at least not until she sees what they're up against.

Toranos returns, with Thor and Storm taking the fight to an area of the moon that has oxygen and, by extension, weather.  However, it's not just the two of them that will be taking on Toranos.

Beta Ray Bill, Jane Foster (who is currently a Valkyrie), and even Loki arrive to help.  I wasn't aware that Loki had ever used Mjolnir, though with Thor being the All-Father, he can decide who's worthy of its power.  The result is a chaotic battle against a sentient storm cloud that's the size of a mountain while Loki, Bill, Jane, and Storm are passing Mjolnir back and forth between each other and using it to attack Toranos, who considers it akin to a mosquito.

Meanwhile, something sinister appears to be afoot at Roxxon.  The company is a shorthand for corporate greed and callousness, and its CEO, Dario Agger, has bought up seemingly every possible adaptation of Thor, ranging from books to movies to even comics.  Agger is also the supervillain known as the Minotaur; he had previously kept that side of himself a secret, but around the time of the Trump administration, he realized that if you're rich enough, you could openly show off how awful of a human being you are and people would still praise you for it.

He's aware of the power of stories, the power that Loki wields, and he seems to want a piece of it.  Thor is defined by the stories told about him throughout the centuries, so it seems like he thinks that, if he controls the stories, he'll be able to control Thor. It helps that he has an ally who can make that possible.

Reading this series filled me with a sense of awe and wonder beyond what I was expecting, and I'm eager to see and hear more of this.  It feels like this series has captured lightning in a bottle, with the narration providing a sense of foreboding that I haven't felt in comics since Tom King's The Vision.  From what I've seen, Al Ewing is definitely one of the best comic writers working today, and this series helps to prove it.