All
across the realms, they wait for the coming of the Black Winter: Sif, Volstagg,
Beta Ray Bill, Loki, wondering what will happen next. A despairing Bill offers
hope to Sif that Thor, the new All-Father, will rise to the occasion but there
is doubt….
In
the eye of the storm, Thor and Galactus battle the all-devouring Black Winter.
The monster shows interest in Thor and offers to show him how he will die. He
finds himself in a massive building of shining blocks and he is attacked by
Gorr, the God Butcher, then stabbed in the back by old evil Loki, then crushed
by Mangog. His death will be by an aggregate of all his historic enemies, those
mentioned above plus Mephisto, Surtur, Malekith, Enchantress, Apocalypse,
Juggernaut, Doctor Doom, Annihilus, and the Midgard Serpent. He tries to fight
them all but the Black Winter informs him that the end he has already seen (in KING
THOR by Jason Aaron) has changed, his fate is different. Thor knows that it
speaks the truth, that something is wrong—and he reacts with a scream and
pushes away the end….
And
he finds himself standing with Galactus against the Black Winter once more. The
Winter shows itself as a dark version of Thor which is what Galactus saw as his
end. Winter offers to show Thor why Galen was the sole survivor of the previous
universe; Thor refuses to allow the Black Winter to destroy this universe.
Winter tells him Galactus lied, Winter has not come to destroy anything—but to
reclaim its herald: Galactus….