Comic Book / The Immortal Thor

The wheel… has turned.

"This is the lesson. This is the parable. The story always changes. The meaning always remains. There is always a sacrifice, always a cost, Bor-Son, for the winter to end. For spring to come again. You have made your sacrifice, Bor-Son. And in time to come… your children will make theirs."

— Yggdrasil

The Immortal Thor is a 2023 comic book series from Marvel Comics, initially written by Al Ewing with art by Martín Cóccolo. It is a relaunch of The Mighty Thor, following the end of the previous Thor series in June 2023. It also marks Ewing's return to the Ten Realms following his and Lee Garbett's Loki: Agent of Asgard in 2015 (though he's continued to write Thor and Loki here and there in the interim). It also marks Martín Cóccolo's return to Thor after having previously penciled Banner of War during the Donny Cates era.

Life is good for Thor Odinson. Though the last few years have been full of strife and struggle for the noble God of Thunder, he has come out the other side hopeful and stronger than ever, sitting on his father's throne as the new All-Father of Asgard. He has made peace with his troublesome sibling, Loki, and now rules over a peaceful kingdom, while also continuing to protect his second home of Earth as an Avenger. For the first time in a long time, Thor is truly happy.

And that is when the dark powers that sit above even the gods decide to deliver yet another test of character to the Mighty Thor. One that will push Thor to his limits and shake the very foundations of the cosmos themselves…

Understand ye yet, or what?

The first issue was released August 23, 2023.

The series is accompanied by a one-shot Roxxon Presents: Thor comic, based on the in-universe comics starring Thor.

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Immortal Thor provides examples of:

• Adapted Out: Like the original Marvel comic version of it, the story of Thor and Loki's misadventures in Utgard don't include their temporary kid sidekicks from the myth.
• Arc Welding:
  • The story ties two of Thor's Rogues Gallery — Loki himself and Skrymir — into a new antagonist, the Utgard-Loki, noting that the former two used the latter's name as a way of homaging and invoking his power. It further notes that Ulik was doing the same with another of Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, Toranos, when he disguised himself as "Tanarus" right after Fear Itself.
    • Speaking of rogues, Dario Agger's storyline from Ewing's Immortal Hulk is picked up and merged with the Immortal Thor narrative (though it's also played with in that Ewing is also technically resuming Agger's conflict with the Odinson that began back in Jason Aaron's run).
  • Issue 5 forges a connection between Wiccan's "Demiurge" persona and the Demiurge Primordial/Godcreator, clarifying that the "Demiurge" is a cosmic title and role passed to a new entity during each multiversal cycle, akin to the World-Eater or King In Black. The Godcreator is the current one, and Billy is its planned successor who is only just coming into his powers. It also makes clear that the Elder Gods and Those Who Sit Above In Shadow are pretty much the same thing, which explains a lot.
• Arc Words:
  • "The wheel has turned."
  • "Understand ye yet, or what?"
• Back from the Dead: As shown in Avengers Inc., Skurge the Executioner has left Valhalla as part of a plan of Odin's to try and cheat fate's plans to kill Thor.
• Batman Cold Open: The story opens with Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Four thwarting yet another (and rather inept) attempt by the Frost Giants to attack Asgard.
• Batman Gambit: Thor's plan to defeat Toranos is centered around baiting his Utgard counterpart into grabbing Mjolnir. He accomplishes this by making his hammer look appealing through thwarting his attacks when his foe originally held the weapon in contempt, and giving him tantalizing opportunities to pilfer it as it's passed among the members of the Thor Corps.
• Big Brother Bully: Flashbacks show Thor acting like this to Loki before learning humility, giving some context on how their rivalry started. Thor is appalled at his past acts, and even asks Loki if he truly was that awful. Loki admits that it varied. Sometimes he was better, sometimes he was worse.
• Bland-Name Product: After defeating some ORCHIS goons, Thor and the Mutants he's helped kick back and enjoy some Soda ("It's a generic brand!")
• Blasphemous Boast: Fittingly for an adversary of an actual deity, Dario Agger is reintroduced telling a hapless employee that Roxxon is his one and only god.
