Thor: God-Size Special #1

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Thor: God-Size Special #1

Post by Somebody »

THOR: GOD-SIZE SPECIAL #1
"The Death and Life of Skurge the Executioner"

Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Dan Brereton, Doug Braithwaite, Mike Allred and Miguel Ángel Sepulveda

Okay, this I have concerns about the canoncity of, because it seems to clash with JMS' take on what happened to the Nine Worlds in Ragnarok - and, in particular, Hel. Hela appeared briefly in Thor v3 #5 as one of those Thor was tricked into reviving by Loki, seen in a vaguely nightclub-like environment. The Thor v3 #12 preview now doing the rounds at the usual places follows up on this, with Hela living in Las Vegas and lamenting the loss of her realm and much of her power - when her realm exists, and she apparently has her full power here. in addition, we see Jotunheim intact here, but Storm Giants were amongst the returnees in T3 5, and were shown on Earth in T3 9. Now, there's reality-warping involved in the issue... but the epilogue seems to show at least two of the Nine Worlds - Svartalheim and Jotunheim - still intact after Thor's restored everything to normal...

Cast:
BALDER
THOR/THOR ODINSON/etc
LOKI (mostly in SIF's body)
HELA
ENCHANTRESS/AMORA
EXECUTIONER/SKURGE

Story:
pg1-8
Recap of Thor #362. No new information.

pg9-18

Balder sits remembering Skurge the poet, and realises it does not seem right. Thor comes up, and remembers him as a cobbler who was friend of Odin, and allowed him, Loki and a black-haired Sif to play in his shop as children, and who died before they reached adulthood. They realise there's something wrong... so Thor decides to burst in on Loki and blame him/her for it.

Loki has no clue what they're on about, and remembers Skurge as an old crone who lived by the Well of Urd, and Thor decides to believe him/her. Loki looks into their minds, and sees "trickery" that his not his/her own. Balder notes that they all remember Hel and Hela being involved, and Thor resolves to go to Hel.

They go into the middle of nowhere, and Thor opens a portal to Hel. They find Skurge's axe, and Hela shows up, angry. When Thor asks her who Skurge was, her memories of him appear to delete themselves in mid-sentence. She tells them to go and look elsewhere, and Thor asks very nicely if they can go and take the axe with them, promising to stay in Hel unless they manage to restore the memory of Skurge. She allows them to go, and Thor swears to search the Nine Worlds for Skurge.

pg19-28

Suddenly, after crossing a bridge into Svartalheim, they find themselves on horseback, in their Kirby costumes, with Loki as himself - although it takes them a minute to realise anything's changed. Thor spins his hammer, and sees that the "fabric of the universe is being... rent asunder".

Dark Elves show up, and they beat them easily... before reality shifts, so that they are in variations of their Walt Simonson costumes (Thor is bearded and sleeved, while Loki has his horns on a Simonson costume. Balder is in the straight WS costume), and they find themselves in Jotunheim. They beat a Storm Giant, and see something "tormenting the Worldtree" - the Enchantress is manipulating it to try and resurrect Skurge. She turns Thor and Balder's legs into tree roots, and swears to free Skurge (who is poking through the tree's bark) by "splitting the damned tree in two". Loki's narration informs us that that will destroy all of creation.

pg29-38

Thor, Balder and Loki suddenly return to their present costumes and bodies, albeit with Thor and Balder's legs still transfigured. As the Enchantress loses it still more in grief, Loki swaps places with Thor, and there's a brief fight until Thor has Skurge's axe at her head. Thor begins to get through to her, but it's too late - Skurge has nearly ripped out of Yggdrasil. Thor then takes the axe, and rips him apart with it, before he can finally emerge, taking a chunk out of the tree with him.

The three gods return through Svartalheim and Jotunheim without being bothered, and have a toast to Skurge in an Asgardian tavern (there are lots of background figures, but none I recognise), while the Enchantress is left at the wounded Worldtree, alone, looking down while Skurge's axe lies in the foreground.

Notes:
IF it's canon, it appears to occur between T3 8 and 9, during which time Loki-in-Sif's-body loses her eyebrows (which she still has here in part 2, but not in part 4). I believe Secret Invasion: Thor, with a bebrowed She-Loki, also occurs in the same time period, but this can occur before or after - whichever is most convenient to the larger picture, but preferably afterward. It only takes a day or so to occur, and we don't see a moon, nor any Earthly vegetation.

Skruge's axe was, I believe, turned into the Bloodaxe during Tom DeFalco's run on Thor and was implicated in Thunderstrike's death somehow or other. The Bloodaxe was eventually destroyed by Thor sometime around v2 #50. How it appears here, intact, where it originally fell and without any of the possession-add-ons... your guess is as good as mine.

There's also a reprint of Thor #362, Skurge's death, included.
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Re: Thor: God-Size Special #1

Post by Paul Bourcier »

Thanks, Somebody. I'm operating under the assumption that this story is canonical and will be referenced and explained in a future issue of THOR, so I've placed it between T3 8 and 9 as you suggest. However, if Hela's status quo in the future is the same as it has been, with no reference to this story, we'll need to reevaluate GOD-SIZE SPECIAL.
Paul B.
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