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Thor #85

Dec 2004

Daniel Berman, Andrea Di Vito

Story Name:

Ragnarok, Part the Last

Synopsis

Thor #85 synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Rating:

Thor, accompanied by the embodied Odinpower and the head of Loki, arrives at the land of Surtur to find the demon king, raised by Loki to forge weapons for his allies, in the midst of battle with the Frost Giants. The Thunder God calls a halt to the proceedings and requests that Surtur reforge Mjolnir (shattered in issue #80) so that Thor may destroy the world and end the cycle of death and rebirth. To Loki’s horror, Thor then leads Surtur and his army to destroy Asgard and slay all the surviving Aesir. He then sends Beta Ray Bill home, leaving one witness to carry the burden of remembering their great deeds. As the world dies, Thor returns to Yggdrasil to confront the Fates, intending to sever the single thread that binds history into its endless cycles. Those Who Sit Above in Shadow offer him a seat among them if he will refrain from ending the cycles which they feed upon but the remorseless Thor slashes the thread in a final act of sacrifice. His people freed, Thor enters into the slumber of the gods….

Review / Commentaries

Thor #85 Review by Peter Silvestro (August 22, 2012)

Review: “The cycle diminishes these deeds, these sacrifices.” So said issue #84. And they were right: repetition only trivializes what the heroes go through. The problem is that in the Norse myths each cycle lasted thousands of years; in comic books the apocalypse comes whenever a new writer takes over. Having seen too many such stories in Thor, they are difficult to take seriously anymore. Indeed, the fact that they reversed this one leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Anyway, this issue tends to sag under the weight of the pretentiousness which had been looming in the background during the previous issue, with its Golden Bough/Joseph Campbell humanistic view of religion which makes God dependent on created beings—if not, as here, the outright villain of the piece—desperately in need of lessons only noble and majestic humans can teach. Feh.

Comments: "Thor Disassembled"--Cover. Deaths of everyone left except for Beta Ray Bill. Final pages include cameos by every god and hero who has appeared in the series, including Spider-Man and many Avengers.

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(The Boy Wonder)

Daniel Berman

Andrea Di Vito

Laura Villari

Steve Epting (Cover Penciler)
Steve Epting (Cover Inker)
Frank D'Armata (Cover Colorist)

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Beta Ray Bill
(Bill)

Sif

Thor
(Odinson)

Volstagg

Loki
(Loki Laufeyson)

Surtur
(Surtur the Fire Demon)

Plus: Frost Giants, Those Who Sit Above in Shadow.

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Thor #85

Ragnarok, Part the Last

Synopsis

Review / Commentaries