• Body Horror: Dario Agger, the minotaur running the Roxxon corporation, returns after getting attacked by the alien Xemnu in Immortal Hulk, and he looks horrific. His hands are missing bits of skin, his face is just a skull, and lines of flesh hang over his mouth.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Thor manages to banish Toranos from Earth, but the sheer effort and energy taken to do so nearly forces him into the All-Sleep prematurely, and he isn't even capable of harming Toranos physically; he can only delay the problem by knocking his foe through a portal to deep space while hoping it will take so much time for Toranos to make his way back to Thor's location that the latter has time to prepare.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Those Who Sit Above In Shadow return as the first arc's antagonists, having last appeared eight years ago (maybe) at the end of Loki: Agent of Asgard.
  • Issue #4 brings back Dario Agger, marking his first appearance since Immortal Hulk.
• Call-Back:
  • The narration in the first issue mentions that "no magic is without cost", hearkening back to the Arc Words of the Mark Waid run on Doctor Strange; "magic always comes at a cost".
  • Issues 6 and 7 detail a retelling of the events of The Mighty Thor #272 now that Thor and Loki know that this adventure had something to do with their Utgard counterparts.
  • Utgard-Loki is described as using "deep magic" to incarnate abstract concepts as people and objects in the contests against Thor and Loki. Deep magic was previously described in Ewing's previous entries over in X-Men as being used to incarnate the concept of sharpness as a sword by an Arrakii blacksmith.
• The Cameo: In place of Old Age, Death herself is the force called forth by Utgard-Loki to wrestle with Thor in the seventh issue.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: The cover for the tenth issue features Dario Agger and the Enchantress chatting at an office water cooler while Thor and Skurge duel to the death in the foreground.
• "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate: Thor lampshades and discusses this in issue 4, noting that he hears a ton of these about himself (can he outfight the Hulk, can he outrun Quicksilver, can he wiggle his ears better than Willie Lumpkin, etc.). He argues that strength is relative and hard to measure objectively, essentially lampshading how fights in superhero comics can be based around Popularity Power and Strong as They Need to Be.
• Character Narrator: Loki narrates the first few issues of the series.
• Child of Two Worlds: Loki's narration brings up how Thor is one of these thanks to his being the child of the Elder God Gaia and the Asgardian king Odin, making him the scion of both Earth and Asgard.
• Comic-Book Time: Deconstructed. As a god, Thor obviously doesn't age like mortals do, and he's shown to have a great deal of angst and confused feelings over the fact that the world is constantly changing around him and yet he always stays the same, essentially providing the reader with an idea of what it would really be like to be the subject of a "floating timeline", a character who never ages even as the world they inhabit does.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Not the first Ewing-penned story to start with a Jerkass God of Thunder declaring that "the wheel has turned".
  • Thor is dubious about Loki's claim they can fix the Bifrost, given what happened last time in Cates's run.
  • The Utgard-gods and Gaea discuss the time Ulik replaced a temporarily dead Thor as "Tanarus", just after Fear Itself.
  • In the first issue, Thor rescues a mutant from a squad of Orchis thugs. The villains aren't identified by name, but anyone reading the X-Men arc Fall of X, in which Orchis launches a global war on mutants, will recognise the uniforms and symbols.
  • A billboard from Roxxon can be see in the first issue, using a cartoonified version of their CEO Dario Agger's minotaur form as a mascot. Agger himself is still horribly disfigured from the events of Immortal Hulk, where he was mutilated by Xemnu.
  • While reflecting on the many friends of his that he has lost over the years, Thor mentions some of his dead mortal allies from prior stories, such as Iya Nehanda — one of the ancient Black Panthers — and the original Captain Marvel.
  • When Thor needs to choose a battleground where nobody will get hurt in a fight between him and Toranos, he chooses the Gray Area of the Moon, where the Inhumans used to live.
  • Loki apologizes to Storm for being the one to first imbue her with Thor's power as part of one of their many schemes, calling way back to the "Asgardian Wars" arc of Chris Claremont run on Uncanny X-Men. They then lampshade that this is a rather confusing Call-Back to make, given that the events of Agent of Asgard mean this Loki isn't precisely the same one that did that.
  • Ewing established the idea that some Marvel comics, at least the older ones, were in-universe publications in the Free Comic Book Day special of his Venom run, where a reporter claims that text alone wouldn't convey the wonder of the events they depict. Agger quotes the explanation while talking to his subordinate.
  • Issue 5 opens with a recap of the Creation Myth of the Elder Gods by the Demiurge as depicted in Thor Annual #10 and Silver Surfer Annual #2.
