Worldengine Part 2: Run Through

Detective Curzon wakes up to a bright sunny day in New York City, and laments about how much he hates it in America.[1] Getting dressed and after shouting at room service over his morning bacon catches a limo to the NYPD where he is on loan. Annoyed that he cannot smoke on the ride in, Curzon shoves the driver into the trunk and drives himself. When he arrives at the station he has another officer to pay the guy after the rough handling.

Curzon then reports in at the office of Code: Blue, he is immediately told to butt out his cigarette since it is illegal to smoke indoors in New York City. Curzon doesn’t give a fuck and is annoyed when he has a bunch of files on the occult dumped on his desk. He instantly begins regretting asking to be transferred to America from the UK. Flipping through the stack of reports he comes. He comes across one report of a dream that a psychic who has regularly helped Code: Blue in the past. She writes about a dream in which a massive tree is being punctured by “American machines” and that there might have been babies inside the tree crying. He is going to dismiss this outright when a package is given to him by an officer who says that Captain Conklin wants him to deal with it. Opening up, he finds a severed rotting head. Stressed out by all of this, Curzon pulls out his cigarettes and is reminded once again that he can’t smoke inside. He promptly tells the office to kiss his hairy English ass.

In Asgard, Beta Ray Bill visits the orchid garden that he first fell in love with the first time he came to Asgard and visits every day he can.[2] Suddenly, a sickness begins to spread causing his hammer, Strombreaker, to start dripping fetid liquid. As a massive spider-like creature looms in the shadows, Bill suddenly suffers a seizer while the flower in his hand begins to bleed ultimately Bill blacks out and collapses to the ground. On Earth, the WorldEngine continues to chug…

Meanwhile, Thor wakes up in the apartment of the Enchantress and is surprised that he is still alive. He still feels like shit, but at least he doesn’t appear to be dead yet. However, the fighting is far from over as Amora’s enthralled suitors — all wealthy business men — suddenly raise Asgardian battle swords. Since they appear to be looking for a fight, Thor hefts up Mjolnir and charges into battle, more than happy to oblige.

Back at the police station, Curzon has retreated to the men’s room so he can chain smoke and go over his files uninterrupted. He finds another strange statement similar to the ones he has been reading all day. This one mentions the dreamer being in a fjord where the water was rainbow-coloured but suddenly everyone there started dying. As he notes down the similarities someone comes in and complains about him smoking indoors again. In response, Curzon flicks his butt over the stall and hits the complainer in the head and has a chuckle when he’s called a Nazi. After leaving the bathroom a female officer named Laura hands him another file. When he asks her out to get some drinks at lunch time, she turns him down since the last time she went out with him he ended up throwing up on the bartender. This latest report is about a homeless man — known to the police for public intoxication — has claimed that he has dreamed about a tree that is connected to all existence and is being stuck with needles. He believes that the fucking government are responsible. Attached is a note from Captain Conklin who wants him to follow up on it since it matches the same story given by the police’s resident psychic.

In Asgard, Beta Ray Bill has been found and gets examined by the kingdom’s best doctors. Although they expect the alien to live, they cannot determine the cause of his sudden illness. As Sif waits by his bedside, Odin muses how Thor also fell ill recently and figures he’s probably dead. With only Red Norvell — the only one with Thor’s power left standing — Odin figures that perhaps Ragnarok is finally upon them.[3] With Thor apparently dead and Bill incapacitated, Sif breaks down into tears and figures that perhaps Odin is right.

On Earth, Thor continues fighting with the mortal men in Amora’s apartment until the Enchantress returns home and orders his loyal slaves to stand down. She explains that her men were the ones who pulled him out of the sewers the night before. They brought him here under her orders because she knew he was dying and that her spells could sustain his life. Thor doesn’t understand why the Enchantress — someone who has tried to kill him countless times in the past — is now trying to save her life. Amora explains that the long lived Asgardians often don’t spend a lot of time contemplating their roles in life. However, she has gotten to thinking how to make the best of her perpetual exile from Asgard. Since learning that Thor too has left their home land she hopes that maybe this time Thor can finally allow himself to love her.

Later that evening, Curzon has returned to his hotel room. Having made a connection to all the reported visions to Yggdrasil, the world ash tree of Norse mythology, he begins reading about its legend. He learns that the Norse believed that Yggdrasil was connected to everything living in the known universe.

The following morning, Curzon is woken up by an early morning phone call. He’s called to an abandoned construction site where a bunch of dead creatures were found. He meets with Marcus Stone who is securing the scene. Examining the creatures he recognizes them as similar to the severed head that was mailed to him. These creatures are all made of rotting meat, a strange kind of wood, and old radio parts. Marcus Stone — thanks to lessons from his late father — is able to recognize it specifically as ash wood. Pondering this discovery for a moment, Curzon suddenly makes a connection between these creatures as Yggdrasil since it was reportedly an ash tree.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Code: Blue (Marcus Stone, Warren Curzon), Beta Ray Bill, Odin, Sif, Enchantress

Continuity Notes

1. Curzon isn’t actually called by his first name in this story. There are two conflicting sources as to his first name. The first source to list his full name is the profile on the United Kingdom in Marvel Atlas #1 states his name is Warren Curzon. Later, the Code: Blue profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 states his name as being Aaron Christopher Curzon. The Warren Curzon is also stated in Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Thor. Since the Index book is the most recently published reference to his real name, I think it’s safe to assume that his intended name is Warren Curzon.

2. Here it states that Bill comes from a dead race at the galaxy’s end. That’s not entirely correct. Bill’s people were forced to retreat from their home world when it was blown up by Surtur’s fire demons back in Thor #337-339. He eventually found a home for his people in Thor #442. His people are very much alive even as of this writing in June, 2022. Knowing Warren Ellis, he probably wasn’t being quite so literal.

3. Red Norvell previously usurped the power of Thor and sacrificed his life to prevent Ragnarok in the past, as seen in Thor #276-278. Learning of a new threat and with Thor refusing to return home to face it, Odin resurrected Red and made him Thor again in Thor #478.

Topical References

• Detective Curzon has a CRT model television in his hotel room. This should be considered a topical reference as this type of technology is now considered obsolete.

• When Curzon learns that the NYPD uses a regular medium who has filed a weird dream with them. Curzon quips that she must have been channeling the spirit of Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer was a notorious serial killer who was active from 1978 to 1991. He’s infamous for committing acts of necrophilia and cannibalism on his chosen victims. He was beaten to death by another inmate while in prison in November of 1994. While Dahmer is long remembered in true crime circles his life and death were more recent when this story was published and there have been other notable serial killers since so I’d call this a topical reference.