Today we’ll
be looking back at a classic comic from my collection.
Series: Thor (Volume 1)
Title: “The Past is a Bucket of Ashes”
Art & Story: Walter Simonson
Colors: George Roussos
Lettering: John
Workman, Jr.
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover: Walter Simonson
This issue
opens with Thor flying high above New York City and musing that it feels like
he’s come home, even though he isn’t Donald Blake any more. Thor lands at Avengers’ Mansion where he is
greeted by a couple of punk, and I mean clothing style, girls. They ask his why he doesn’t trade his long
hair for a Mohawk, to which he responds, “…were I to cut my hair, my helmet
would fall off.” The next panels were
blank in the original comic due to what they would have shown. In Thor 342 these panels were printed in the
letters page, showing Thor and the Avengers racing to Central Park to get
caught up in the Secret Wars.
We cut to a
subway station “…where even the cops don’t go alone.” Lorelei, having just gotten off the train, is
accosted by two young men. She persuades
them that if they fight, she might go home with the winner. She walks away from the fight and into a
disused tunnel. Here she finds the
dragon from the end of the last issue and tries to use her persuasion powers on
him. This backfires, however, as dragons
have more power in this area than she does and she quickly falls under his
spell.
Weeks go by and we find Thor arriving at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters to
ask for help in creating a civilian identity.
Thor is interrupted when he hears someone call his name like they used
to a thousand years ago. He shakes this
off and Nick Fury introduces him to The Costumer. What this disguise expert comes up with is
Thor in a ponytail, t-shirt and jeans.
Fury gives Thor a pair of glasses to complete the look, which Thor isn’t
all that sure of. As they exit Fury’s
office, Thor accidently knocks over a reporter named Clark who, as he fixes his
glasses, thinks Thor looks familiar, but dismisses it.
Back in
Asgard, Odin summons Hugin and Munin, his ravens, so that they might fly into
the demons’ domain and see where they came from. He carves runes onto their feet and they grow
to massive size.
On Earth,
Thor, in his new identity of Sigurd Jarlson, applies for a construction job
with Nick Fury’s cousin. The application
process is interrupted when someone discovers a woman tied to the crane’s hook
about 10 stories above the ground. Thor
leaps into action and scurries up the half complete building as the ground
starts to shake and the crane begins to topple.
Thor catches the woman and hits the ground just as the dragon, which
recognizes him, bursts from the river and collapses the building on top of Thor
and the woman.
In space,
the sword is progressing. The smith
calls on “the dark elf” and commands him to seek out the second son of
Odin. A voice responds from the void, “I
will.”
As the building
is falling around them, Thor takes out Mjolnir, which he had been carrying in a
bag, and creates a void in the rubble.
He places the woman down and strikes Mjolnir on the ground, changing his
clothes into his costume. Thor attacks
the dragon, who we find out is Fafnir, former king of Nastrond, who Thor had
buried deep in the earth ages ago.
We cut again
to Asgard, where Volstagg is searching for Balder, who is in the process of
leaving Asgard as any company, no matter how friendly, has become a burden to
him. Since Agnar’s attack in Thor 338,
Balder has made up his mind to lose himself in the wilderness. Luckily, he thought to stock is larder to
delay Volstagg and make good his escape.
This is all observed, through a scrying device, by Karnilla, the Norn
Queen, who wishes to take Balder as her consort.
Back on
Earth, Thor calls down the storm to put out the fire that Fafnir has
started. The dragon, however, panics as
this reminds him of how Thor beat him previously. Fafnir digs down and escapes into an old
subway tunnel and breaking from that into the river. The water rushes in and keeps Thor from
pursuing. He does muse on how it is
fortunate that Fafnir ran, as Thor could barely hurt him, even with his
strongest blow. All of this is being
watched by Loki in his hall, where he reveals that the woman Thor saved was, in
fact, Lorelei. He also states that it
was worth his life “…just to see <Thor> wearing a ponytail!”
Thor, back
in his disguise as Sigurd Jarlson, digs Lorelei out and is hired by Jerry, the
site foreman. Lorelei briefly wakes up,
notices she has a rescuer and then falls back asleep. Thor, meanwhile, hears the voice calling him
again and this time he vows to find its source.
Where it comes from: Fafnir is best known from the
Völsunga saga, and Wagner’s Ring Trilogy which is based on that saga. A greedy dwarf, Fafnir killed his father to
obtain the cursed wergild that Odin had paid the family for the death of Fafnir’s
brother, Otter. Fafnir then transformed
himself into a dragon to guard his treasure, but was later killed by the hero Sigurd. In the Marvel Universe,
Fafnir was the ruler
of the wicked kingdom of Nastrond. Odin
destroyed the kingdom, leaving Fafnir to die in the remaining wasteland. Fafnir, however, drank water from an
enchanted spring that changed him into a vengeful dragon that Thor eventually
defeated, trapping him until he was released in
Thor
339.
Karnilla is a character made
up for the Marvel Universe way back in 1964.
She has been an enemy of Asgard since the beginning, but her infatuation
with Balder has usually kept her from succeeding in her schemes, even when
teamed with Loki. She will begin to play
a much larger part in Balder’s life very shortly.
Next time Thor
meets a Viking and we visit Valhalla