  • When Loki begins their story in issue six, we get a rundown of their various forms over the years; their current "Goddess of Stories" look, Ikol, Kid Loki, and the original Kirby Loki design.
  • In Gaia's story about Atum in issue #8, much of the language she uses to describe him and his shadow-side Demogorge evoke the language Ewing used regarding the One-Below-All in Immortal Hulk, especially in describing Demogorge as "an empty shell" that "breaks with many hands".
  • Issue #9 has Amora listing off her various grievances with Thor and specifically bringing up her loved ones that have died under his watch over the course of prior stories; Skurge, her second lover Heimdall, and her son Iric, the lattermost of whom died in the concurrently-running Strange Academy.
• Continuity Overlap: Again, Ewing's kickoff overlaps with Fall of X; Ewing shows Thor's own opposition to Orchis and their ongoing anti-Mutant pogrom. Jane's involvement in issue 4 and 5 have her sharing part of what happened to her over in Avengers Inc. issue #3, while Storm's involvement in those issues takes place during issue 14 of X-Men Red (2022)
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Loki in Ewing's Loki: Agent of Asgard was a puckish anti-hero concerned with self-interest and primarily stopping catastrophes to protect those they were fond of. Thor, while capable of cleverness, is a more straightforward God of Good who willingly and earnestly wants to help as many people as he can, even if he must perish to do so.
• Costume Evolution: Nic Klein's "Herald of Thunder" redesign from Donny Cates' run is retired in the 2023 Thor Annual, where Thor decides to change his outfit to a new, classic Jack Kirby-inspired costume designed by Alex Ross for the Ewing era.
• Creation Myth: Issue five's opening is a recounting of the origins of the Elder Gods/Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, forged from the primordial Earth by the Demiurge as the first generation of gods and subsequently warring amongst themselves before being largely sealed away by Gaea and Atum, birthing the next generation of deities - including the Asgardians - in the process.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • When trapped on a mysterious planet in some kind of Hammerspace by Loki, Thor tries to escape in simple, pragmatic ways like just flying away or trying to nail Loki with his hammer. These all fail due to various factors Loki accounted for, as the whole puzzle is meant to demonstrate that Thor can't just brute force his way past every problem and has to use his intellect as much as his power if he wants to win. Loki even name-drops the trope-naming Gordian Knot.
  • Like in The Mighty Thor #272, Thor and Loki sneak into Utgardhall by crawling under its enormous doors. Although, in this telling, as the larger of the two, Thor has greater trouble doing so when it was Loki who struggled with it in the original comic.
• Dark World: Utgard, the non-realm, and home to Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, the beings who sit right above the Asgardians on the cosmic hierarchy.
• Death Is Cheap: When he last appeared, the frost giant wizard Skrymir died when Jane Foster smashed his skull from the inside. This time he dies when Mjolnir smashes his icy head into fragments. The Asgardians assume he'll be back again sooner or later.
• Decon-Recon Switch: On one hand, there's plenty of deconstructive exploration of comic book tropes and frightening depictions of the terror of living in a world where superhumans and godlike beings battle every other day. On the other, the story has an idealistic, hopeful tone and a respectful portrayal of Thor as a champion of the oppressed who battles against injustice, showing that while it'd be scary to live in a superhero universe, it'd also probably be pretty damn cool. In many ways, Immortal Thor is the Astro City to the Immortal Hulk's Watchmen.
• Deconstruction: The seventh issue that details Thor and Loki's trials in Utgardhall chides the pair for challenging giants (who exponentially dwarf them in size) to eating contests. The context is altered from the two being arrogant to Loki grasping the Idiot Ball out of hunger, hoping to bum a free meal out of beings who have much bigger stomachs than he does.
• Determinator: No matter what challenge he faces, no matter how hopelessly outmatched he is, Thor just won't quit, either out of pride or simply being that determined to do good.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: A lot of the language used by the narrator to describe Toranos frames him as evocative of climate change; extreme weather bringing about a radically changing world and basically impossible for a single person to stop conventionally.
