Twilight of the Gods!

Having sought answers about his father’s connection to the Celestials, Thor sought out the truth from Odin’s severed eye. Finding it in another dimension, the thunder god has been learning secrets of his long lost past where he lived on Earth in the form of a mortal named Siegfried. Now, as he becomes eager to confront the Celestials threatening Earth, this story is coming to it’s final conclusion…[1]

Thousands of years earlier, Siegfried has been drugged into falling love with Gunthra, the sister of Gunther the ruler of the kingdom of Gibichung, forsaking his love of Brunnhilda. This was all part of a grand scheme orchestrated by Hagen, the son of a dwarf named Albreich who created the Ring of Nibelung a powerful talisman that would allow its possessor to rule over both man and god. Over the decades the ring exchange hands until eventually ending up in the possession of Siegfried and into Hagen’s crosshairs.

A day after he was kicked out of the kingdom of Gibichung, Siegfried had gone on a hunt for food for himself and his new bride. He passes by the Rhine river where he is greeted by the Rhinemaids — mermaids that once protected the gold that was used by Alberich to make the ring. Seeing the ring of Siegfried’s finger, the Rhinemaidens try to convince him to relinquish it to them but he refuses. Moments later he is approached by Hagen and King Gunther who have come to make amends to the conflict of the day before. Siegfried agrees to set up camp with them. While Gunther and Siegfried are distracted by a pair of crows flying overhead, Hagen attacks Siegfried with a spear from behind to counteract the spell of invincibility that was placed upon him by Brunnhilda. Impaled through the chest by the weapon, Siegfried dies instantly.

Gunther is horrified as he genuinely wanted to make peace and promises to give Siegfried a proper viking funeral. The body is brought back to Gibichung where Gunthra and Brunnhilda are devastated by the news. Gunther then accuses Hagen of murder and is killed himself when his half-brother throws a dagger into his heart. When Hagen tries to remove the ring from Siegfried’s finger, he discovers it cannot be removed. Gunthra quickly takes command and orders the guards to take Hagen away. Soon, Siegfried’s body is placed in a funeral pyre to be cremated and, consumed with grief over her lost loved, Brunnhilda throws herself into the flames so she can be with her lover in the afterlife.

In Asgard, Odin is informed of Siegfried and Brunnhilda’s deaths from his ravens, Hugin and Munin — the two ravens Siegfried and Gunther witnessed earlier. Filled with grief over the deaths, Odin has Valtrauta and Grimgerta of the Valkyrie return their bodies to him. He then asks his loyal shield maidens to leave him be and erases their memory of what transpired. Odin then uses his power to restore Thor and Brunnhilda to their godly forms and similarly strips their memories of everything that happened and sends them away. It’s then he discovers that the Ring of Nibelung was brought back to Asgard with them and has returned to its original form. Odin decides to punish himself for his transgressions. First he breaks the ring in half and ventures to Yggdrasil, the world tree. There he strips off his clothes and gores himself with his spear, Gungnir. He then has Hugin and Munin crucify him to Yggdrasil with the segments of the ring and they leave with Gungnir to hide it where he may not find it.

Odin remained suspended for nine days as he awaited death to come to him. It is here that he is visited by a mysterious woman in a green cloak. to pass the time he watches over his son and witnesses his first battle with Hercules.[2] She tells Odin that he must live and shows him an image of the Celestial spacecraft coming to Earth. Curious, Odin pulls himself free and wanders back into Asgard where he asks Mimir to tell him more about these visitors from another world. He learns that the aliens have come to pass judgement on all life on Earth. Odin is offended by this and vows to stop them from doing so. It’s about this time that Thor had returned from a second encounter with Hercules and proposed to his father that they war with the Olympians over the worship of humanity. Odin tells Thor that this is a pointless battle but thanks to the manipulations of Loki the war happens any way. As the forces of Asgard and Olympus clashed with one another, Odin appeared briefly on the battle field and exchanged silence counsel with Zeus before departing. Tricked into thinking he won, Thor later went to claim worship from the Greek only to find they had no interest in worshiping the Norse gods. Returning home disappointed, Odin dismissively explains to his son that man worships their own gods and their gods alone, more focused on a chess game with strange pieces on the board.[3]

The eye then reveals to Thor that this encounter with Zeus prompted Odin to seek out the leaders of every other pantheon of gods that exist on Earth. They formed what would be called the Council of God-Heads to discuss how to deal with the coming of the Celestials. This coincided with Thor’s first encounter with the Eternals centuries ago.[4] When the Third Host of the Celestials arrived, Thor was made to leave their temple with no memory of this encounter. Moments after their arrival, the Celestials were visited by Odin, Zeus and Vishnu who had come on behalf of their newly formed council to announce their opposition of the Celestial plans. Unresponse, Arishem the Judge used its power to threaten to destroy Asgard, Olympus, and Nirvana with a single thought. Speaking for the Celestials, the Eternal known as Ajak warns the three gods that if they refuse to ally themselves to the Celestials their homes will be destroyed. With no other choice, Odin and the others reluctantly bowed down to their new masters.

