Thor #502

Sep 1996

William Messner-Loebs, Mike Deodato Jr.

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Story Name:

Putting on the Bear Shirt

Synopsis

Thor #502 synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Rating:

Taking a break from battling Onslaught, Red Norvell finds Thor chanting, trying to invoke berserker rage to battle the enemy and failing. As they chat, Thor reveals his history as Dr. Don Blake, lover of Jane Foster, who discovered a stick in a cave in Norway which transformed him into Thor, God of Thunder; later, he discovered that Don Blake wasn’t real but a scheme by Odin to teach him humility. Thor then asks Wad, the drunken derelict that was Odin, what happened to him. Odin responds that with Ragnarök coming, he put his memories into the sword Raven’s Eye and hurled it to Midgard then found himself a bum, thrown back a few decades to be abused and ignored. And then they are all approached by a colony of frogs….

Meanwhile in the ruins of Asgard, two frost giants have turned an amnesiac Amora into a servant….

Thor recounts how he and Loki once lured the frost giants into a trap by having Loki impersonate a damsel in distress; when they approached, Thor dropped a mountain on them and the two Asgardians rode off while the giants tried to pursue. On reaching home they were rebuked by an angry Odin who had just concluded a peace treaty with the giants. But the boys just laughed it off. Thor now explains that the frogs have come to say goodbye but then they all race away. Jane Foster has frightened them off; she is there because they can use a trained nurse for the big battle. Then an injured man with a young daughter is found and, while Red minds the child, Thor and Jane perform surgery. Thor does what he can to get the man stable and they call an ambulance with Jane accompanying him to the hospital….

Thor and Red sit by the river with Red confessing that he is proud to have known Thor. Then Hela, Goddess of Death, rises from the river and puts a thought directly into Thor’s mind. She tells him he will die the next day facing Onslaught but if he comes with her now, he will be her consort forever. Because he has to think it over, Hela is miffed and vanishes. Thor suggests they get a good night’s sleep to prepare for the next day. Red asks Thor that if he had it all to do over again, would he change anything? Thor responds, “Not a thing….”

Review / Commentaries

Thor #502 Review by Peter Silvestro (August 27, 2024)

Review: And the long-running first volume of Thor comes to an end on a satisfying note. Thor, facing death, has no regrets. And that sums up the hero, a longtime favorite. Even the art seems to rise above the 1990s excesses to bring us a gentle story of friendship between Thor and Red with the big guy also coming to a sweet understanding with Jane Foster. And there’s an understanding of a different kind as Thor rebuffs Hela, choosing to die a hero than get married painlessly. Plus I don’t know if this was ever addressed before but could Thor always perform surgery? Did he have Don Blake’s knowledge and skills? I don’t know but it seems right.

And Odin has his all-time greatest line, “I think I ate a bug.”

Comments: Final issue of the series; Thor is next caught up in the Onslaught event (the reader is referred to UNCANNY X-MEN #336 for details) and his next series debuts in July 1998 after a hiatus for the HEROES REBORN era. This series continues as JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #503, following the saga of the Lost Gods. The story title is another phrase for entering a berserker rage. The letters page includes one by Gary Whitlock, who may be the future comics creator of that name.