Today we’ll
be looking back at a classic comic from my collection.
Issue: 340
Title: “Though Hel Should Bar The Way”
Art & Story: Walter Simonson
Colors: George Roussos
Lettering: John
Workman, Jr.
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover: Walter Simonson
Out in
space, Thor, Bill and Sif are flying down the line of ships where Bill’s people
lay in cold sleep. As they approach the
end of this line they see that the demons have overtaken the last ship and are
tearing it apart. Sif jumps out of the
chariot to defend the fleet and tells Thor and Bill to continue to the source
of the demons while she defends the fleet.
Knowing that she is right, they obey and find a giant construct over the
core of Bill’s galaxy. Thor and Bill are
attacked by the demons and we cut away.
The giant is
still forging a sword, and not it looks more like a sword, out of the
star. With each blow ringing “Doom”,
monsters are awaking on earth.
Sif is
fighting a losing battle as the number of demons attacking her continues to
increase. As a wave of them threatens to
overwhelm her, they are hit by a broadside from the now repaired
Skuttlebutt. Sif boards the ship and
they race away, trying to lead the demons away from the fleet and give Thor
& Bill time to finish their task.
Back in
Asgard we are treated to more of Balder’s story, as related by Volstagg to
Agnar. We are told of how Balder, once
Asgard’s mightiest warrior, saw Nidhogg consuming the souls of cowards. Among those souls are the warriors that
Balder had slain over the course of his many battles, which drove him to reject
his past life. Volstagg gets off of Agnar
and brushes him off, telling him that most of the Asgardians might forgive him
if something were to happen to Balder, but there is one who would not. Hogun the Grim “…would never forget … or
forgive.”
We then cut
to a penthouse overlooking Central Park in New York City. Lorelei and Loki are having a conversation
regarding how Lorelei will try and seduce Thor on his return to Earth. She asks the trickster what reward he will
get out of helping her. He responds, “It
will amuse me greatly.”
Back at
Asgard, the victorious warriors return to a cheering crowd. As Bill and Thor refresh themselves, Odin and
Sif have a private talk, where she reveals that Bill went through much more
than he told them. It turns out that
there was a contest held to determine who would be the guardian. Bill won out over thousands of others, then
he and the rest of those determined to be physically strongest went through
psychological examinations “…that left most of them dead or insane!” The remaining candidates were put through
tremendous pain when they were physically transformed into the hybrid
warrior. The only one to survive the
entire process, which is irreversible, was Bill. His new form was so hideous to his people
that they could hardly bear the sight of him.
However, he would do it all over again in order to protect his
people. Odin takes all this into
consideration.
At the feast
later, Odin calls Thor and Bill up to the high table. Odin makes a speech and asks them to cross
their hammers. He then performs an
incantation, after which he instructs Bill to strike Stormbreaker on the
ground. Bill does and is changed back
into his original form and Stormbreaker becomes a cane. Thor realizes what has happened and that his
ability to change into Donald Blake has been transferred to Bill. Bill returns to his people and Sif, who has
been restless, goes with him. Thor and
Odin discuss whether the original contest for Mjolnir was rigged, and Odin
dances around an answer.
Back on
Earth, a monster comes out of the sea and breaks an oil tanker in half. The beast swears vengeance on Odin, saying
“The life of your son is forfeit.”
Where it comes from: Let me get this
out of the way first. Walter Simonson,
THANK YOU for getting rid of Donald Blake.
I realize that the concept served a purpose, but I never liked how Thor,
mightiest warrior of Asgard, had such a huge restriction placed on him. It was even worse that Kryptonite,
really. If he didn't touch his hammer
within 60 second, he turned into a lame (and I mean the physical here)
mortal. How Blake wasn't killed in the
20+ years since his introduction I have no idea. Getting rid of that part of the comics lets
it get into some really sweeping storytelling that didn't require Thor to
return to Earth every X days in order to see his patients.
One of the problems
I have in this issue is with the use of Nidhogg. While I agree with his eating the souls of
cowards, I don’t agree with him being used to devour the souls of Balder’s
foes. If they were his foes in battle,
then they were only cowards if they ran, but the inference here is that Balder
killed them. They shouldn’t be anywhere
near Nidhogg, then, since they had an honorable death. I think this story is just trying to shoehorn
Hell into Hel. The Germanic afterlife is
not about bliss vs. torture, it is about continuing on after death and looking
after your family still living. Just
because a warrior opposed Balder doesn't mean they should be tortured. That is reserved for cowards and oath
breakers.
Something
else I’d like to get out of my system is the use of Midgard = Earth. I have written before
on how I read Midgard as being the dimension that contains Earth, not Earth
itself. The use in the comics, though,
is that Midgard is Earth and only Earth.
While this works for kids, such as me when I discovered Thor, it’s a
little too simplistic, and human-centric, for my Heathen sensibilities. I’m pretty sure that in a universe that is
known to have life on other planets, the Gods would have an interest in more
than one world. Earth may be where
Bifrost opens, hence it is more important, but it wouldn't be the only place
that Odin had his eye on.
Next time Thor
fights a dragon, gets a new secret identity and runs into a red and blue clad
boy scout.
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