This, however, was only a ruse. Knowing that they would have centuries before the final judgement, Odin and the others got to work on a weapon to oppose the Celestials. This led to the creation of the Destroyer armor, which Odin hid away in a special temple where it remained for thousands of years.[5] Returning to Asgard, Odin then transformed the halves of the Ring of Nibelung into the massive Odinsword, which would be used to measure the coming of Ragnarok. It also had the secret purpose of being used as a weapon against the Celestials, as Odin hoped to transfer Alberich’s curse onto the space gods and save the Asgardians from their ultimate twilight.

This concludes the eye’s story and Thor realizes that he was wrong to question his father’s edicts even if his reasons were shrouded in secret. Grabbing the severed eye, Thor returns to Asgard where the massive organ resumes its original form. There, the thunder god is horrified to discover that everyone in Asgard is dead, including his father who still sits on the throne. Worse, the Odinsword has gone missing from the chamber it has been kept for centuries. Demanding answers, he goes to Mimir to learn what happened. After feeding the flame his father’s severed eye, Mimir gains the strength to tell Thor wha happened. He explained that Odin took the life forces of all Asgardians to power the Destroyer in order to destroy the Celestials.

At that very moment, the Destroyer has arrived around the impenetrable dome the Celestials have sealed themselves under and blasts its way through. As it enters the city of the space gods it is followed by the Eternal Uni-Mind. However, when they confront the Celestials a twin blast from Gammenon the Gatherer and Jemiah the Analyzer strikes the Uni-Mind causing the Eternals to split apart and fall to the ground. Thor soon arrives as the Destroyer uses the Odinsword to lop off the arm of Nezzar the Calculator. Astonishingly, the Celestial is able to regrow his severed limb moments later. The Celestials then beginning attacking the Destroyer all at once. With the lives of everyone in Asgard at risk, Thor attempts to assist the Destroyer by summoning a massive storm. Unfortunately, the Celestials merely shrug this off and blast the Destroyer all at once. With the enchanted armor melted to slag, the combined life force of the Asgardians is violently dissipated.

Horrified by this act, Thor tries to fight the Celestials himself but they shrug off his blows as if they are nothing. Battered around by energy blasts, Thor grows frustratedt and uses Mjolnir to shatter the twin pylons that Arishem the Judge stands upon, toppling the Celestial to the ground. While Arishem is down, Thor picks up the Odinsword and uses it to impale the space god. Like everything else, this has little effect and Arishem pulls the sword out and then melts it to slag just like the Destroyer. When his hammer doesn’t return to him, Thor realizes that his father is dead and prepare to meet the same fate as Arishem reaches out to crush him.

Suddenly, a woman in a green cloak — the same one from the eye’s vision — appears between them and pleads with Arishem not to kill her son. She then presents the Young Gods to the Celestials, twelve humans that have ascended to godhood and asks the Celestials to consider the potential evey human has. The Young Gods are then made as an offering to go with the Celestials to learn from them. With this offering, Arishem decides to make final judgemente on humanity in advance of their fifty year observation. The space god gives the thumbs up signifying that the Earth shal live and moments later the Celestials and Young Gods leave for space. In the aftermath of the battle, Gaea rushes to Thor’s side and confirm that she is his biological mother.[7] As the thunder god passes out, she tells him that their runion will not be a happy one as they will be too busy mourning the loss of Thor’s father.[6]

Recurring Characters

Thor, Celestials (Arishem the Judge, Oneg the Prober, Gammenon the Gatherer, Nezzar the Calculator, Hargen the Measurer, Tefral the Surveyor, Jemiah the Analyzer, Eson the Searcher, Ziran the Tester), Council of God-Heads (Odin, Zeus, Tomazooma, Tezcatlipoca, Vishnu, Itzamna, Buluku, Ukko, Ulgen, Manitou, Nuada, Tame, Viracocha, Izanagi, Okonorote, Anu, Ammon Ra, Buddha, Svarog, Baiame) Odin’s eye, Gaea, Mimir, Valkyrie, Valtrauta, Grimgerta, Heimall, Tyr, Sif, Destroyer, Uni-Mind, Hercules, Ajak, Zuras, Young Gods (Brightsword, Caduceus, Calculus, Daydreamer, Genii, Harvest, Highnote, Mindslinger, Moonstalker, Sea Witch, Splice, Varua), Hugin, Munin, Sleipnir

Continuity Notes

1. Odin removed his eye and fed it to Mimi to stave off Ragnarok in issue #274 it has terrorized another dimension until Thor found it in issue #292 to learn the secrets of Odin’s past with the Celestials and a claim that he killed Thor centuries ago in the forgotten past.

2. Thor and Hercules first recorded clash was depicted in Journey into Mystery Annual #1.

3. The war between Asgard and Olympus was chronicled in Thor Annual #5.

4. Thor’s first encounter with the Eternals happened in Thor Annual #7.

5. Thor recounts that this was the same temple where he found the Destroyer not long ago. That happened in Journey into Mystery #118.

6. The story of Thor’s birth and the resurrection of the Asgardians is all detailed next issue.

7. It should be noted that Gaea is Thor’s mother of the current Ragnarok Cycle and he has been birthed through others in earlier cycles. For example, Avengers (vol. 8) #43, the Phoenix Force has claimed to be Thor’s original mother, giving birth to the first incarnation of Thor in Year One Million BC.

Errors

• In this story the Odinsword is called the Oversword.