Thor #483
Armor and the Man-God I Sing…
Thor has come to Loki’s castle in Asgard, in direct violation of the pact they recently made to not interfere in each other’s affairs.[1] In response, Loki has put on a suit of enchanted armor so that he can go toe-to-toe against his much powerful brother. As the two prepare to fight, Loki’s wife Sigyn and the Godpack’s Blitziana watch from the sideline, cheering on their respective champion.
Thor demands that Loki reveal the secrets regarding the man who had recently been masquerading as Don Blake, thinking that Loki had some kind of hand in it.[2] Loki refuses to acknowledge these accusations, and is furious that Thor had broken their pact made less than a day ago. as the two battle it out, Thor things about the events that led up to this confrontation…
Earlier, Thor and the Godpack returned home to Wundagore Mountain following their victory against the New Immortals. The revelation that the Don Blake that was with them was an impostor has once again put Thor into a rage since there are still more secrets about his past that remain unrevealed to him.
The High Evolutionary encourages Thor to go out and finally put this matter to bed, telling him that he and the Godpack will be busy working on a way to cure the New Immortals and Count Tagar of their evil now that they are being held in stasis. The Evolutionary doesn’t want to give up on his earlier creations, particularly Nobilus who was once the crown jewel of all of his achievements.[3]
Thor decides to go back down into the secret cave where he first found the Don Blake impostor to search for any more clues that might give him the answers he seeks. This time Blitziana and Riger go with him. Riger then uses his enhanced senses to search the room for any trace evidence. He senses that there had been three different god-like beings who had been in this chamber in the past. Thor figures that two of those visitors were Odin when he stashed the real Don Blake and himself when he found the impostor years later.
When examining the rock that Blake struck — triggering the rebirth of Thor that led to Blake being secreted away — Riger finds something on the ground. Examining it closely, Thor identifies it as the wedding ring that Loki used to wear after he was married to Sigyn.[4] That’s when Thor recalls that Loki has never wore his ring since Thor returned in the present day. This leads him to believe that Loki was the third person who entered the cave and, for some reason, left his ring behind. Furious at Loki’s alleged involvement in this dirty secret, Thor decides to head to Asgard right away and confront him. As he opens a portal to his home, Blitziana decides to hop onto his back and tag along for the ride. Since this is a mission of urgency he doesn’t stop to return her to Earth where she belongs.
Their arrival is detected by Heimdall, but since there is much animosity between Thor and Odin, he decides to not tell the All-Father that his son has returned. Thor and Blitziana soon arrive outside Loki’s castle on the borderlands and are greeted by Sigyn. He shows her the wedding ring and explains Loki’s suspected involvement in the Don Blake deception and demands that she bring her husband out to him. Sigyn refuses and that’s when Loki came out of the castle in his battle armor spoiling for a fight with his step-brother…
… As the battle rages on, Blitziana continues to watch from the sidelines until a Storm Giant loyal to Loki attacks her from behind.[5] Thor ultimately wins the battle by shattering Loki’s armor with his bare fists, causing the trickster god to collapse to the ground. That’s when Red Norvell — Thor’s replacement in Asgard — arrives with Sif, after they were summoned via dove by Sigyn herself.[6] This gives Loki chance to recover and attack Thor anew but the thunder god puts him down hard, causing his armor to break open to reveal that it is empty inside. That’s when Loki’s spirit emerges from the shattered armor and he and Sigyn reveal that even though he has been freed from Mephisto’s realm, he has no physical body and that the armor was created to give him a corporeal form.[7]
Thor then confronts Loki with the evidence he has against him. Loki denies that the wedding ring is his, telling Thor that his was stolen by a Troll. The thunder god naturally doesn’t believe his brother, a habitual liar. However, that’s when Sigyn speaks up revealing that it was her wedding ring that he had found. This comes a shock to everyone and they demand an explanation. Seeing that she has no choice but to come clean, Sigyn explains what happened: On the day that Odin spirited away the real Don Blake to the secret cave, Sigyn followed him. At the time, she was mad at the All-Father for imprisoning her husband in a tree and sought to kidnap Don Blake to use as blackmail against Odin.[8] However, when she tried to use her magic to free Blake, she wasn’t skilled enough to break Odin’s enchantment and accidentally obliterated Don Blake instead.[9] Horrified by what she done and seeking to cover it up, she used her magic to create an mystical construct that was virtually identical to Don Blake in body and mind and left it there in case anyone went back for it.
