Series: Thor (Volume 1)
Issue: 346
Title: “The Wild Hunt!”
Story & Pencils: Walter Simonson
Inks: Terry
Austin
Colors: Christie Scheele
Lettering: John
Workman, Jr.
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover: Walter Simonson
We open in
New York City at night time. Roger
Willis, of Long Island, is walking down the street musing to himself that he
preferred his time in Korea to the current situation, since he knew who the
good guys and bad guys were. He has
changed trains and cabs so as to lose anyone following him, and is now on foot
in Greenwich Village. A stranger asks him for a light, which he gives the guy,
and then is attacked. Roger fights back, flinging the first guy into his
oncoming cohorts and catches a cab out of the area.
We switch to
Midtown where Thor is in the law offices of Strother and Martin. Mr. Strother
is recapping his connection to Eric
Willis to Thor, explain that he carried out all of his instructions but is
still worried. Since Eric mentioned
Malekith and the Casket of Ancient Winters, which are references to Norse
Mythology, Strother contacted Thor. Thor takes a picture that Strother had of
Eric and flies to the Police precinct where Eric was last seen.
On the West
Side, Lorelei is in a singles bar taking all of the attention of the men. She
casually mentions that she’s actually Thor’s girlfriend, which causes one of
the men to break away and call his master.
Thor arrives
at the precinct just as Roger walks through the Lower West Side. Thor inquires about Eric and is told to take
a seat while they bring him out. Thor takes one of the cookies offered to him
and comments how it has an odd taste. The officers then tell him that it is the
enchanted food of Faerie and he will never taste anything else, for his will is
being taken over. Thor pretends weakness
until Malekith’s name is mentioned and his plans reveiled, when he summons the
lightning and knocks them out.
Roger,
meanwhile, is climbing a ladder to get to the underside of an abandoned portion
of highway. What he finds is the Casket of Ancient Winters. He puts it in a Macy’s bag to disguise it and
walks off. Just then Malekith, who had
learned the Casket’s location last issue, arrives and finds it gone. He pulls out an elaborate horn and calls in
The Wild Hunt, but also alerts Thor that something is up.
Meanwhile,
in the wasteland outside of Asgard, Balder comes across a young woman running
from a Sand Devil. He grabs a nearby chunk of wood and attacks the creature.
Agnar of Vanaheim, who has been trying to catch up with Balder, now sees him
run headlong into danger with only a stick of wood as his weapon.
Back on
Earth, Roger shoots the mount and kills it.
The Huntsman is angered by this and moves to attack him on foot, but he
is hit with a bolt of lightning before he gets close enough. The Huntsman changes shape back to Malekith
as Thor arrives. The hounds now attack both Roger and Thor.
We now
switch to the Smith, now revealed to be Surtur of Muspell, Lord of the Fire
Demons, towering over his army with the sword, Twilight, in his hands, calling
to “Sound the battlecry that all who live may hear it and despair!”
Back on the
bridge, Thor and Roger are fighting a losing battle, until Thor attacks
Malekith with an I-Beam. Noticing that the pack had not attacked en-mass, Thor
realized that the steel of the bridge was keeping them at bay. Since Cold Iron is the bane of all Faerie,
the I-Beam hurts Malekith sufficiently that he and the pack flee, the hounds
back to Faerie and Malekith to Lorelei’s apartment.
Where it comes from: This is an
interesting take on The
Wild Hunt, since the Hunt is traditionally led by Wotan (aka Odin). It makes me wonder whether Odin gave that
responsibility to the Dark Elves at some point or if he only was included as an
honorary member from the beginning. Either way, it seems as if the Hunt
disappeared once Malakith was banished, since they haven’t been running around
under another Huntsman. It’s possible that the horn was kept in Svartalfheim
but, if it was, I doubt that another Dark Elf would have used it.
Thor getting
enchanted finally pays off the sub-plot that started way back in Issue
338, where Loki tells Lorelei that she will succeed where the Entrantress
has failed. I doubt that she would have
wanted to succeed in this particular way, getting kidnapped, but it’s probably
an ends justify the means kind of thing. It also leads us to some interesting
stories ahead.
On to the big bad guy that was just revealed, Surtur (or Surtr in the original spelling). This is the oldest being in existence, according to the Norse Lore, and ruler of the Land of Fire, Muspell, one of the two original worlds. Surtur has been trapped in Muspell since ancient times and has a mad on for Odin and the Asgardians. Surtur is destined to light fire to the worlds during Ragnarok and bring about the end of all things. Not someone you want to mess with.
Next time Thor
and Roger travel to England and confront Malekith!
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