Ludwig’s Children

Thor had been hired by Victor Prazniki to protect his wife Sylvia and daughter Annie after he has been harassed by someone wanting possession of the Raven’s Eye, an ancient sword that was gifted to Victor many years ago. Unfortunately, the pair had been kidnapped and Victor force to hand over the sword. Trailing the Prazniki’s, Thor, NYPD officer Kim Gaunt, and a homeless man named Wad discovered that the family was apparently kidnapped by Loki. Wad — whom Thor is convinced is Odin — suddenly lunged at the Raven’s Eye. Upon touching the weapon, Wad unleashed a spell that transported him, Thor, Kim, and the Prazniki women to a fantasy world of some kind.[1]

As they try to make sense of their situation, Thor takes Raven’s Eye to defend everyone since he has been left without his powers or anymore. They are suddenly attacked by an army of dwarves who attack in the name of Albrecht and the Reingold. In the ensuing battle, Thor tosses Mjolnir, forgetting that it no longer returns to his hand whenever he throws it. One of the dwarves pick up the weapon and orders his men to retreat, somehow enabling the once enchanted hammer to teleport them all away.

As Thor and his allies recover from the attack, Kim and Thor recognize some of the names and phrases the dwarves were using from Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung opera.[2] They are then approached by Loki. However, this turns out to be a Wagnerian version of Thor’s step-brother who has come seeking their assistance. Regardless of the fact that this is not the trickster god he knows, Thor is not ready to trust him and tells him to speak his business quickly. Loki warns them that the gods have gone mad for gold when suddenly he is struck in the chest with an arrow. This came from this world’s version of Balder who comes flying down from the sky on the back of a winged horse. Thor leaps up at this evil Balder and quickly knocks him out and kicks him off his flying steed.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Victor Prazniki is still a prisoner of Loki. However, the villain hasn’t said a word and has remained stock still since Thor and the others disappeared with the sword. Finally getting free from his bonds, Victor picks up the nearby phone and frantically calls the Enchantress in the hopes she can help him out. Unfortunately, she’s not home and he gets the voice mail instead. While at the New York State Prison, one of the inmates is coming back from the showers. When he passes by the Mad Thinker’s cell he sees that the evil genius is laying in his bunk with some kind of headset on his face. When the Thinker doesn’t respond, the inmate checks on him and calls for one of the guards as it appears as though the Mad Thinker is dead.[3]

Back in the “Wagner World”, Thor hops onto Balder’s winged steed and tries to tame the beast. After he succeeds in doing so he is attacked by a dragon which he also remembers from the Wagner opera. When he slays the beast — as he expected — it changes back into a humanoid form as he was given shape-shifting powers from the gold ring he wears around his neck. Thor then commands the flying horse to go back home and he is taken back to this world’s version of Asgard. There he meets with its resident Odin and Thor and discovers that Balder managed to break free and take his friends back to the castle as prisoners. Insane with power, the evil Odin tells his red haired son to start executing the prisoners. The evil version of Thor kills both Loki and Balder with lightning summoned from his enchanted hammer.

Angered by these senseless killings, the good Thor attacks his counterpart with the Raven’s Eye. However, when the former thunder god tosses the weapon at his counterpart he ducks out of the way causing the enchanted weapon to impale itself through the evil Odin. There is a sudden flash of light and Thor finally finds himself back on his version of Asgard. He is shocked to discover the kingdom a flaming ruin and wonders how the golden realm have been destroyed!

Recurring Characters

Thor, Mad Thinker, Wad, Kim Gaunt, Annie Prazniki, Sylvia Prazniki, Victor Prazniki,

Continuity Notes

1. There is kind of a lot going on off the top. The details:

   • The Prazniki family have been terrorized since Thor #495. After an attempted kidnapping of Annie and a drive-by shooting in issue #497, Victor hired Thor last issue to protect his family.

   • The Loki who kidnapped the Prazniki’s is actually a robot created by the Mad Thinker, as we’ll learn next issue.

   • Thor first encountered Wad in Thor #497. Last issue Kim states that Wad has been a homeless drunk living in the area for years. Despite this, Thor’s hunch that he is Odin is actually true. When the WorldEngine made Yggdrasil believe Ragnarok already passed, Odin used this to his advantage to save his people. This caused as the Asgardians to be exiled from Asgard to Earth, where they were all transformed into mortals. In Odin’s case he was sent back in time as well and became a homeless drunk. See Thor #491-494 and Journey into Mystery #511.

   • While I’m explaining shit, I might as well also state here that Thor lost his powers due to the WorldEngine thing, they faded away in issue #495. Thor will get them back in issue #500, however.

   • According to the Unofficial Appendix, this world has been designated Reality-10190. However, as of this writing (June, 2022) this designation has not been officially listed in any Marvel publication so this could be subject to change.

2. It’s interesting to note that Thor was forced to live out a version of this opera thousands of years earlier as seen in Thor #292-300. Thor doesn’t bring this up, probably because it’s not really important to the here and now.

3. The Mad Thinker isn’t really dead. He’s just left in a catatonic state. He’ll recover from this condition in Spider-Man Team-Up #2.