In the current issues of Thor, our Hammer-Hurler is in a bad mood. Asgard is in ruins, Odin is dead (at least for now) and the Thunder God is sulking. He pushes Sif away when she tries to comfort and does the same to the Warriors Three when they try to cheer him up. He is depressed, morose and acting like a petulant toddler. In layman's terms, he's behaving like a jerk. The astounding thing is that he takes Balder to task for acting the same way because Balder is now King of Asgard or what's left of it. Of course, that's what Odin wanted to be Thor's destiny but he dodged that with the latest of his many exiles.
Now comes the weird part. Does Thor help repair Asgard? No. Does he want to try to revive Odin? No and that's probably good for him. But he suddenly, and really from out of the blue, decides that he knows what his problem is, beyond being an insufferable bore. He just misses his brother, Loki. Y'know the guy in the green and yellow armor. Really long-horned helmet. Bad attitude. Malicious sneer. Prince of Evil. Lord of Lies. Sworn enemy. Yeah, that guy! And not only does he miss him, he's going to bring him back. Not try. Will, no matter what. Despite what everyone else in Asgard or the Avengers would tell him. After centuries of fighting and uncountable attempts to destroy him and those around him, Thor believes that having Loki back is the only possible thing to make him happy again.
Does anyone else buy that? I'm inclined to think that Thor is being controlled by Loki or another evil god or it's some sort of ritual, cyclical thing where Thor needs to have Loki around to support his existence. Good can only be as strong as the evil it fights, that sort of philosophy.
Also, Don Blake is back, as a seperate person. Is he real? An actual individual with a past? Now he mentally can "chat" with Thor like Firestorm or the Ghost Rider or The Hulk from the new Avengers cartoon. That seems to be the case in Thor: First Thunder. Is this interpretation now Marvel's official version because that would circumvent Lee and Kirby's true origin of Thor.
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I think it's strange, but I've shrugged a lot of odd character moves in Thor. Ever since Simonson, this book has been more mythology oriented (excluding the sad DeFalco run). I see most of the gods here being captive to their own saga, whether it be in the stories of the Eddas we know or those as yet unknown.
I noticed this myself. I'm assuming that he's being mind-controlled somehow. Either that, or it's a misstep by the writer.
Of course, it seems like all the Asgardians have a blind spot when it comes to Loki, so we'll see.
I can't believe they are going with this storyline! Perhaps Thor is possessed by Parallex.
It looks like a rerun of the Kirby story where Thor goes down to Hades to rescue a rather undeserving Hercules.
I'm not sure stories about the eternal Gods have to be about them being stuck in cycles. There was only one big cycle of Norse stories and that ended with the Ragnorak, but maybe that is being too literal. If the Gods represent states then Odin is always fearing when his son will take over him, and we must always be watching out for Loki's mischeif.
Jurgens working towards a Ragnorak that meant something was a great way to go, and I found JMS' story about Thor trying to start afresh and away from the cycles was something that felt different. Still, it didn't take them long to get stuck in the same old rut again. Thor deserves better.
I'm not sure stories about the eternal Gods have to be about them being stuck in cycles.
For me, nothing will top the issue of Top 10 that covered this.
"Thor feelingth?" I'm tho thor I can hardly pith! (Excuse me... just lost my mind for a minute there.)
"Thor believes that having Loki back is the only possible thing to make him happy again"?
Next you'll be telling me that Batman would intentionally drop the Joker into the Lazarus Pit!
Oh. Nevermind.
In a couple of myths (the theft of Thor's hammer and Utgard-Loki stories) Loki worked with Thor. Marvel has long represented Thor and Loki as having been raised as brothers. Possibly the writer's idea is that they were once on better terms (although I can't recall at this moment any time that Marvel has presented them as having been so).
Yes, the Throwing Game!
The Baron said:
"Not unless you want to do eternal paperwork."
Mythologically, Loki was Odin's blood-brother, not his adopted son. But Marvel established Loki early on as Thor's "sibling". In the Tales of Asgard series, Loki grouses on how Thor is favored more than he is. But we are told this by Loki, it was never clearly depicted on how Odin raised Loki. I'm guessing there were a few trips to the Aesir's woodshed, though probably not enough, figuratively speaking. Thor always reminisced about Loki being his childhood companion. No doubt he loved Loki as a brother and hoped they could act like brothers again. But Loki didn't slowly turn evil. He hated Thor since they were youths. He planned and plotted with the goal of eliminating the Thunder God. Loki was jealous of him, contemptuous of him, fearful of him and full of self-loathing because he knew that he could never equal Thor.
It's just makes no sense that Thor would want Loki back in his life. Who needs the grief?
As someone who has relatives that are total shits and yet still hopes against hope for a change, I can empathize with Thor.
Philip Portelli said:
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