Timeslide #1, by Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli, gave readers some major clues about 2025 and one of those involves Immortal Thor, by Al Ewing and Jan Bazaluda. In Timeslide #1, Bishop and Cable go on a cross-time mission to defeat Vacuna, a new Child of the Vault meant to eat important events in the timestream and destroy mutants. At one point, the duo finds themselves in a not-too-distant future, one where Bronze, currently a member of the cast of Exceptional X-Men, shows them a list of events that could happen. Two of these events reference Immortal Thor: “Who is the man with the hammer?” and “Utgard rises.”
Immortal Thor has been digging heavily into the mythology of the Marvel Universe. Thor has been dealing with gods from across the ancient faiths, bringing back some Thor villains, and changing the God of Thunder in a multitude of ways. These two teases give readers who have paid attention to Immortal Thor some major clues as to what’s going to happen in the book for the next year.
Of the two teases, the most obvious is “Utgard rises.” Immortal Thor introduced the conflict between Asgard and Utgard from the beginning. Utgard is a dark shadow of Asgard, created by Utgard-Loki in order to fight against Atum, who was destroying Elder Gods in the distant past. Toranos, the Utgard-Thor, was the major enemy of Immortal Thor‘s first story arc and Thor had to get help from Loki to forge a new weapon and gather the Thor Corps – Storm, Jane Foster, Beta Ray Bill, and Loki – to defeat him. The shadow of Utgard has been cast over the entire series, with Utgard-Loki’s true plan still waiting in the wings.
“Utgard rises” teases that the Elder Gods of Utgard are going to return and that will play into another plot thread that Immortal Thor has teased since its first story arc: the death of Thor. Immortal Thor has been making Thor more powerful than ever – he already had the power of the Odinforce as the current King of Asgard and has gained more powers and weapons over the course of the book – while also talking about him dying. The return of Utgard could be the catalyst for this death. Toranos was powerful enough to nearly defeat Thor at the height of his power, and Utgard-Loki was as crafty and powerful as Asgard’s Loki. Thor on his own, even with the enhancements he’s been getting, wouldn’t be enough to deal with the full force of Utgard.
The next tease could play into the return of Utgard and something else that just happened in Immortal Thor. Thor’s son Magni was resurrected as a boon to Enchantress, his mother. The return of Utgard puts Thor and Asgard in extreme peril and this could be the prophesied moment of Thor’s death. “Who is the man with the hammer?” could refer to Magni taking up the hammer of his father.
Magni comes from Earth-3515, and no one on Earth-616 even knows who he is. Thor had to destroy the alternate future Magni came from, and his resurrection only happened because Enchantress was able to trick Thor. If the return of Utgard means the death of Thor, then Magni could take up his father’s hammer and become the new Thor. This would lead the heroes of the Earth to wonder who he is, a man they’ve never met before wielding Mjolnir. Immortal Thor has already introduced a Thor-alike once, so doing so again would make perfect sense.
Immortal Thor hooked readers in two ways: its deep dive into Norse mythology and the book’s teases of the future. There are so many layers to its story and Timeslide #1 gives readers the sense that things are going to change drastically for Thor over the next calendar year. Utgard’s return and a new man with the hammer could easily be the catalysts that bring the book into its next phase.
Timeslide #1, by Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli, gave readers some major clues about 2025 and one of those involves Immortal Thor, by Al Ewing and Jan Bazaluda. In Timeslide #1, Bishop and Cable go on a cross-time mission to defeat Vacuna, a new Child of the Vault meant to eat important events in the Read More