• Do You Trust Me?: Played for Drama; after his first battle with Toranos, Thor is confronted by Loki, who asks if Thor will trust them. Thor has no problem assuring Loki of his faith in them, first as a loyal subject of Asgard, then as a sibling who loves Thor. It's only when Loki asks if Thor will trust them as Thor's enemy that the god of thunder is given pause, but he decides to trust that Loki has some important reason for becoming an antagonist again.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: When Thor warns Dario Agger that he is poisoning the planet through Roxxon and threatening to cause an ecological apocalypse, Agger practically laughs in his face and says he's doing it on purpose, fully intending to pump the planet dry and then leave its burned-out husk to rot while he starts the same process on another world. Because all he really wants is the joy of numbers going up so he can feel superior over others.
• Ear Ache: In the flashback of issue #6, Thor has a counterargument to Loki's constant complaints and attempts to duck out; grab his ear and drag him along anyway.
• Eldritch Abomination: Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, being to gods what gods are to mortals, are less the "strong guys in tights" typical to Marvel's depiction of the Asgardians and more like what you'd expect gods to be like… which is to say, terrifyingly powerful beings that look like elements made roughly humanoid. Toranos, the first one we see, is basically a living hurricane, with all the frightening, mind-breaking power that calls to mind. Utgard-Loki, the main antagonist, resembles a huge demonic skeleton wreathed in golden flames and is described by normal Loki as being effectively "living magic", so mighty in the ways of illusion and spellcraft that even the greatest of magicians can't counter his powers, which utilize the very primal forces themselves for power.
• Eternal Recurrence: A major theme of the story is recurring cycles passed down along the ages, with the narration noting that something akin to all this has happened to Thor and beings who fit his archetype before and will likely happen again. Issue five's flashback to the birth of the Elder Gods in particular indicates that Thor and Loki's Sibling Rivalry and many battles are just the latest expression of a war of ideologies and Cycle of Revenge that goes back to Toranos and Utgard-Loki battling in the first moments of their existence on primordial Earth.
• Evil Counterpart: Toranos serves as this to Thor as his Utgard counterpart, though it's downplayed in that he's indicated to be be more a force of nature than "evil" and seems to believe he's doing the right thing by attacking Earth.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Having learned nothing from what happened to him last time, Dario Agger is messing around with dangerous forces to get back at Thor, namely the Enchantress. Fittingly, the reveal of this comes with the issue's title; caveat emptor, "buyer beware".
• Exactly What I Aimed At: A variation. During Thor's battle with Toranos outside New York City, he calls down a massive column of lightning... which hits the ground off to Toranos' side. Toranos laughs at Thor's attack missing, only for Thor to reveal his actual plan: the lightning was tearing open a portal big enough to knock Toranos through, sending him to a distant edge of space.
• Fallout Shelter Fail: When Dario Agger shows off his advertising pitch for domed cities that will shelter paying customers in case of an apocalypse (which Agger is secretly working to bring about), Thor immediately points out that it sounds far too good to be true and that money can't buy safety from the end of the world, meaning the shelters are probably not nearly as good as the advertisement suggests. Agger openly acknowledges this to be the case and that the pitch is just to scam rich rubes out of their money by pandering to their egos and self-preservation instincts while Agger leaves the dying planet.
• Feuding Families: Something of a variant; the comic frames the long-running rivalry and conflict between Thor and Loki in their roles as archenemies as just the latest expression of a feud between beings fitting similar archetypes to them - a mighty warrior and a devious trickster - that recurs throughout history, stretching all the way back to the creation of the Elder Gods, where their earliest predecessors, Toranos and Utgard-Loki, began fighting each other within seconds of birth because neither could stand what the other stood for. Basically, the concept of generational blood feuds applied to archetypes and titles.
• Foreshadowing:
  • As Thor forges a new axe in issue 3, Loki's narration drops all pretense and tells the reader this will be important later.
  • In issue 6, as "Skymir" laughs, it's possible to see he's missing a tooth in the exact same place as Loki, and in issue 7, Lukki is the same.
• Forging Scene: Issue 3 sees Thor forging a new axe — Tormod — from his helm of Asgardian Steel and the crystals on the mystery planet he's stuck on.
• For the Evulz: As Darrio Agger explains to Thor in issue #9, he doesn't have any grand excuse for why he does what he does. No sad backstory or even a proper motivation. Just so long as he earns a little more money as someone else's expense, that's enough for him.
• Fun with Homophones: In issue #4, Jane Forster has a Big Damn Heroes moment and proclaims "I say thee nay". Her talking horse also declares I say thee neigh.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Issue 8 has Gaea state that her patience with humanity's behavior has finally run out, and is the reason she let loose Toranos on Earth.
