Thor continues to listen to the account of the Eye of Odin,
blissfully unaware that this is the day Arishem of the Celestials will pass
judgment on Earth….
Siegfried goes out hunting and meets the Rhinemaidens who ask
for the Ring of the Nibelung back; Sieg refuses, mocking talk of a curse. He
then encounters Gunther and Hagen who have come to make amends for their
quarrel (last issue). But Hagen, who covets the ring, stabs Siegfried in the
back with a spear. Shocked at this turn of events, Gunterh has Sieg’s body
taken back to the castle. There, he orders Hagen imprisoned but the wicked
dwarf is quicker and stabs Gunther to death. Gutrunna has him locked up and
when Brunnhilda enters and sees her beloved dead, orders him immolated on a
huge pyre and leaps into it herself, horse and all. Thor realizes then that he
has failed at Odin’s purpose for granting him human form. In Valhalla, Odin
awaits the arrival of the dead Siegfried and Brunnhilda, then restores them to their
divine forms, wiping their memories of the failed mission….
Odin takes the ring, snaps it in half and uses the two parts
to staple himself to Yggdrasil, after stabbing himself with his spear Gungnir
and hangs there for nine days, as penance for his failures. A mystery woman in a
green cloak stops by to show him a vision of the arrival of the Celestial Third
Host and so he comes down from the tree hurries back to Asgard and inquires of
Mimir; the all-knowing flame tells him of space gods come to judge mankind.
After brooding about this for a few days, Odin calls a summit of the chief gods
of all Earth’s pantheons to hash out the matter of these invaders. They decide
to send a delegation to the Celestials so Odin, Zeus, and Vishnu are chosen and
they travel to the Peruvian mountains where the Celestial city was. They are
met by Ajak who explains that the Celestials had created humanity and therefore
had the right to judge as they saw fit. The divine trio fire their weapons at
Arishem who absorbs the energy and gives them each a vision of the destruction
of gateways to their homes; this will he do unless the gods promise not to
interfere for the next millennium. Odin, Vishnu, and Zeus bow to Arishem as a
pledge (thus—finally—answering Thor’s question from the end of issue #288). Odin
returned to Asgard and built the Destroyer armor and the Oversword in
preparation for the next meeting of gods and Celestials….
Thor realizes he has misjudged his sire and takes the eye
and heads back to Asgard; there he finds everyone dead including Odin who still
sits on his throne. He also finds the Oversword missing and goes to the Well of
Mimir which is dying. Thor tosses the Eye of Odin into it and it recovers
enough to tell the Thunder God that Odin has entered the Destroyer and taken
the Oversword to fight the Celestials. Odin smashes his way into the Celestials’
dome, followed by the Eternals’ Uni-Mind, and faces the assembled Fourth Host.
The Celestials fire upon the Uni-Mind, causing it to fall apart into the
individual Eternals. Odin battles them but finds he can cause them no permanent
damage but they can pierce the indestructible armor. Thor arrives to add a
raging storm to the battle but it does not help Odin. Odin bows in defeat and
the Celestials pour their power onto him turning the Destroyer into a mass of
molten slag. Thor, enraged, strikes out at the Celestials but he can do them no
harm—until he smashes the pedestal Arishem stands on, toppling the leader to
the ground. Shouting defiance, Thor raises the Oversword and pierces Arishem’s breast.
But then Arishem calmly draws the sword out and melts it in his hand—then he
reaches for Thor. The woman in the green cloak appears between them and orders
him to halt; she reveals herself to be Mother Earth, with an offering of twelve
youths, each representing one of the pantheons, to be disciples of the
Celestials, in exchange for the life of the planet. And so Arishem decides to
spare the Earth and he and his host depart with the youths, leaving Mother
Earth to inform the injured Thor that she is his birth mother….