Worldengine Part 4: Finished Off

Thor is about to venture back into the secret underground facility where someone is experimenting on Yggdrasil, the World Ash Tree. As he does so he burns the Thursaiz (ᚦ) rune into the wrist guard of his new costume as a symbol to release himself from the past and reclaim his power as the god of thunder. Whatever is being done down there nearly killed him,[1] but he is ready to rise to the challenge and put a stop to this den of killers. Accompanying him on the trip is new lover, the Enchantress.

Also investigating this strange series of events is Detective Curson, on loan to Code: Blue from the UK.[2] Needing to find Thor, he asks the NYPD’s lab to build him a “Thor detector” that can track the unique radiations given off by his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir.[3]

Meanwhile, Thor and the Enchantress reach the sewer access to the place where Yggdrasil is being experimented upon. When they enter the secret chamber, they discover men still working on a massive machine that is hooked into the World Ash. Yggdrasil is now growing humanoid beings in embryonic sacs that now hang off its branches. Here they are greeted by the mastermind behind this abomination, a human who introduces himself as Price. He flashes a smile that shows off teeth with Norse runes carved into them (ᛒᛁᚢᛟᚫᚾᛗᛘᚿᛇᛝᚾᛈᛏ). He invites them in with open arms, telling them that the machine before them is called the WorldEngine. Thor follows along deciding to wait and listen to what this old man has to say.

He explains that this facility was once an internment camp for German super-humans during World War II. A physicist by trade, Price was let go from his job at a university due to his eccentric behavior and he used his severance to buy this facility on the cheap. He off handedly comments that the last straw with his employers was probably when he ate his wife, saying that he developed a problem with cannibalism after learning a belief that knowledge can be passed on in food. He then explains that he ate a large amount of fly agaric mushrooms — the same type that Vikings ate in worship of Thor — and saw a vision of Yggdrasil. It told him of how after Ragnarok it would birth a new race of humans and Price became obsessed with seeing what that would look like.

Since he couldn’t possibly live to see this day, Price built the WorldEngine to force Yggdrasil into thinking that Ragnarok had already come to pass. He points to his minions toiling away and reveals that they were created using DNA samples collected from both Thor and the Enchantress, in effect their children after a fashion.[4] His insane ploy has worked out as the embryonic sacks hanging off the tree are this new race of human beings and they are about to hatch. When Thor and the Enchantress threaten to turn his machine back or destroy it, Price informs them that it is far too late for that.[5]

That’s when the embryos fall to the ground and split open and this new race of human emerges. These are bizarre blue skinned creatures with large black eyes and are breatharian creatures, taking all the sustenance they need from the air around them. However, not long after their birth these new humans begin to writhe in agony and begin to die. The Enchantress theorizes that since the true Ragnarok would have had the Earth engulfed in fire, these creatures were created to survive in that environment, not the one they current cohabitate in. In effect, there is not enough food in the air for them and they are starving to death.

Suddenly, the WorldEngine starts going haywire, causing Price’s biologically engineered slaves to turn on their master and beat him to death. Thor smashes open the machine and pushes back the internal clock with all of his strength and forces it back as far as it can go until it eventually stops.

Although Thor thinks he is successful, things aren’t as safe as they appear: In Asgard, Odin notices a liver spot on the back of his hand while Sif notices a crack in the ceiling of the royal throne room that wasn’t there before…

While Thor is busy, the Enchantress has wandered just outside the WorldEngine chamber where she runs into Detective Curzon who has used his “Thor detector” to bring him to their location. Having grown bored with this whole situation she decides to have some fun and incinerates the police questioning police officer before Thor comes out. Thor saw a flash of light and asks what it was all about, she suggests that it must have been a trick of light and suggests that they leave.

The couple return to the Ash Hotel and Thor goes up to the roof as a thunder storm rolls in. He has decided to remain with the Enchantress for the time being as he needs a safe haven while he figures out his future. So much has changed so quickly and he realizes now that he’s going to have to think through crises instead of punching his way through them as he had in the past. Inside the apartment below is a woman how loves him more than he has ever truly known and above him is the family that has ultimately rejected him.[6] As the rain begins to fall harder and lightning crashes, Thor raises up Mjolnir and lets out a shout amid the thunder.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Enchantress, Price, Warren Curzon

Continuity Notes

1. The WorldEngine has been tricking Yggdrasil into thinking Ragnarok has already passed. Since Thor was destined to die during the twilight of the gods, the process mad him deathly ill. He was saved from death thanks to the protective spells of the Enchantress. See Thor #491-492.

2. 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.

3. Curzon learned that Code: Blue had a device that could detect the unique radiation given off by Thor’s hammer last issue.

4. It’s not entirely clear when Price could have collected a sample of Thor and the Enchantress’ DNA. The Unofficial Appendix seems to think it happened around Avengers #16, one of the few publicly known battles between Thor and the Enchantress. I would argue that since Price is a pawn of Seth — who has clashed with both Thor and the Enchantress — I think it’s entirely possible that these DNA samples could have been collected during Seth’s war with Asgard circa Thor #398-400.

5. Here, it is implied that Price was the lone person responsible for creating the WorldEngine. However, it is later revealed in Journey into Mystery #506 that Price was given the equipment needed by Seth, the Egyptian god of death. This was all part of a grander scheme to destroy all life in the universe, something that Seth will continue to accomplish until he is defeated in Journey into Mystery #513.

6. Technically speaking, Thor turned his back on Asgard first in Thor #472. When he fell ill in issue #491, Odin refused to help him because of the divide between the pair.

Translations

The issue with translating runes is that they aren’t really structured like contemporary languages. The symbols mean specific things but trying to translate what they mean in when used in conjunction is above my pay grade. Please accept my half assed Google searching to figure out what each symbol stands for. Some symbols are variations of others and mean the exact same thing while others can’t be accurately translated into something analogous to contemporary languages.

On Thor’s Wrist Guard:

ᚦ = Thurisaz = giant

On Price’s Teeth:

ᛒ = Berkanan = birch

ᛁ = Isaz = Ice

ᚢ = Ur = water or aurochs (an extinct breed of cattle)

ᛟ = Othala = heritage or estate

ᚫ = Ansuz = god, oak, ash

ᚾ ᚿ ᚾ = Naudiz = need, hardship

ᛗ ᛘ = Mannaz = man, human

ᛇ = Eihwaz = yew (a species of evergreen tree)

ᛝ = Yngvi = The exact meaning of this rune is disputed.

ᛈ = Peorð = the exact meaning is not clear, but it could mean some kind of fruit bearing tree.

ᛏ = Tiwaz = The symbol for Tyr, the god of war

I could be wrong, but these symbols all together appear to be nothing more than gibberish when strung together. I even plugged them into a rune to English translator and it spits out nonsense. I suppose that Warren Ellis was selecting runes that could be associated with what Price to Yggdrasil in this story.