Comic Browser:

Thor #308

Jun 1981

Doug Moench, Chic Stone

Story Name:

The Snow Giant

Synopsis

Thor #308 synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Rating:

A record blizzard has hit New York City: it’s the work of Loki, banished to the remotest section of Asgard by Odin (last issue), trying to keep himself amused with an enchanted Crystal of Transference. Karnilla the Norn Queen visits with a proposal for an alliance to find the Plague Cask. They set out into the storm and locate the ice caves where it requires the two of them to cast their spell to free it from the ice….

Meanwhile, Thor patrols Manhattan looking for anyone in need of his help. A snowplow driver cracks up and runs his vehicle off a bridge. Thor catches him and also saves a cable car. He tries to halt the storm but he cannot….

Karnilla takes the small figure of a snow giant out of the Plague Cask and drops it into the Crystal of Transference thus transferring it to Manhattan (hence the name) where it wreaks havoc. Thor spies it and gives battle, with the snowplow driver offering to help. As the Thunder God mixes it up with the monster, the driver rescues a woman and child trapped under snow. In Asgard, Karnilla summons demons from the Plague Cask and they capture Loki and lock him up; Karnilla’s plan is to impersonate Loki when Odin recalls him from exile and thus smuggle all the bad things in the Cask into the heart of Asgard. Back in the city, the driver tries to help Thor by crashing his plow into the giant but he is captured, with the giant asking whether he is willing to sacrifice himself for a human. Recalling a lesson taught by his father Odin about pressing a snow giant back into a warmer clime, Thor agrees not to strike his giant foe. But that doesn’t stop him from creating fires with a ruptured gas main and an exploding gasoline truck to melt the snow giant. Then Loki arrives, having escaped Karnilla’s clutches by diving into the Crystal of Transference. He asks to be sent back to his place of exile, shrinking the giant down to return him to the Cask. Thor hurls the Crystal into the distance, it crashes, releasing Loki before Karnilla; he snatches up the Cask threatening the Norn Queen with it and she flees. And with the destruction of the Crystal, the storm on Earth ends. Thor takes the plow driver to the hospital….

Review / Commentaries

Thor #308 Review by Peter Silvestro (January 7, 2020)

Review: So-so issue features Thor fighting an unremarkable foe; he’s beaten snow giants before. The snowplow driver subplot isn’t very interesting, Loki’s antics aren’t among his most inspired, the Norn Queen is just a meanie, the Plague Cask is just Pandora’s Box from Greek myth. A Crystal of Transference? That’s kind of new and Loki gets to be clever in using it to escape but why does the Crystal come with him when it didn’t go with the giant? Okay, Thor is mildly clever in thinking to start a fire to defeat his icy foe but does he go back and repair the damage he caused? We don’t know. The biggest disappointment for modern readers would be the discovery that Loki used to just be a one-dimensional baddie and not the charming rogue of recent days and especially as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in the movies.

Comments: Marie Severin and Al Milgrom contributed to the art. Karnilla’s demons resemble the Mindless Ones from DR STRANGE; they are identified as such by some sources.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Doug Moench

Chic Stone

George Roussos

Keith Pollard (Cover Penciler)
Keith Pollard (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Layouts: Keith Pollard. Letterer: Joe Rosen.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Karnilla
(Norn Queen)

Loki
(Loki Laufeyson)

Thor
(Odinson)

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