Toranos was summoned by Gaea — the spirit of the Earth, a fellow Elder God, and Thor’s mother — in hopes he would destroy the humans that poison her. After a mother-son chat, Thor sets off to once more clash with Agger. This is where the meta text of “Immortal Thor” takes hold.
Ewing previously used Agger as a villain in his series “Immortal Hulk.” Halfway through that 50-issue run, Bruce Banner decides to save the world by smashing capitalism. Agger, who proclaims narrative is Roxxon’s “most powerful product,” is only alarmed once the Hulk destroys the servers for the company’s social media platforms, since these are the tools that slip his agenda into the masses’ minds. (One of the most terrifying “Immortal Hulk” issues is #28, where a middle-aged security guard, radicalized by right-wing internet propaganda, shoots his own daughter when he spots her at an anti-Roxxon protest, telling himself that the “Devil crawled inside her.”)
In his brief turn as the big bad of “Immortal Hulk,” Agger recruited the alien Xemnu, a white-furred Yeti-like monster with psychic powers, to be “his” Hulk. Granted the reach of broadcast television, Xemnu beamed out false memories worldwide of himself as Earth’s most beloved hero, encouraging the masses to let nostalgia rule their minds and fall back into the slumber that Hulk had been trying to wake them up from.
Agger’s involvement reveals “Immortal Thor” as a thematic sequel to “Immortal Hulk.” Proving once more that billionaires don’t climb the top with imagination, his plan is basically the same, just retargeted from the Hulk to Thor. He purchases the in-universe Marvel Comics, which still publishes Thor’s adventures (but as records of history) and reboots them to be more Roxxon-friendly. And he doesn’t stop at propaganda.
The ongoing Marvel Comics series Immortal Thor takes some none-too-subtle shots at the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its worst habits. Read More