The Norse gods as a family? With the kids going to school? Hel as a teacher? Loki playing with dolls? An undersized thunder god? A girly girl Sif going Action Girl a lot? The pantheon version of the Olympics? A blind Chess Master? The villain hardly ever being what it seems? Now why the hell would we want to see that? I mean, it's not like those sexy fanservice Valkyries can make us change our mind, right guys? Guys? Where'd everybody go?
In other words, a fairly amusing web comic with a fun and sometimes dramatic plot. There will be in-jokes for those familiar with mythology.
The comic itself has been on hiatus since November 21, 2011. However on August 20, 2013 it was confirmed via Facebook that Hod's subcomic would be resuming in September, 2013, (though it hasn't updated since 2014) while also confirming that the main comic is still considered to be on hold due to other projects, but that it's not been canceled outright.
Can be found here.
This webcomic contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Frigg spends roughly half her appearances wasted.
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: The mythological story of Odin sacrificing one of his eyes for greater wisdom takes on a new twist when the discarded eye takes on a life and sentience of its own and swears vengeance on Odin for discarding and abandoning him, thus setting off an arc of tales in which Odineye is the protagonist.
- Beware the Nice Ones: It's actually probably a good thing that Tyr is an Actual Pacifist. He's downright scary whenever someone actually manages to piss him off enough to goad him into a fight.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Xerenia may not be particularly bright, has an over inflated opinion of herself and her abilities, and has a lot of bad things happen to her, but she can be a very capable fighter in a pinch. And she took down Pookah.
- Big Bad: Multiple during flash forwards, but mostly Odineye, who is also Affably Evil.
- Big Eater: Thor. Heimdal. Thor. And Thor.
- Blessed with Suck: Balder. Invulnerable, but able to feel pain, and used, among others, as a hammer by his brothers.
- Frigg can see the future and knows everything that is ever going to happen. And she has to live with the realization that what bad things might happen, she can't do anything about it. No wonder she spends so much of the comic drunk.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Thor's got a lot of this going on.
- Brown Note: Invoked by Balder when he suggests that Hod disorient a monster with his poetry.
- Butt-Monkey: Balder.
- And whenever Xerenia appears, you can pretty much bet that something painful or humiliating will happen to her at some point.
- Odineye spends a lot of his appearances being pummeled or flattened.
- Call-Back: Quite a few, as the strip has a fairly strong arc plot.
- Also, the kids' search for a "Backup Dad" directly parallels Odineye's search for a monster to send to destroy Odin's family. Right down to many of the same applicants appearing at both (and in the same order).
- Crossover Cosmology: Showcased during the Pantheon Games, the mythological equivalent of the Olympics with the various pantheons competing against each other.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Here.
- Faceless Eye: Odineye doesn't have a lid, but for some reason it does have a brow.
And somehow he can drool... - Fan Disservice: Hel ends up pulling her pants down to cure Balder of his Raging Stiffie. Turns out she's half corpse.
- Fanservice: The Valkyries more or less exist for this purpose.
- Frigg gets her share of moments as well.
- Oh, and the Love Goddesses during the Pantheon Games.
- Foregone Conclusion: In the "Twilight of the Hod", Thor engages Jormungandr when the giant snake emerges from the ocean. Whoever is knowledgeable about Norse Myth knows that battle can only end one way.
- Fountain of Youth: Loki used to be Odin's age but was adopted after overdosing on rejuvenating apples.
- Funny Background Event: Frequent. Such as one of the Valkyries peeking inside the trousers of a slain warrior to check out what he's got under the hood, then shouting that he's "worthy" of Valhalla.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Expertly parodied in this strip.
- Götterdämmerung: It's Norse Mythology, so of course Ragnarok gets a nod. In fact it gets invoked by Hod while under control of Pookah in the future story "Twilight of the Hod". It gets averted when Pookah is destroyed by Xerenia in the past... Er... Present.