• A God Am I: In a twist on the trope, Dario Agger declares the company of Roxxon itself to be a god.
• Genre Throwback: To Marvel's Heroic Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery comics of the 60s to 80s, such as the original Jack Kirby run on Thor itself.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Issue 9 ends, and THE ROXXIN' THOR arc begins, with Thor opening up Chad Hammer's comic book as Skurge, the Enchantress, and the Minotaur read over his shoulder.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: At the end of issue 3, Thor figures he's going to need to call in back-up to fight Toranos. First on that list is Storm of the X-Men (so Thor suggests Loki sit that one out, given Loki's history with her).
• Greater-Scope Villain: Issue 7 ends with Thor realizing that if there is an Utgard-Thor and Utgard-Loki, than logically there could also be an Utgard-Odin behind both of them, possibly directing their actions. The final page hints that he might also be his great-grandfather Buri, which is confirmed by Gaea in #8.
• Hate at First Sight: At the very moment of their creation, Toranos almost immediately attacked Utgard-Loki, recognizing that their respective concepts were anathema to one another.
• Heroic Fantasy: The genre of the run, contrasting with the Cosmic Horror Story of Immortal Hulk.
• He's Back!:
  • In the wake of Thor (2020)'s conclusion, Thor's shaken himself out of his Aaron-and-Cates-era melancholy. He's back to being joyful and hopeful again, best symbolized by a return to his classic look.
  • In a much darker way, issue #2 has Loki going back to being an antagonist to Thor, though very much not of their own volition, and with the acknowledgement this won't be the villainous Loki of old, he of the manic ranting and petty motivations. This is a very different Loki.
• Hope Spot: The run begins with Thor having gotten his groove and hammer back. Asgard is at peace, Thor and Loki have repaired their relationship, Odin is at rest in Valhalla, the Rainbow Bridge is repaired, and things generally seem to really be looking up for our hero. That's when Toranos shows up.
• Hour of Power: Or minute of power, in the case of someone who holds Mjolnir and then relinquishes it. Thor and his allies exploit this in the battle against Toranos. Loki, Beta Ray Bill, Jane and Storm are all worthy but they can only possess Thor's power as long as they pass the hammer back and forth while for Thor himself, it is innate.
• Humanity Is Infectious: A variant; benevolent godhood is infectious! Thor defeats Toranos by letting him tap into the Odinforce and thus wield Thor's own power. In doing so, Toranos is also subjected to Thor's personality and nature, such as his compassion, nobility, and desire to protect the weak, resulting in Toranos collapsing into grief as he suddenly feels empathy for all the "lower creatures" he's killed and guilt for his actions.
• Hyperaffixation: On reaching the realm of Utgard, Thor and Loki must ascend the Utgardsteps, to reach the Utgarddoor, to gain entrance to the Utgardhall.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Thor manages to shove Toranos through a portal to far off space by pretending to be much weaker and more exhausted than he actually is, prompting Toranos to relax his grip only to be blasted with the full force of the summoned winds. Afterwards, however, Thor notes that there was more truth to his feigned weakness in comparison to Toranos then he'd like to admit and that this trick obviously isn't going to work twice.
• I Hate Past Me: When hearing a story about his youth, Thor is deeply embarrassed and ashamed about how he used to be an egotistical, reckless, and bloodthirsty Big Brother Bully.
• Implacable Man: As Thor and Toranos' battle in the Hudson Bay begins, Thor summons the Odinforce and unleashes a massive blast of pure cosmic energy at his foe. Toranos doesn't even seem to react, let alone be injured.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Poor Skrymir. In the old days, he could be a real threat to Thor, but nowadays with Thor being stronger than ever, the Asgardians mostly treat him like a nuisance. When he pushes Thor into a fight, Thor kills him (again) with one hit.
• Internal Retcon: Issues 6 and 7 have Thor and Loki recount events previously told way back in Thor #272. However, some of the events are different, and it's clear this isn't something Loki's doing, and it's unsettling them. It's the Enchantress doing her own thing elsewhere.
• Interquel: Ewing and Cóccolo's backup story in the 2023 Thor Annual functions as a bridge between the Cates and Ewing eras, showing what prompts Thor to return to his classic look (and how Mjolnir's been repaired).