Loki then comes to his wife’s side to comfort her and explains further, saying that the mystical construct only had a finite life and that’s why he suddenly grew weak and was ultimately destroyed. This all rings true to Thor and with the mystery surrounding Don Blake explained, he decides to forgive Sigyn for what she had done. That’s when Blitziana — having defeated the Storm Giant — returns. Sif is immediately jealous of this new woman with similar powers to her belove, but Thor assures her that his relationship with Blitziana is entirely plutonic. As Thor prepares to leave for Earth again, Sif decides that she wants to go with him this time. The thunder god is more than happy to have her come along and they all leave together.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Loki, Sif, Red Norvell, Sigyn, High Evolutionary, Godpack (Anak, Blitzaina, Riger), Jane Foster, Don Blake, New Immortals (Nobilus, Juvan, Luminor, Zon)
Continuity Notes
Thor got Loki to help him defeat the New Immortals and save all life on Earth last issue. This was done in exchange of a promise that neither god would interfere in the affairs of the other.
The Don Blake situation is pretty complicated, lets cover what’s already been revealed already:
It was revealed in Thor #479 that, instead of creating a false identity for Thor when he was exiled to Earth over a decade earlier, he used a real human named Don Blake to be a vessel for Thor.
When Thor proved himself worthy, Odin influenced Blake to go on Vacation in Norway, leading to Thor’s first battle with the Kronans in Journey into Mystery #83. When Blake first struck the enchanted walking stick to turn himself into Thor, it actually separated the two of them. Odin spirited the real Don Blake away, while Thor assumed his mortal identity for years.
Eventually, Odin told half truths to Thor when he explained how he was both the god of thunder and Don Blake. Leaving out that he was actually spiriting Thor away to prevent Ragnarok, and that Blake was a real person. This half truth was told to him in Thor #159.
More recently, in Thor #475, Thor found the secret cavern where Don Blake has been apparently kept in suspended animation for this entire time. Since then Blake has been trying to rebuild his life with little success.
Last issue, it was revealed that the man everyone who thought was Don Blake was actually an impostor of some kind. However, Blake was absorbed into Thor and destroyed before they could get the real truth from him, which brings us to the revelations of this issue…
The High Evolutionary created the New Immortals back in Thor #422-424. Later they ended up turning on him forcing him to flee to Earth where he started creating the Godpack to fight back against his rogue creations, as seen in Thor #472-473. That conflict came to an end last issue.
For more on Loki’s marriage to Sigyn, see Thor Annual #14. Even though he tricked her into marrying him, she decided to honor their vows anyway and has been a loyal wife even though Loki has always been a piece of shit to her most of the time. It’s interesting to note that in that story, the newly weds are not depicted exchanging rings, so that probably happened off panel or something.
The Storm Giant states here that Loki is the son of a giant himself. This is true, Loki was the son of a Storm Giant named Laufey who was killed in battle by Odin. Taking pity on his son, the All-Father adopted Loki as one of his own and made him a god. This story was first told in Journey into Mystery #112.
Red Norvell was once sacrificed his life to prevent Ragnarok by usurping Thor’s power in Thor #276-278. After Thor went into self- exile in Thor #472 and with another Ragnarok crisis looming, Odin went to Valhalla and restored Red as Thor, as explained in Thor #478.
Loki sacrificed his physical body in Thor #432 by tricking Thor into apparently killing him. This was all part of a plan for Loki to fake his death and possess Odin’s body as a way of ruling Asgard. This scheme was found out and Odin was restored and Loki’s soul was taken to Mephisto’s realm in Thor #455 until Thor freed him last issue. Loki will eventually have a new body created for him by Seth, as seen in Thunderstrike #19-21.
Loki was imprisoned in the tree prior to the start of the Modern Age. The only way to break this spell was to make Heimdall cry, which Loki succeeds in doing in Journey into Mystery #85.
This wouldn’t be the end of Don Blake however. As explained in more detail in Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Thor, Blake’s soul ended up in a “shattered place”, when Thor later died in Thor (vol. 2) #85 he and Donald Blake were reunited and the pair would work together to break free and return to life in Thor (vol. 3) #1. The Index goes further by saying that all of Thor’s memories as Donald Blake were absorbed by the real Blake during this time so that’s why he remembers everything. One could also assume he obtained the memories of Sigyn’s construct as well, although the Index doesn’t specify, but I don’t see why that wouldn’t be the case.
Errors
Loki states that he has no physical form, yet in the final few pages of this story he takes on a physical body in order to hold his wife. Later stories showed that Loki needed a new body created for himself. I suppose you could assume that Loki could at least temporarily become solid using magic or something.
