New Gods for Old!

Deciding to leave Asgard, Thor has returned to New York City. Moments after his arrival he had stopped a brawl between a trio of super-humans and a group of hyper-evolved animals. That’s when the High Evolutionary appeared and claimed ownership of these beings, saying that they are fighting to determine who is the fittest to survive among his latest creations. These beings — the Godlings and Animutants, respectively — are the latest version of highly evolved humans and animals created by the master geneticist. Thor orders the Evolutionary to take his creations and leave the city, as they are putting innocent lives at risk. However, the Evolutionary refuses to be ordered around and strikes Thor with an energy blast.

The thunder god quickly recovers and resumes his battle with the High Evolutionary. When the Goldings and Animutants try to join the battle, Thor uses Mjolnir to conjure up a whirlwind to keep them away. The battle does exactly what Thor was trying to avoid — attracting a crowd. When police arrive on the scene, one of the officers panics and begins opening fire. His bullets bounce off of Thor’s body and end up striking a pair of young people. Horrified by what just happened, the thunderer stops fighting and is quickly incapacitated by a mental blast. Before the police can do anything, the High Evolutionary gathers Thor up and teleports away with his creations.

This entire scene is being observed in Asgard by the Grand Vizier, Sif and Balder. Seeing that her beloved is in trouble, Sif wants to go to Earth and mount a rescue mission. However, the Vizier is against this, reminding Sif that Odin has decreed that no Asgardian go to Earth, following Thor’s decision to leave. Realizing that she has no choice, she storms off and hopes the “Gods beyond the gods” forgive them if Thor should die due to their inaction.[1] Returning to his viewing screen, the Grand Vizier looks into the Netherworld and is horrified to see that the arms of Ymir and Surtur have reanimated and are now fighting over the Twilight Sword, another sign that Ragnarok may yet be coming again.[2]

Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary and his creations take Thor down into a lab hidden in the sewers beneath the city.[3] The High Evolutionary is unhappy that his Godlings and Animutants chose to fight on the surface, putting Project New Dawn at risk.[4] When Thor wakes up, he is spoiling for a fight. However, rather than resume the battle the High Evolutionary decides instead to explain what he is doing back on Earth and what he is working on. He reminds Thor about how, during their last encounter, he was left in a fugue state after witnessing the birth of a Celestial.[5] Thanks to the efforts of his New Immortals and remaining New Men, the High Evolutionary’s mind was restored. However, the New Immortals — Nobilus, Juvan, and Zon — had turned against him in favor of their new leader Count Tagar, one of his New Men who had been elevated to that of a god. When they tried to attack, the High Evolutionary managed to escape the starship Wundagore II and began heading back to Earth under his own power.

Unfortunately, his return to the planet of his birth was anything but graceful and he ended up crash landing on a mountain pass, striking a prisoner transport and killing everyone on board. Seeing representations of every race and gender inside the transport, the High Evolutionary recovered the bodies and decided to use them as the templates for his next set of genetic experiments. Returning to his abandoned lab beneath New York, he placed the bodies in suspended animation until he was ready to work on them.

He then went to work stealing wild animals from the local zoo to turn into his next generation of New Men, whom he dubbed the Animutants. Among those he created were the lion Simbus, the elephant Tontaro, and the bear Urson-Wellz. Still, he was unsatisfied and decided to continue his work on creating a new race of gods.

These Godlings were the dead prisoners which he recreated into gods with amazing powers, but no memories of their past.[6] The first was a woman he named Bliztiana who could channel lightning which the High Evolutionary intended to be an analogue to Thor himself. Next came Loga, named after the Teutonic god of fire. His final creation he named Luminor as he was able to generate light. With the creation of the Godlings, the High Evolutionary’s Animutants greeted them with envy and soon the two groups would quarrel with one another. This prompted the High Evolutionary to charge both to fight to the death and determine which would be the fittest.

Ultimately, the Evolutionary has come to favor his Godlings and has decided to abandon his Animutants to find their own fate. Hearing all this, Thor is disgusted that the creator would abandon his creations in such a callow manner. That’s when the latest Godling is about to emerge from the genetic vat below them. This being, armed with a cybernetic axe in place of his right hand is called Bellam, to be the Evolutionary’s god of war. From the moment of his birth, Bellam goes into a berserker rage prompting the other Godlings to rush in and try to subdue him. It’s only when Thor adds his own strength in assistance do they finally pin Bellam down until he can calm down and stop fighting.

Impressed by Thor’s quick action, the High Evolutionary explains that he is going to be moving back to his original base of operations on Mount Wundagore and offers Thor the opportunity to join them, figuring that his Godlings can learn much from him.[7] Since the thunder god had been struggling with finding a place in the world of mortals since leaving Asgard, Thor agrees to follow along, if only to keep closer tabs on the geneticist.

This entire conversation is overheard by the Animutants who decide to leave and find their own destiny. On their way out they are approached by one of the High Evolutionary’s earliest creations the evil Man-Beast.[8] Now calling himself Karnivore, the Man-Beast invites the Animutants to join his cause and get revenge against the High Evolutionary.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Balder, Grand Vizier, Sif, High Evolutionary, Godpack (Bellam, Blitzaina, Loga, Luminor), New Men (Sir Leopard, Simbus, Tontaro, Urson-Wells), Surtur, Ymir, New Immortals (Lord Tagar, Nobilus, Juvan, Zon), Karnivore, Analyzer

Continuity Notes

1. These “Gods beyond the gods” that Sif is likely referring to are Those Who Sit Abovei n Shadow, entities that allegedly beings a tier above the gods of Asgard and have claimed to have created them in the past, however this has been called into question. See X-Men/Alpha Flight #1-2, Thor (vol. 2) #84-85, and Loki: Agent of Asgard #16-17.

2. The last time Raganarok was threatened was in Thor #418-425, wherein Ymir and Surtur were engage in a battle that would wipe out the entire universe in both fire and ice. This was stopped by Thor who banished the pair and the Twilight Sword into the Sea of Endless Night. Although this story is alluding to yet another Ragnarok level event, it is stopped thanks to the WorldEngine, a device that was used to trick the world tree Yggdrasil to think Ragnarok already passed. This will happen in Thor #491.

3. This lab was abandoned after the High Evolutionary lost his Evolutionary War. See X-Factor Annual #3, Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8, and Avengers Annual #17

4. It’s later revealed in Thor #482 that the High Evolutionary created his Godlings and Animutants as a means of combating the New Immortals, a previous experiment of creating new gods that was chronicled in Thor #422-423. He also casually mentions how Nobilus was created from Thor’s stolen DNA that was also tainted by Loki’s evil. Loki gave Thor a portion of his power in Thor #398. The DNA sample was taken in issue #408. Thor later fought off Loki’s taint in issue #413.

5. The High Evolutionary attempted to amass as much data as he could during the birthing process but it was too much information to handle all at once leaving him in a mentally deficient state for a time, starting in Thor #424.

6. The mind wipes don’t turn out to be permanent as at least Blitziana would later to go on to remember a part of her past as seen in Thor #484.

7. Thor recounts that it was Wundagore Mountain is where he first met the High Evolutionary. This was back in Thor #134-135. The geneticist abandoned that location after this encounter to seek his destiny in the stars. He later returned to it in Thor #406-407, before deciding to go into space a second time.

8. The Man-Beast was created back during Thor’s first encounter with the Evolutionary, as seen in Thor #134-135.