• It's Personal: While Skurge is taking part in the scheme to prevent Thor's prophesied doom out of a genuine desire to save him, Amora seems to be mostly going along with it as an excuse to torment and punish Thor for his various sleights and failures against her.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Though his attempted reaction to it was extreme, young Thor wasn't wrong that "Skrymir" was trying to trick him and Loki when they met him.
• Kneel Before Zod: In Issue #3, Loki concludes their test of Thor by saying he has failed, and demands he kneel before the new ruler of Asgard. This is what clues Thor in that they're BS-ing, since he knows now that the last thing any Loki might want, even one who's turned villain again, is a throne.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Issue #4 includes a jab at power-scalers who constantly ask whether X could beat Y, and who don't get that the characters don't have a fixed set of power but rather a fluctuating one depending on the situation. Doubles as a Take That, Audience!.
  Thor: The question -nnhh- those like us are always asked. Who's stronger. Can I arm wrestle The Hulk? Run a race with Quicksilver? Challenge Willie Lumpkin in a contest of wiggling ears? But strength is relative to the need of it. If I have to... I can stand on Jupiter. I can stand anything if the need is great and the cause is just - As can you. As can we all. [...] We are not measured by strength, nor by raw power. The measure of us is what we do... When the need of action lies with us... And the hammer is in our hand.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Loki signifies the beginning of their testing Thor by changing their outfit to a very fancy-looking get-up.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Skurge and Amora have been tasked with saving Thor from a prophesied doom by taking his weapons from him. Which is not to say they have to be gentle when they do so, and they do indeed take the opportunity to thrash the God of Thunder for all the ways he's affronted and failed them.
• Lighter and Softer: To both the Aaron/Cates era of Thor's own comics and to Ewing's Immortal Hulk to which this rum serves as a spiritual successor. While there's still plenty of high stakes and a bit of dread and horror to go around, this comic generally brings Thor back into more of a lighthearted, swashbuckling adventure and has strong themes of Reconstruction.
• Logical Weakness: Amora notes that since parody requires some level of self-awareness, fooling Thor into a comical fantasy of his history is ineffective.
• The Man Behind the Man: The one who unleashes the Utgard gods is Gaea, even though by her own words she was the one who sealed them away to begin with. She isn't happy about doing so and claims she has been left with no choice, but why this is so has yet to be revealed.
• Master of Illusion: Loki of course, but his Utgard counterpart is so good at it that he makes our Loki look like a kid performing party tricks. The flashback story sees him trap Thor and Loki in an illusion that, amongst other things, makes Jormungand look like a normal cat.
• Metafiction: Thor must contend with being put in a story by both Loki and Utgard-Loki, and the narration isn't shy about explaining how they're boxing him in to help and hinder him through their tests.
• Monumental Damage: Toranos announces himself by blasting the Statue of Liberty to pieces with a single lightning bolt.
• Mood Whiplash: "Roxxon Presents: Thor" plays its Stylistic Suck pretty straight, until towards the end when things stop to show the real Thor reading it, and Dario Agger's monologue on how this will destroy him. Then it goes right back to the "story".
• Mundane Utility: After forging Tormod, Thor's first use of the mighty magic axe is… shaving, as his beard has grown bushy during the All-Sleep. Loki shows up in the middle of him doing so and briefly thinks he's trying to hack his own head off.
• My Beloved Smother: Issue #5 have Thor exasperated that even while dead Odin is still meddling around being an overprotective dad to him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Forced upon Toranos when Thor makes him experience the Odinforce and with it, Thor's own nature. Toranos is immediately consumed with guilt for all that he's done due to now feeling empathy and love for the mortals he trampled over, describing the remorse he's being subjected to as akin to torture of his very soul.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Issue three sees Thor smith a new axe to compliment Mjolnir, allowing the god of thunder to dual-wield hammer and axe like his Marvel Cinematic Universe self did in Avengers: Endgame.
  • Issue four has Loki's narration implore readers to look at the "world outside your window", paraphrasing a tagline that Marvel has used for both the main Marvel Universe and the The New Universe. The issue later ends with Dario Agger quoting another classic Marvel advertisement — "Make Mine Marvel!" — while holding a comic from the in-universe Marvels Comic company, which is represented with an old issue of Thor's own original ongoing.
