Thor #491
Worldengine Part 1: Nailed Up
Somewhere on Earth, a group of men are working on a machine called the WorldEngine.
Else where in the city, Thor has fallen deathly ill for the first time in his long life. Fearing he might be contagious, the thunder god has quarantined himself atop an abandoned construction site. Believing he might die, he begins writing a journal to explain what happened to him to anyone who might find it. It’s as he is writing these final thoughts that he notices that he has lost his Asgardian affectation and is talking like someone born of Midgard.
Despite his waning strength, Thor still can command the storms and in a final ditch effort, attempts to contact Odin for help. His father answers his summons and after hearing how his son has fallen ill and might die, Odin turns his back on Thor. This is because Thor had recently turned his back on Asgard and refused to return home with the threat of Ragnarok looming. The All-Father is pleased to hear his son is suffering for his decision and leaves him to rot with the mortals.[1]
When Odin disappears, Thor keels over in pain and believes that this is it, the end for him. Suddenly a rotting creature climbs up onto the top of the construction site to finish the job. Unwilling to die in such a base fashion, Thor summons Mjolnir and strikes the abomination before him. The blow shatters the monster’s soft skull revealing that its made of rotting meet, ash wood, and cheap radio parts. Soon more of these creatures appear and Thor refuses to go down without a fight despite his current condition.
As Thor fights for his life, the Enchantress arrives at her apartment at Manhattan’s posh Ash Towers. Inside her residence are a number of wealthy men she has enthralled in order to do her bidding. She has a mission for them and tells them not to come back empty handed otherwise she won’t be giving them their usual presents.
Back atop the building, Thor has managed to slay all the creatures that have come after him despite the odds being stacked against him. One last creature shows up, but when it sees all of its comrades are dead it cowers and makes a run for it. Thor follows after the grotesque creature to see where it came from. The rotting abomination leads him into the sewers and into a secret room. There he witnesses men working away at the WorldEngine and that it is now drawing in a root from a massive ash tree near by. The room is thick with the smell of machinery and rot. He notices the tree has been stabbed by machinery and is dripping blood. That’s when he recognizes this ash tree as Yggdrasil, the world tree that links the Nine Worlds of Asgard together and at its trunk the very spot where Odin crucified himself centuries earlier.[2]
Shocked by this horrific sight, Thor doesn’t notice one of the creatures sneaking up behind him and stinking him from behind. Following this blow, everything goes black…
Recurring Characters
Thor, Enchantress, Odin
Continuity Notes
Thor turned his back on Asgard back in Thor #372, causing an ever growing rift to form between him and his father. We’ll find out over the course of the next three issues is that Thor has grown sick because the WorldEngine is forcing Yggdrasil that Ragnarok had already happened. Since Thor is fated to die during the twilight of the gods, this is why he has become deathly ill.
Odin once crucified himself as penance for manipulating Thor by having him die and be reborn in a mortal life all in the name of preventing Ragnarok from happening. However, Odin had a change of heart when he was shown that the Celestials were coming to Earth and cut himself down in order to prepare for whatever threat they posed. See Thor #300.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. They have since been replaced by the Freedom Tower.
