Thor #349
Debts of Honor
New York
The Casket of Ancient Winters has been shattered, plunging the entire planet Earth in the collective cold of every winter known to history.
Thor carries himself, Malekith, Roger Willis, and his beloved Melodi back to New York City from England to regroup and figure out their next course of action. When they arrive at Melodi’s penthouse apartment, it is already beginning to snow in Manhattan.
Thor decides that the best way to deal with Malekith is to take him back to Asgard so that Odin can banish him again. However, he pauses to question how Melodi saw through his Sigurd Jarlson identity. Melodi says it wasn’t a very good surprise but Roger isn’t buying it since Thor has been acting obsessed with her since drinking a glass of her golden mead. When Roger tries to get Thor to speak with him in private, the thunder god says he needs a moment to deal with some business first. Thor calls Jerry Sapristi, the construction foreman who employs Sigurd Jarlson to tell him that he won’t be reporting to work for a while. Jerry is agreeable to allowing the time off as he has deduced that “Sigurd” must be a super-hero since it was Nick Fury who arranged for him to get the construction job. However, Jerry incorrectly suspects that Sigurd is secretly Captain America.[1]
Suspecting that Jerry is onto her, Melodi — who is actually the Asgardian temptress known as Lorelei — pulls him out onto the balcony and forces a kiss on him. This allows her to prevent Jerry from trying to warn Thor about her true intentions. Although Roger can’t warn Thor, he decides to try and foil her plans by making a excuse to go into the kitchen by knocking over a vase of flowers. Going to fetch some paper towels, Roger pours a jar of golden mead — which was used to enthrall Thor — and dumps most of it down the drain. He then mixes in some honey and water to dilute the remaining formula to throw a wrench into Melodi’s plans.
Asgard
Balder and Agnar of Vanaheim have returned to the royal palace from the endless desert.[2] There, Balder races to see Odin to tell him of the visions shown to him by the Norns. He explains that Asgard is imperiled by a burning vision. Thanking Balder for confirming his worst fears he sends Balder to gather his trusted advisors and prepare the council room.
Odin then uses a crystal ball to look in on what his son is doing on Midgard. At first, Odin is furious to see Thor romancing what appears to be yet another mortal.[3] However, as Thor departs to bring Malekith back to Asgard, Odin takes a closer look at Thor’s new infatuation. He then recognizes her as the goddess Lorelei and approves merely because she is an Asgardian and decides not to interfere.
When Thor arrives moments later, Odin has Malekith placed in the dungeon of no escape until he can be properly dealt with.[4] He then calls a council with Thor, his wife Frigga, Balder, and the Warriors Three to discuss the coming battle ahead. He tells them that this battle was set into motion many centuries earlier when Odin was a much young man. In that time, he and his brothers Vili and Ve were out exploring the Nine Worlds of Asgard. This eventually brought them to the uncharted land of Muspelheim a land of fire and molten rock. At the portal to this domain they were confronted by the Sons of Muspel, demonic creatures made of flame. Odin and his brothers explained that they were merely explorers who wished to know more of this domain and were welcomed in to meet its ruler, the massive fire demon Surtur.
When they met with Surtur, the demon allowed them to ask what they came seeking. Odin and his brothers wanted to know if Surtur did plan on destroying the Nine Worlds in flame. Surtur admitted that this was true and showed them the eternal flame which will ignite his sword and allow him to destroy everything. The demon then attempted to attack the trio but Odin, Vili, and Ve wouldn’t go down without a fight. First they summoned a powerful winter storm to freeze Surtur’s legions in their place and then merged together to transform into a giant warrior to face Surtur one-on-one. The two giant locked swords with enough force to separate Odin and his brothers, but also destroy Surtur’s sword. Seeking to prevent the demon from bringing about the destruction of everything, the three brothers then stole the Eternal Flame and attempted to flee Muspelheim. Realizing that they could not all get away, Vili and Ve stopped at the gates and instructed Odin to keep going. Then, combining their power, Vili and Ve destroyed the gate between worlds, sealing off Muspelheim from the rest of Asgard.
