Thor Annual 2001
When Fall the Gods!
On an alien world, an entire civilization is horrified to have witnessed the slaughter of the god they worship. They used to sacrifice one of their innocents to their gods in exchange for rain, sun, and an prosperous livestock. Now with their gods dead, they fear that they are lost. The being responsible disagrees, saying that this civilization has just been found.
Meanwhile, on the planet Earth, Thor is on the job in his mortal guise — ambulance driver Jake Olson — with his partner Christine Collins.[1] They are responding to a reports of a shoot out between police and a local gang. In the middle of the violence a gang member has been pinned under his car which tipped over in a drive-by. Jake heroically braves the exchanging gunfire to help those who have been injured.
While Christine tries to help the man pinned under the car, Jake treats a gang member who has suffered gunshot wounds. As he works, a rival gang member sneaks up on him and threatens to shoot Olson in the head. However, before the thug can pull the trigger he is ambushed by Beta Ray Bill and Hercules. The two deal with the shooters up in an apartment building. With the gunfire ended, Hercules then lifts the car off the man who was pinned down.[2] With the danger over, Christine loads the injured into the ambulance to take them down to the hospital. Wanting to see why Herc and Bill have come looking for him, Jake convinces Christine to leave without him, saying he wants to make sure there aren’t anymore injured people around that might need their help.
Once his partner is on their way, Jake Olson runs into a nearby alleyway where he can change back into Thor. Hercules explains that there is a crisis in Olympus that he needs help with. Thor agrees to help out his old friend and uses the power of Mjolnir to teleport them all to Olympus.[3] Hercules takes Thor and Bill to the palace to meet with his father Zeus. The ruler of Olympus tells Thor that he is in dire need of help as he has been visited by the enigmatic Silent One. Thor remembers the Silent One from many years earlier, during his battle with the entity known as Infinity, and understands that his appearance pertains to a powerful threat.[4] Unable to speak, the Silent One opens a portal to another location. Thor figures that passing through it will reveal the threat to Olympus that the Silent One is attempting to warn them about.
Passing through the portal that are shown a future where Olympus has been decimated by a powerful foe who has also slain Zeus and all of the other gods that reside there.[5] When Thor and his allies demand to know who was responsible, the Silent One transports them to an alien world elsewhere in the universe, and in the recent past. The aliens that live here worship a god named Kronnitt and sacrifice one of their youth to curry favor from the one they worship. During this ceremony a high priest selected Loatia, the daughter of Desak and Almonnas Sterixian.
However, before they can sacrifice the girl, a spirit appears before Desak that only he can see and warns that all gods are evil and they must spare the girl.[5] Not wanting to sacrifice his only daughter, Desak asks the spirit how he can save her. The offers Desak a gem that will give him the power to spare his life. However, he is hesitant to take it and as a result, the priest drags Loatia and tosses her into the lava below, Desak is too late to stop them. The Silent One then shows them what happened next. Desak’s wife Almonnas was furious that their daughter was sed as a sacrifice and vows never to pray to Kronnet again. This is apparently enough to anger the god, who emerges from the ground and begins laying waste to the city for her blasphemy. Once again, the spirit visits Desak and asks if he will not become her champion. With his wife no dead and his home ruined, Desak realizes that the spirit was right all along and takes the jewel from her. Upon doing so, Desak is transformed into a massive being with stone like skin. Decked in armor, he is now armed with a sword, shield, and axe. Now calling himself the God-Slayer, Desak vows to track down every god in the universe and slay them.
The Silent One concludes his warning by showing how Desak has spent the time since tracking down various gods and ending their lives, all in the name of liberating the people who worship them. Knowing that not all gods are evil, Thor and his allies agree to put a stop to Desak in order to prevent him from destroying Olympus. Using Mjolnir once more, Thor creates another vortex to bring them to Desak’s location.
At that moment, the so-called god-killer has appeared on another alien world. When he convinces them the people of that world to renounce their gods, his request is refused. Desak then decides to slay the gods himself instead. When he tries to leave their world, the people there try to blast him out of the sky with powerful laser cannons but Desak easily shrugs this off.
The gods in question are known as Pennsu and Tae, and they have been withholding rain from their worshipers until they pay proper tribute. As they scoff at their followers recent attempts the two cruel gods are attacked by Desak. However, before he can slay the pair he is ambushed by Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and Hercules. While the trio are busy fighting Desak, Pennus and Tae have convinced themselves that their followers are responsible for unleashing Desak upon them and begin unleashing their power on the planet below. This act of cruelty horrifies Thor, who breaks away from the battle and stops the onslaught upon the planet. Seeing how the people who live there are in dire need of rain, the thunder god uses Mjolnir to summon a great rainstorm to give the people on this world the water they need to survive.
Thor then returns to Pennsu and Tae’s domain to punish them for withholding water from their worshipers. However, when he arrives he discovers that Desak slaughtered them in his absence. Despite this, Desak decides to cease his hostilities against gods for the time being, as Thor has shown him that some have the capacity for helping mortals without worship or tribute. Still he cannot full trust Thor and promises that he will be watching in the future, then teleports away. Thor tells his comrades that while they have save Olympus from destruction, this is probably not the last they have heard of Desak and expects that when they meet next there will come a reckoning.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Beta Ray Bill, Hercules, the Silent One, Desak, Tarene, Zeus, “Christine Collins”, Silent One
Continuity Notes
The woman who appears to be Christine Collins is actually the Enchantress in disguise as we’ll learn in Thor (vol. 2) #35.
Here, Hercules states that he has been stripped of his immortality. This happened back in Avengers #384 and will remain the status quo until Aries #1-5.
Thor is pleased to see that Olympus has been repaired since it was attacked by the Dark Gods, see Thor (vol. 2) #6-7.
For more on the Silent One and Thor’s battle with Infinity, see Thor #184-187.
According to Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Thor, this vision is was a possible future where Desak killed the Olympians. It has been designated as Reality-12387.
The spirit is later revealed to be the Tarene, aka the Designate, of a possible future about a century from the future in a timeline referred to as the Reigning, as revealed in Thor (vol. 2) #79. This has been designated Reality-3515 in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2.
