Enchanted, Part 1

It has been a month since the invasion of Asgard by the forces of Karnilla the Norn Queen. Queen Frigga watches as the youth — including her son Thor — train in the way of battle. When her husband, Odin, comes to visit she admits that she nearly lost her son in the battle.[1][2] Watching her son train in the Fjornor Fields upsets her because, despite his recent brush with death, Thor continues to learn the ways of war. Frigga understands the need for Asgard to have a strong army, but she fears that she may one day have to bury her own child. Odin also admits that he has the same fears, but assures her that Hela’s touch didn’t come for their son when he was struck by the arrow. This does little to sooth Frigga, who notes that their boy is so much like their father, but hope he will learn the lessons of love soon as many young women in Asgard are beginning to turn their heads in notice.

This gives Odin a good laugh and as he watches his son interact with Sif, he muses that these young maidens will be disappointed because he knows that Thor has been smitten by Sif since they were children. Watching her in training with Thor, Odin is satisfied that Sif would make the perfect mate for his son.

Down below, Sif is challenging their teacher, Volstagg, to a duel. Volstagg boastfully refuses to fight someone of the “fairer sex”, but when she makes fun of his weight he decides to teach her a lesson. Unfortunately for him, Volstagg is quickly taught a lesson not to under estimate a woman’s battle prowess, especially not the young woman known as Sif. Not finished showing off, she challenges Thor as her final match for the day. When they fight, Thor manages to trip her up and then — by grabbing her braid — gets behind her and puts a sword up to her throat. This forces her to yield and all the men and boys watching cheer over his victory. Thor allows himself to be congratulated by the others until he notices Sif is still laying on the ground. When he offers her a hand up, she angrily swats away his hand, saying she does not need his pity and storms off in humiliation.

This is all observed from above by Loki, who detests Sif for the humiliations he has suffered because of her and is still plotting revenge. That’s when someone in the shadows mocks Loki, suggesting that he and Sif spend their afternoons drinking tea and complaining about the opposite sex. Loki turns and fires a mystical blast at the intruder, but they easily block it with a magic shield. Loki then recognizes who is in his room, none other than Amora the Enchantress. She then warns him to watch his tongue lest someone overhear his machinations, but wonders if this is not an attempt to seek out an ally. Amora explains that she wants the heart of Loki’s brother, Thor, but Sif is standing in the way of what she wants. Loki agrees to work with her to fulfill their mutual goals, saying that neither Thor nor Sif will stand a chance.[3]

Meanwhile, Thor has realized that he has upset Sif and goes to talk with her. However, when he asks to sit she gives him the silent treatment at first. Eventually, she apologizes for being upset, but she is not mad at him. Rather, she is more upset about what the others said after he bested her in combat. Thor points out that their words never bothered her in the past and asks what is different this time around. Sif points out that they are getting old and rather than being the only girl in a class of boys, she is now a woman in a class of men and she finds their treatment of her tiresome. Not only is she othered by the men, but she feels othered by women as well since she is the only one in her age group that trains to be a warrior. She fears that she’ll never get a date because all of the men are secretly afraid of her. Thor tries to cheer her up by pointing out that she has the undivided attention of the prince of Asgard. This makes her smile.

In that moment, the pair are hand-in-hand and are about to kiss when they are interrupted by Amora. She makes fun of Sif, asking her how many boys she had to work her way up with before she got to Thor. Sif doesn’t take this insult lightly, since the only whore around is the Enchantress. She slaps Amora across the face and the two are about to throw down when Thor gets between the two women telling them that there is no reason to fight, even though Amora was in the wrong for saying what she said. Sif takes this to mean that he is taking the side of the Enchantress and storms off.

The following day, Sif forces herself to get dressed and report for class. She knows that the gossip mill must be in full force after her encounter with Amora the day before. However, she decides that she can’t shy away from it or else it will only get worse. As she walks to class she also wonders what she will say to Thor, as they had almost kissed and she doesn’t know how to talk to him about it. However, she is in for a shock when she arrives to class and Volstagg tells her that she will no longer be the only girl in class. They have a new student by the name of Brunnhilda. Sif sees that she is a beautiful warrior at that who has caught the eyes of every boy in the room, including Thor. Sif is annoyed that Brunnhilda is, of course, another blonde.[4]

Recurring Characters

Thor, Sif, Balder, Loki, Enchantress, Odin, Frigga, Volstagg, Valkyrie

Continuity Notes

1. Happened last issue, dude, keep up.

2. Frigga refers to Thor as her son, but in reality, he is her adopted son. Thor was born of a union between Odin and Gaea, aka Mother Earth. This was revealed in Thor #300-301. This will be kept a secret for centuries.

3. Amora mentions how Loki attempted to foil Thor’s recent quest that took him about Asgard before seemingly turning over a new leaf at the end to stop an invasion by Karnilla. See Thor: Son of Asgard #1-5

4. There is a lot of focus on Sif’s hair in this story, particularly the color. This is because, according to Asgardian mythology she had blonde hair until it was all cut off by Loki who was jealous of her beauty. Caught for this hurtful trick he was forced to go to the Dwarves to have new hair made for Sif. Rather than blonde hair though, it was black. Sif was originally depicted as being blonde in Journey into Mystery #102 and the first time the tail of how she lost her hair was told in Thor Annual #11. However, there are many contradictions to these tales, but we’ll get into that in more detail next issue.