Niffleheim, the frozen land of Hel: a band of Dark Elves enters the land by stealth, using a potion that prevents their being detected by Hela and her Valkyries. They head for the Hall of Nastrond, Hel’s darkest prison. The elves fight the giant spiders which guard the hole that serves as the cell of their king, Malekith the Accursed. Once he is released from his pit Malekith slaughters and eats the spiders, then leads his men back home to Svartalfheim to see who else welcomes their king….
In the Great Hall at Asgardia, Thor and his companions are celebrating the election of Volstagg as senator to the Congress of Worlds. Suddenly a dark elf in the room screams: Svartalfheim is burning. Thor and the warriors speed to the dark faerie realm to discover the site of a massacre. They are greeted by Malekith who holds a woman at knifepoint. The Accursed One explains that his people had grown weak and the slaughter is his way of strengthening them. Thor demands that he and his army surrender, Malekith responds by slicing off his hostage’s arm and hurling her at Thor. As the Thunder God uses Mjolnir to cauterize the wound, Malekith makes his escape….
Soon the Accursed One summons the Wild Hunt on a crusade to slaughter his people wherever in the Nine Realms they hide….