  • During their bickering about Thor's exercise regime, Loki blames Thor's behind for difficulty getting past the Utgardgate. Thor pouts in response, "tis Asgard's behind."
• Nature Is Not Nice: Discussed throughout issue #8. Gaia is the embodiment of nature; life giving and naturing... but at the same time, harsh and without mercy. Just ask the dinosaurs.
• No Endor Holocaust: A dark aversion; Toranos causes massive collateral damage to New York and indirectly kills a ton of bystanders with his arrival and attacks. While Thor uses his powers to undo as much damage and save as many lives as he can afterwards, he sadly notes that reviving the unlucky dead killed in the crossfire of the battle is not within his ability.
• No-Sell:
  • Toranos takes multiple head-on blasts from the Odinforce and isn't even scratched because the Utgard gods are that far above their Asgard counterparts.
  • When Thor and Storm get into an argument/scuffle, Storm hits him with all the power at her disposal… but, of course, Thor being a literal god of thunder means this does little to nothing against him, and even the few weapons in Storm's arsenal that can actually hurt him don't hurt him that bad.
• Oh, Crap!: Thor's reaction when Loki asks if Thor will still trust them as the god of thunder's enemy. As soon as the question is asked, Thor can't help but recall "a thousand memories of evil deeds and evil days."
• Origins Episode: Issue 6 and 7 flashback to Thor and Loki's youth to show their very first encounter with the Elder Gods and how they began on the path to their current situation.
• Power at a Price: A theme of the series. Nothing comes without cost, and just as Odin sacrificed an eye for the power he had, so must Thor pay the price for the power of the All-Father. Just temporarily driving off Toranos is enough to nearly bring on the All-Sleep.
• Pretender Diss: The Utgard-Loki isn't terribly impressed by the beings who've tried claiming his and his kin's names, such as Ulik and Loki.
• Properly Paranoid: When Loki says they have a means to fix the Bifrost, a task previously estimated to take ten thousand years, Thor gets suspicious and asks what sort of bargain they've made this time. Loki doesn't answer the question, but their narration and quick exit afterwards (and, let's face it, Loki's entire history) make it clear that Thor was extremely right to be suspicious.
• Punny Name: In order to fix the Bifrost, Loki brings out the Wand of Wutevar (which is, in fact, just a fancy looking stick. Loki's magic is doing all the work.)
• "Rashomon"-Style: The myth of Loki and Thor encountering Utgard-Loki has many different versions, based on what is remembered or makes a good tale. Beyond the knowledge of Thor and even Loki, the myth is being rewritten by Dario Agger with Amora's assistance.
• Revisiting the Roots: Explored, as the story repeatedly discusses how Thor and his cast are finding themselves back in their familiar status quos (Thor as an upbeat Boisterous Bruiser, Loki as a trickster rival, Skurge and Enchantress working together, the Rainbow Bridge connecting Asgard to Earth, etc.) but under radically different circumstances, as an expression of the story's themes of eternally recurring cycles, stories being passed down the ages, and heroes and villains changing to suit the era they inhabit. The comic itself deliberately hews back to Silver and Bronze Age Sword and Sorcery comics like the original Jack Kirby run on Thor as part of this, and visually symbolizes it with Alex Ross' Thor redesign, which returns the Thunderer to his classic Kirby look closer than any preceding modern design since the ending of Michael Avon Oeming and Steve Epting's run in 2004.
• Rule of Three: In issue 2, Loki finds an exhausted Thor and asks him three questions; Does Thor trust them as a subject (yes), does Thor trust them as a sibling who loves them (also yes), and most important, does Thor trust them as an enemy? (yes).
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Gaea locked Toranos and the Utgard-Loki away in Utgard thousands of years ago. When he is released, Toranos immediately goes to destroy New York City. This also seamlessly explains why the Utgard Norse characters have never appeared in the modern Marvel Universe despite being part of the Poetic Edda.
• Secret Test of Character: The Utgard-gods are performing one of the "evolve or die" kind on the world as well as Thor.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: Skurge doesn't have his old axe, and has to make do with one provided by Roxxon. Predictably, it crumples going up against the might of Mjolnir and Tormod.
• Show Within a Show: The Roxxon Presents: Thor comic is the in-universe comic book about Thor's adventures. Now that it's owned by Roxxon, the comic presents a very different view of Thor and his supporting cast.
