Thor #341-353

Thor #341-353

Originally released in 1984

Written by Walt Simonson

Art by Walt Simonson

Thor seems weirdly fine with the loss of his civilian identity and Donald Blake ceasing to exist.  If anything, issue 341 seems dedicated to pointing out how silly the idea of Thor having a secret identity is.  He wants to set up a new identity for himself, and Nick Fury is happy to oblige, but Fury's not a miracle worker - the best he can do to change Thor's appearance is give him a different outfit (and some glasses, which manage to fool reporters, at least) and hope nobody notices that the seven foot tall buff guy who speaks in an odd dialect is remarkably similar to Thor.

Lorelei, the Enchantress's sister, tries to woo Thor, or if that fails, have him killed. Lorelei feels like a cheap knock-off of her sister - same motivation, similar abilities, but significantly less effective, to the point where her attempt at hypnotizing a massive dragon-like beast named Fafnir leads to her being hypnotized instead.

Balder is setting out on a quest of his own, having meticulously planned for every possibility, including Volstagg coming to check on him. Karnilla, the Queen of the Norns, is trying to figure out how to use this to get him to fall in love with her.

Meanwhile, Loki is watching all of this like someone who's deeply invested in a TV show.  He's still plotting Thor's demise, but he's amused by the sight of Thor wearing his hair in a ponytail and Lorelei trying to hypnotize a dragon only to be hypnotized herself.

Every issue in Walt Simonson's Thor run, at least one page is dedicated to Surtur forging his sword, with the sound of "Doom" ringing out as he does so.  Clearly, this is meant to be building up to some major event; I don't know if this is meant to start Ragnarok, or if Ragnarok in the Marvel universe works in cycles where the gods who die during it are revived to go through the process all over again. (Thor and Loki have both died at least once by my understanding and yet they're currently alive and well)

In a temperate region in the Arctic, following a devout prayer, Thor finds an old man, the sole survivor of a Viking tribe, who wishes to trick Thor into giving him a warrior's death. Thor refuses to kill him, but with Fafnir attacking New York City, the old man might get his wish after all.

Thor knows of Fafnir's return, and he asks Odin for assistance in returning to New York City.  Odin responds, granting Thor his chariot and giving the old man a horse that belongs to the Valkyries so that both of them can face Fafnir. The old man is flying into certain death, but that's what he wants - to go down fighting and to earn his passage into Valhalla rather than dying in his bed.

With Thor granting him the strength of his youth, and Odin blessing his spear, the old man (Eilif) follows Thor into battle. Eilif sacrifices his life to stab the spear into Fafnir's skin, creating a weak point for Thor to target. Fafnir dies, but it comes at the cost of Eilif's life, with Thor giving the old Viking a suitably epic Viking funeral.

As Lorelei (posing as a normal woman) tracks down Thor in his human guise and seeks to thank him for saving her from Fafnir earlier (and drug him with a love potion, though he doesn't realize that), issue 344 switches its focus to Balder the Brave, who has given up killing and been tasked to find Loki.  He's there to deliver a message from Odin, though Loki has another visitor: Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves.

Loki refuses Odin's deal in favour of Malekith's, so Balder (having regained his will to kill when faced with the death of billions if Loki doesn't get Odin's message) chops off Loki's head before fleeing into the desert to let himself die.  A simple decapitation won't kill Loki, but Balder doesn't know that.

Lorelei's plans continue to be foiled as Thor has to deal with another emergency - despite the best efforts of a secret society to guard its presence in Manhattan, Malekith has tracked down the location of the Casket of Ancient Winters, which he needs for a mysterious master of his.  Malekith seems like the independent sort, so I'm not sure who the master could be, though given that these issues have been building up Surtur as a threat, I'm guessing it's him. (though I'm not sure if any noteworthy Frost Giants like Ymir or Laufey are active; they seem like they'd have more use for a casket that brings about an eternal winter than the fire demon Surtur would)

The Casket of Ancient Winters is taken from its hiding place before Malekith can reach it, so he calls forth the Wild Hunt, a seemingly endless horde of beasts that look like a mix of dogs and rats, to track it down.  As Thor battles the beasts, Surtur has finished forging his sword and is preparing his armies for the coming attack.

After driving Malekith off, Thor returns to Lorelei's apartment, where her plan finally succeeds and Thor drinks the enchanted mead... except Lorelei's ironically not there to see it.  Malekith got there first, following the traces of magic, and he's holding Lorelei (who Thor's now in love with, though as far as he knows, she's just a normal human named Melodi) hostage in exchange for the casket.

As a side note, I'm impressed by how Walt Simonson did both the writing and the art (or at least the penciling) for this series.  It's pretty common in manga (though in that case, the panels tend to be larger/less dialogue heavy and the chapters are in black and white), but the only cases I can think of where it applies to a North American comic that I've read for this blog would be Jack Kirby's work with DC and Mike Mignola's work on Hellboy. It's particularly impressive when you consider the scope and scale of some of these panels.