In sacrificing their lives, Vili and Ve transferred their power to Odin himself giving him the Odinpower which he has used to rule over Asgard ever since. Still mourning the loss of his brothers, Odin then reveals that the Eternal Flame has been standing in Asgard ever since. Now with Surtur freed on Earth, he will be making his way to Asgard to use the flame to ignite his sword and destroy all life.[5] Refusing to allow this to happen, Odin uses his power to summon a great warrior to help them in their time of need. Suddenly, Beta Ray Bill teleports in the middle of the room.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Surtur, Balder, Agnar, Odin, Heimdall, Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg), Beta Ray Bill, Frigga, Malekith, Lorelei, Roger Willis, Jerry Sapristi, Silverhoof, (in flashback) Vili, Ve
Continuity Notes
Jerry Sapristi refers to Nick Fury as “cousin Nick”. However, the idea that Fury is a direct relative to Sapristi is increasingly impossible due to Fury’s backstory and the Sliding Timescale. Per Strange Tales #159, Fury was born in the 1910s and he has kept his relative youth thanks to the Infinity Formula, per Marvel Spotlight #31. Furthermore, the Fury profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 does not list Jerry or his family as relatives of Fury. As such, Jerry likely refers to Nick as his “cousin” figuratively in the same way that one might refer to a close friend as a “brother”.
Agnar once again comments that Balder is a completely different person from when they first met. That was in Thor #338, I’ll get into it in more detail in footnote #4.
Odin is of course referring to Jane Foster, a mortal woman that Thor loved for years starting in Journey into Mystery #84. Odin forbade the romance in issue #90. Although Odin removed Jane from Thor’s life in Thor #136 she would pop in and out of his life for years until she finally married Keith Kincaid in Thor #336.
Thor states that he heard of Balder’s recent trials and tribulations. A footnote lazily states “as seen over previous issues” but it’s a bit more complex than that. Balder had just recently gone through a length period of hoving between life and death in Thor #274 to 301. During that time his soul was trapped in Hel where he saw many unspeakable horrors. Once back in the world of the living he swore to become a pacifist. However, Loki forced him to take life to defend himself in issue #344. Balder then went into the endless desert to try and commit suicide until rescued one of the Norns and was shown his fate in issues #347-348.
Odin’s tale about Vili and Ve here contradicts what his severed eye told Thor in Thor #293-294. In that version of events, Vili and Ve existed in the previous Rangarok cycle and were merged with the other surviving Aesir to create the current incarnation of Odin and that the current Ragnarok cycle did not have a Vili or Ve in it. For more on this contradiction see "Asgardian Myth” below.
Topical References
When Lorelei tells that Thor’s that his Sigurd Jarlson identity was easy to see through she states that he was wearing Izod shirts. This should be considered a topical reference since Izod is a real world brand of clothing.
Asgardian Myth
This story marks one of the first time there is a major conflict between stories that delve into Asgardian myth. In Thor #293-294, it is explained that Asgard had gone through a previous Ragnarok cycle wherein the Aesir were mostly killed off. The surviving members — which included versions of Vili and Ve — merged together to create the current incarnation of Odin. Odin then used his power to create the Asgardians, who were based on the Aesir before them and were similar but also different. Absent from these creations were, apparently, new versions of Vili and Ve. In addition to this, apparently much of the Asgardian’s past were false memories implanted in their minds.
That story was told to Thor by the severed eye of Odin which gained sentience after the All-Father plucked it out of its head. Later, in Thor #355, the thunder god will meet Tiwaze who is actually his great-grandfather Buri. He will suggest that the eye’s story is false because it held a grudge against Odin. The key word here being suggest.
Much later, Thor (vol. 2) #83 will confirm that Ragnarok is a series of cycles and that every cycle is slightly different than the last.
So how does one explain this exact contradiction? Based on the semi-official Marvel Chronology Project both versions of events have a modicum of truth to them as they list both the events of Thor #293-294 as occurring and the flashback in this story happening some time later in Odin’s chronology.
When one looks at Thor #293-294, the eye doesn’t confirm or deny that a new incarnation of Vili and Ve were created. Thor only assumes such since he had never previously met them, nor were they singled out in a massive sea of Asgardians that Odin willed into life in the vision. An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence in other words.
Another explanation was readily provided in Thor: God of Thunder #3, which states that, due to their immortality the Asgardians have a limit on the memories they can retain in their minds. That over time, centuries old memories grow dim or are entirely forgotten to make room for new memories. As such, it’s entirely possible that the discrepancies between these two stories is due to the Asgardians inherent faulty memories.