• Status Quo Is God: Explored and deconstructed, as is often the case with Ewing's work. Thor grapples with the fact that his immortality leaves him constantly outliving his friends on Earth yet never really changing that much himself. Toranos rants about the world being "false" and hollow because it's fallen into stasis and repetitive patterns, with an implication that Those Who Sit Above In Shadow are acting against Thor as part of an attempt to bring change to the mortal world. The first issue has Loki and Thor restore the Bifrost Bridge after it was destroyed back in Cates' run, but Loki's narration makes it clear this will not be without a heavy cost.
  • Played with when Loki becomes an enemy to Thor again, since it's implied that Loki has some well-intentioned reason for doing so (an idea Thor decides to put his faith in, despite his bad memories of Loki's past evil).
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Loki does this twice in issue 1. First they pop up just after Thor's defeated Skyrmir and the Warriors Four are wondering where Loki is, and again after they fix the Bifrost and Thor tries to thank them.
• Stealth Mentor: Loki is taking on this role to Thor, prodding him into "tests" meant to prepare him for his battle with Those Who Sit Above In Shadow via their tricks and mischief.
• Stylistic Suck: The Roxxon Presents: Thor one-shot, created in-universe by Roxxon. The dialogue is bland and repetitive, the art looks traced, and there’s conspicuous propaganda and product-placement.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: After Storm aids him against Toranos, Thor offers to help her with the civil war on Arakko, the story arc concurrently running through X-Men Red (2022). Storm thanks him but declines, justifying this by explaining that the Arakkii code of honor would see him as an unwanted outsider interfering.
• Take That!: "Roxxon Presents: Thor" has a thinly veiled one at Tesla's Cybertruck in the Thor-Truck, a rectangular truck with no mirrors, no crumple zones, no door handles and no keys which requires an overly complicated passcode system to allow the truck to simply open its doors. It also runs nine miles per gallon.
• They Killed Kenny Again: The Asgardians are more than a tad bemused and nonplussed at how Skrymir has inexplicably come back from the dead a second time. When Thor is forced to slay him yet again, Sif half-jokes that he'll probably be back again in a few weeks.
• A True Story in My Universe: The Marvels Comic company — a satirical Author Avatar for the Real Life Marvel that's appeared a fair bit in comics — returns here, still publishing comics based off the superheroes, which are meant to biographies in-story. Dario Agger intends on buying them out in order to turn them into effectively a propaganda machine that he'll use to tell his version of the superheroes' stories.
• Unreliable Narrator: Issue #6 gets weird with this one, as much of it is a tale Loki tells Thor, meaning some of their mannerisms leaks into their depiction of their past self (such as using modern vernacular and slang). Thor even questions some of the tale at one point, and Loki admits — naturally — that it's not a 100% accurate retelling. Then Thor appears to actively be fighting against what he's doing in the story, as if he were actually there.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gaea unleashes Toranos on the world for reasons unknown, but claims that she has no other choice but to do so and clearly isn't happy about it. Toranos himself seems to think he's doing Earth a favor by attacking it and disrupting the status quo it's fallen into. Averted with the Utgard-Loki who appears genuinely malevolent, at least towards Thor.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Part of Enchantress's attack on Thor in issue #9 is how, despite claiming the title of All-Father, he's not been there when Asgardians needed him, such as Heimdall, or her own children.
  Enchantress: Stabbed in the back, by a mere mortal, and where was Thor? Oh, busy, busy. My children were kind afterward. Ashamed of me, but kind. Dear Alvi, and dear, dear Iric. Iric was murdered soon after — by a fellow student at that Bor-damned magic school. Where was Thor?
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Thor reflects with sadness at one point on how strange and disheartening it feels for him that his mortal friends age and die around him while he always stays the same.
• Wild Card: Good old Loki. Now in the position of Skald of all the Realms, their allegiance isn't necessarily to Asgard, Thor, or even themselves, but to the story.
• World-Healing Wave: Thor uses the All-Power to summon "the calm before the storm" and repair most of the physical damage from Toranos' attack. Unfortunately, he can't heal the people who were hurt or killed.
• Working-Class Hero: Thor isn't strictly this — being a king now and a god besides — but the story definitely evokes this image and archetype, emphasizing Thor as a champion of the downtrodden who spends as much time helping out the little man as he does going on cosmic adventures.

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