Contains Spoilers for The Immortal Thor #16!Thanks to a team-up of classic supervillains,Thorhas seemingly died for real, but what’s worse, these villains now might become something stronger than anyone could have expected. Of course, as one of Marvel’s most powerful deities, and one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, death will not likely be enough to stop Thor – yet the implications of his killers' actions could have far-reaching, cosmic consequences.
Immortal Thor#16– written by Al Ewing, with art by Jan Bazaldua –features Thor’s apparent death at the hands of B-List villains Mr Hyde and the Gray Gargoyle who, along with Cobra and the Radioactive Man, are becoming what the comic describes asa new pantheon of gods.
The villains' plan to defeat Thor surprisingly goes off without a hitch. Cobra’s poison blinds Thor, allowing Gargoyle to sneak up and petrify him. Mr Hyde then strikes the killing blow, smashing the God of Thunder into literal pieces.
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Immortal Thor#16– Written By Al Ewing; Art By Jan Bazaldua; Color By Matt Hollingsworth; Lettering By Joe Sabino
These villains have been brought together by a mystery boss, who isalmost certainly Dario Agger, head of Roxxon. Agger recently returned from the dead, after being killed by the Enchantress and Skurge inImmortal Thor#10 and has seemingly now made good on his promise to kill the gods in kind. If there was doubt who the dreaded foursome of villains are working for, Alex Ross’ cover forImmortal Thor#16 features Radioactive Man posing alongside Agger. Whatever Agger’s plan is this time, it has seemingly worked, in a shocking turn of events for Marvel’s God of Thunder.
Immortal Thorhas emphasized how the gods are shaped by narrative, and the stories about them; surely the villains who killed Thor must be all-powerful gods, and thus they become such.
However, Agger’s plan may have consequences he hasn’t foreseen.Immortal Thor#16’s narration describes how Midgard has its own gods, and this – in concert with the issue’s “next-time” blurb forImmortal Thor#17 – suggests that these B-Tier villains may now be their own pantheon. In other words,if they truly have killed Thor, then these villains might metaphysically gain a measure of divinity themselves.Immortal Thorhas emphasized how the gods are shaped by narrative, and the stories about them; surely the villains who killed Thor must be all-powerful gods, and thus they become such.
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Immortal Thor#16 – Out Now From Marvel Comics;Immortal Thor#17 – Available November 20
In reality, all four of these villains are classic B-listThorantagonists, all of them introduced in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s seminalJourney Intro Mysteryrun, which starred Thor. Like his name suggests, Mister Hyde, Calvin Zabo, is a scientist with an evil alter ego. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’sDr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Zabo invented his own ‘Hyde Formula’ and became a supervillain. Arguably his biggest role in the modern Marvel Universe is asthe father of Daisy Johnson, Quake, but he’s mostly a classic choice when Marvel’s heroes need someone to beat up for an issue.
Mister Hyde also has a longstanding partnership with Cobra who out the four villains inImmortal #16might be the silliest. In a classic Silver Age comics plot, the evil Kalus Vorhees was bitten by a radioactive Cobra that gave him all the powers of… a cobra. While his most prominent power is contorting his body like his namesake,the thing that enables the murder of Thor inImmortal Thor#16 is Cobra’s venom cloud, one of the few things that can temporarily blind the God of Thunder.
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Radioactive Man like many classic non-‘Western’ Marvel villains, is a product of the Cold War, both in and out of continuity. A nuclear scientist for the People’s Republic of China, he gained the ability to absorb and shoot radioactive energy in an accident. He’s sometimes a supervillain, usually in the Masters of Evil, and sometimes a government agent. Finally, The Gray Gargoyle, Paul Duval, is yet another accident-prone scientist. Doused in chemicals that turned his hand into stone, Duval realized he could use that hand to either turn himself into living, superstrong, stone, or to petrify other people and objects.
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Thor’s Demise May Be Real, But It Is Still Likely Short-Term
Thor might be dead, but death doesn’t mean the same thing for a God as it does a mortal. Thor himself has died numerous times, whether while fighting against foes or in the cyclical destruction of Ragnarök.Immortal Thorhas constantly featured the refrainof ‘the wheel turning’ which at least, in part, symbolizes how the gods are always part of recurring stories which see them come back to life. What goes around comes around, the wheel turns, and Thor always resurrects, especially when he’s in a story about himself.
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Immortal Thor#16 also conspicuously featured Thor and Sif debating whether they had the right or duty tobring a dead god back from Valhallathemselves. Sif persuaded Thor that this was an awful idea, butshe might change her perspective if and when she discovers that Thor himself has died. Skurge’s return proved that this was possible, after Odin brought him back from Valhalla to try to stop Thor’s death, and even Dario Agger’s been resurrected by blood magic since Enchantress killed him.Thormight have been killed by his former B-list villains, but that’s never stopped him before.
The Immortal Thor#16is available now from Marvel Comics.
Thor
Associated with the mythical realm of Asgard, Thor is a Marvel Comics hero who channels the power of thunder to slay their foes. Though the name is chiefly tied to Thor Odinson, several other characters also take on the role of God of Thunder, including Odinson’s love interest, Jane Foster. Odin is portrayed as a physically imposing hero with incredible strength and typically wields the dwarven forged hammer, Mjolnir.