- Though Loki's discovery of a book of Black Magic in Hod's library has disturbing implications as to the future.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Before Thor gets Mjölnir, he tends to break every weapon he uses. At one point, having so disarmed himself, he suddenly realizes that his brother Balder is invulnerable... So he uses him as a weapon.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Frig. And Vodun Loa Erzulie. Being a goddess of wisdom is apparently likely to involve booze.
- Human Doorstop: Balder, in oh so many ways.
- Imagine the Audience Naked: When Hod gets stage fright, his powers of darkness and cold go awry. Odineye has everybody present strip to the underwear, until he's reminded that Hod is blind.
- Innocent Innuendo: In his introductory strip, Loki sounds like he's masturbating when his "strokes" are actually brushing his doll's hair.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Poor Balder.
- Jerkass: Zeus. Then again, he's quite a Jerkass God in his own cosmology as well, so it's only fitting.
- Lower Half Reveal: The young Norse gods are sent to school where the Goddess Hel is their homeroom teacher. She outwardly takes the form of a sympathetic and approachable girl at most in her early twenties. But she is also the Goddess of Death and, as she reminds her students, has a Meaningful Name. When some of the boys in her class develop the inevitable crush and begin to behave inappropriately, she employs Shock Therapy to get them out of it and shows them exactly why she never wears anything other than fully covering jeans on her lower body. note
- The Man Behind the Man: In the future set "Twilight of the Hod" storyline it's revealed that Pookah has been manipulating Hod ever since events at the Eastern martial arts school he attended. Xerenia of all people is ultimately the one to defeat him after being returned to the present / past.
- My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: This strip.
- Mythology Gag: Literally. A substantial part of the humor is built around poking fun at elements of Norse (and occasionally Greek and Celtic, when those pantheons appear) Mythology. For example the arc of Tyr working for Fenrir as a roadie, only to discover that Fenrir eats his roadies at the end of the tour is funny by itself. But when you remember that Fenrir is destined to devour Tyr during Ragnarok, it's even better.
- Nature Adores a Virgin: Part of the reason for Balder's strong showing in the beauty contest.
- Orphaned Punchline: ...Then the teacher made him eat all the chalk.
- Raging Stiffie: Happens to Balder after seeing several goddesses of beauty in "swimwear" (i.e. completely nude).
- Also leads to an awkward moment in the middle of Odin and Zeus's brawl.
- Thor has to deal with one after switching bodies with his adult self.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Or, play with dolls... For a given value of man.
- The Rock Star: Fenrir. He eats his roadies.
- Running Gag: All over the place:
- "Curse you, foul blindness!"
- Actually, Hod and the Valkyries in general.
- Loki taking giant form against an enemy and being promptly incapacitated.
- Whenever Xerenia and Arazel appear you just know that something painful and/or humiliating is going to happen to Xerenia at some point.
- Thor flipping out whenever someone calls him "little."
- For some reason people keep taking parenting advice from Loki's book on the subject.
- Balder getting eaten whenever a monster shows up.
- Hod wondering about the sound of stretching fabric when one of the guys sees a pretty girl.
- Characters escaping a situation by replacing themselves with a wooden body double...and no one noticing.
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Schedule Slip: The comic went on hiatus as of November 21, 2011. However recently it was confirmed the book is still considered to just be "on hold" and not cancelled, and Hod's subcomic, under the name The Hod-Podge, will be resuming in September, 2013. However even that hasn't updated since April, 2014. - Shout-Out: Quite a few. Not only to various other mythologies (Greek and Celtic deities play significant roles in many plots) but to pop culture as well. In fact a substantial amount of the humor is a combination of this, Running Gags, and Shown Their Work.
- Shown Their Work: The comic stays amazingly close to mythology, and when it does differ from the source material it’s usually due to Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny.
- Super-Strong Child: Thor.
- Unishment: Loki is constantly being sent to his room. Which is where he keeps his dollhouse.
