Thor #379
There Were Giants in Those Days (Or, a Discourse Between Heroes and Villains)
Asgard
Loki wakes up in his castle and finds it in shambles. Wondering what happened, he casts a spell to look into the recent past. He sees that the Frost Giants were driven away from his home by his hated brother Thor. After defeating the giants, Thor then returned Iceman — whom Loki kidnapped — back to Midgard.[1]
Wondering what happened to the giants, Loki spies on them and discovers that they have travelled to a fjord in Norway. There, their leader Grundroth, intends to summon Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, to destroy Thor. This amuses Loki who plans on getting revenge against the Frost Giants after they have dealt with Thor.
The trickster then returns to his throne where he projects his astral form to the Andes Mountains on Earth, the scene of Odin’s battle with the Celestials. There he finds a sheet of melted slag that will be instrumental to the next step of his plan.[2]
Elsewhere in the kingdom, Kurse has been sitting inert since killing Malekeith for his betrayal.[3] However, a sound catches his attention and the massive Dark Elf goes to find its source. He finds Mick and Kevin — two mortals adopted by Volstagg — crying over the fallen forms of Hilde, Sif, and Fandral who have all fallen sick from a strange malady that has affected all Asgardians.[4] When the boys asks Kurse to take them to Balder, he picks them and Hildy up and carries them away.
New York
Thor teleports himself and Iceman onto the roof top of X-Factor headquarters. There Bobby thanks Thor for his help but assures him that he can’t go to a hospital because he is a mutant. As Thor heads off alone, Iceman’s X-Factor teammates find him on the rooftop and he begins explaining what had happened to him.[5]
Thor returns to the Brooklyn apartment he rents out as “Sigurd Jarlson”, but he finds the empty apartment is no longer the sanctuary it once was and that he must prepare himself for what might be the final chapter of his life.
Norway
The Frost Giants have taken a boat out into the fjord and Grundroth uses one of his men — a big nosed giant named Snorti — as bait to summon the Midgard Serpent.
Asgard
Meanwhile, Mick and Kevin are brought to Balder who has also fallen ill like the rest of the people of Asgard. Wondering what to do next, the boys are given a vial of water from the Well of Life by Odin’s ravens, Hugin and Munin.
Norway
The Frost Giants succeed in pulling a dragon out of the waters of the fjord. However, rather than Jormungand, this dragon apparently turns out to be Fin Fang Foom.[6] Annoyed at being woken from his slumber, Fin Fang Foom demands to know what the Frost Giants want. when Grundroth explains that they sought Jormungand to destroy Thor, the dragon is intrigued and decides to go out and seek out Thor for himself.
Even though they probably awoke the wrong dragon, Grundroth figures that the end result will still be the same
New York
Thor has relocated to Central Park where he is continuing to contemplate his next moves when he is suddenly ambushed by Fin Fang Foom. Not recognizing Thor, the dragon asks where he might find the god of thunder. Without revealing who he really is, Thor asks Foom a number of questions to figure out what he wants. When he learns that the dragon intends to battle him, Thor warns him that he will defend the people of New York, but suggests that the battle take place where nobody can be hurt. Fin Fang Foom will only agree to this if Thor is able to lift the dragon’s foot off the ground. The strength required to pull off this feat is tremendous, but Thor succeeds.
Fin Fang Foom then flies them out into the wilderness where nobody can get . That’s when Fin Fang Foom’s skin rips open revealing that he was actually the Midgard Serpent in disguise and that he has come to fulfill destiny by killing the god of thunder. Upon revealing itself to Thor, all time on Earth stops.[7]
That’s when Thor reveals his true identity to the serpent, vowing to bring about Jormungand’s death.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Jormundgand, Kurse, Fandral, Sif, Heimdall, Hildy, Enchantress, Ularic, Balder, Loki Grundroth, Kartak, Snorti, Destroyer, Iceman, Beast, Kevin Mortensen, Mick Mortensen, Hugin, Munin
Continuity Notes
Loki was using Iceman’s power to increase the size of the Frost Giants in issues #377-378. Their height was diminished after they were partially melted by Balder in Balder the Brave #1-4.
Loki is seeking out the Destroyer armor, which Odin used to battle the Celestials in Thor #300. The battle ended with the Destroyer armor being melted to slag. The armor will be restored in Thor #381.
Kurse was once known as Algrim the Strong and was dropped into a pit of lava by his master, Malekith, when he tried to eliminate Thor in issue #348. He was revived as Kurse by the Beyonder in Secret Wars II #4 and ultimately got revenge by snapping Malekith’s neck in Thor #367.
Mick and Kevin were orphaned after their mother was murdered by the Zaniac in Thor #371-372. They were subsequently adopted by Volstagg. Their last names are revealed to be Mortensen in the Zaniac entry of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #13.
The repercussions of Loki’s mystical exploitation of Iceman’s mutant powers will be explored in X-Factor #17. Namely, Iceman’s powers begin flaring out of control requiring him to wear a special belt to control his powers starting in X-Factor #23. Bobby eventually would stop wearing this belt when he left X-Factor to rejoin the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #281 and his out-of-control powers are never mentioned again, so presumably he reasserted control at some point during this transition.
It’s not really Fin Fang Foom but Jormungand in disguise. However, the depiction of Foom here is paying homage to his first appearance in Strange Tales #89 as Foom is orange like in his first appearance and not green like his subsequent appearances.
Per Norse mythology, Thor is fated to die battling Jormungand due to the serpents venomous blood. In the Marvel Universe, this has happened at least in one Ragnarok cycle as depicted in Thor #293.