With the help of the mortal who had found the Casket, Thor travels to Malekith's stronghold to save Lorelei/Melodi.  Despite some pitfalls and speedbumps, it seems like they succeed, only for Malekith to smash the casket on the ground and unleash the winters of eons past on the world.

Back in Asgard, Odin is preparing for war, though he'll need to prepare faster as the destruction of the casket froze the seal on Surtur's domain, allowing him to smash it open and unleash his army upon the Nine Realms.

Balder returns from a meeting with the Norn Queens (who seem similar to the Three Fates of Greek mythology), his heroic spirit renewed as he is ready to help. I don't know much about Balder, but he seems like the most traditionally heroic of all of Asgardians, to the point where even his enemies admire his determination and willingness to forgive and become his allies.

As he prepares to summon Thor to Asgard, he sees that Thor is in a relationship with another mortal woman.  However, he quickly sees that it's Lorelei, and assuming that Thor entered it of his own free will, he's fine with it as long as she's not mortal.

With his forces assembled, Odin tells them how he first met Surtur, exploring the lands with his brothers.  Surtur intends to bring an end to the universe, but Odin and his brothers used their ability to fuse into a giant warrior to stop him. (Which was an ability that I did not realize that he had)

His brothers sacrificed themselves to seal up Surtur's domain, but that sacrifice granted Odin the Odin-Force.  Now they have one last member of their army to bring into battle.  The one person who's the equal in courage and strength of Thor - Beta Ray Bill. (With his introduction here, it really made me wish that Marvel did more with the character, particularly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Issue 350 starts with the assembled armies of Asgard, including several of its enemies who would rather side with Asgard than face destruction. (The only ones that I recognized were the Enchantress and the Executioner - Loki was absent) Beta Ray Bill tries to talk Sif into staying back with Odin and Heimdall as part of the final defense, as Surtur is heading to Earth so he can use the Rainbow Bridge to reach Asgard where his Eternal Flame is kept, but as Thor is well aware, Sif won't hear any of that kind of talk.

As Odin convinces the children of Asgard to retreat with Frigga, treating it as though they're keeping Frigga safe, the demons of Muspelheim arrive in New York City.  Between that and Inferno, Marvel's New York City was attacked surprisingly often by hordes of demons in the 80s. (Then again, Doctor Strange lives there, so I suppose that's probably commonplace)

Surtur arrives much sooner than expected, leading the charge and coming face to face with Thor.  Balder was sent off on a mission by Odin to convince Karnilla to assist them, though Karnilla's price is that Balder swears loyalty to her. Back on Earth, Thor creates a rainstorm to put out the spreading fires created by Surtur's forces, but by doing so, he created a rainbow, giving Surtur the path that he needed to reach Asgard.

As the Asgardians, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the army battle demons on Earth, Surtur breaks the rainbow bridge, meaning that it's just Heimdall, Thor, and Odin against the skyscraper-sized demon king. Surtur calls upon the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters that is still roaming over the Earth, as it's a power that's older than Odin or even Surtur himself. I figured it was kind of odd for Surtur to use ice, but he describes winter as being a brother of fire, which makes sense.

Odin is frozen solid, still alive but unable to do anything as Surtur ignites his sword with the Eternal Flame and prepares to end the universe. However, his sword fails to ignite - the flame is just an illusion created by Loki, who would be fine if Surtur was just destroying Asgard, but he wants to rule and he can't do much ruling if Surtur destroys everything.

Surtur tries to ignite his sword, but Thor recovers from Surtur's attacks, and back on Earth, the Casket of Ancient Winters is repaired and closed, freeing Odin.  Odin, Thor, and Loki team up to face down Surtur at the height of his powers, and their battle cries make their motivations pretty clear.

As the warriors of Earth, aided by Balder and Karnilla, force Surtur's forces back to Muspelheim, that distracts Surtur long enough for Thor to force the demon to drop his sword, keeping its energies from weakening Odin.  As it turns out, with the Odin Force, Odin can change into his giant form whenever he wants.

However, on its own, this isn't enough.  Ordering Thor to destroy Surtur's footing, Odin plummets into Muspelheim with Surtur, paralleling his brothers' sacrifices as he intends to keep Surtur trapped there.  The issue ends with Thor and Loki yelling out to their father as he apparently dies, or at least sacrifices himself to go through a fate worse than death.

The Surtur story was suitably epic in every sense of the word.  Operating on a grand scale, dealing with events older than our understanding of time, it was built up over the course of roughly a year and a half in real-time and it certainly delivered on all of that promise.  I'm unfamiliar with the original Norse mythology - for all I know, this is a direct adaptation with cameos from the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Beta Ray Bill.  However, if it wasn't, then Simonson did an amazing job with capturing a mythological feel in both the writing and the art.