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mygif

I don’t think Ragnarok comes up as often in Thor as it feels like; but it still seems like there’s a sign above Odin’s throne: “Days without Ragnarok: 3”

But for most writers, Odin (and Zeus too, if you’re a Herc fan) has like three roles plotwise: dead, asleep, or dick. Otherwise, he becomes the very definition of deus ex machina: even if the Absorbing Man gets the best of Thor, he can’t just have his dad help him without sucking all the drama out of the book.

Still, you’re never quite sure why Odin is being a dick. Is it tough love for Thor, to teach him a lesson? Or part of some big godly master plan? Or good old-fashioned dickery?

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mygif

I think my problem with Odin in the first issue was that there was no reason given for why he couldn’t just pull Thor aside and explain the situation to him, rather than beating the snot out of him and putting him in chains. I know it’s supposed to heighten the dramatic tension and all, but there was no justificaton for it.

I’m also tired of people being afraid of/hating superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Like we jsut had a year where folks got over that shit, do we really need to go back to it so soon?

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mygif

Speaking of Matt Fraction’s Iron Man, I’m kinda curious what MGK thought of his Mandarin story based loosely off of Kim Jong Il’s kidnapping of director Shin Sang-ok.

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mygif

I’m also tired of people being afraid of/hating superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Like we jsut had a year where folks got over that shit, do we really need to go back to it so soon?

Thankfully, the Fear Itself ministory tie-in comic brings back Miriam Sharpe – the answer to the question nobody wanted asked – to explain that the Shadowland crossover and the X-plague (which lasted, what, four issues?) mean that being afraid of superheroes is back, baby!

Speaking of Matt Fraction’s Iron Man, I’m kinda curious what MGK thought of his Mandarin story based loosely off of Kim Jong Il’s kidnapping of director Shin Sang-ok.

I thought it was a great comic that didn’t quite manage the trick of doing what needed to be done, which is explain why the Mandarin is Iron Man’s #1 villain. The Mandarin should be Iron Man’s archenemy, for a variety of reasons, but the comic didn’t give me a good feeling as for why that should be the case on its own.

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mygif

One of these days you’re going to have to write an article about the Mandarin then, because I was always under the impression he sort of became Tony’s nemesis by default and that he generally didn’t fit that well.

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mygif

So, and this is just me randomly guessing, but isn’t it possible that everybody is acting so weird and out of character (Odin, the protesters about ‘the issue’, Bob) not because of lazy event writing but because we’re supposed to understand that whatever Sin did not only unleashed Skadi but also upset some fundamental balance in the Marvel U and now fear itself (in the primal emotional sense) is running wild like Hulk Hogan after he shakes his head a whole bunch and points at a guy?

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Kid Kyoto said on April 8th, 2011 at 12:53 pm

Anyone have a running count of Ragnaroks? I remember Simonson had one in the 80s, Jennings in the 90s and then the whole Disassembled thing in the 00s. And I’m not even a big Thor fan.

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mygif

I believe Oeming’s Ragnorock (he wrote the Dissassembled one) said it was a cyclical thing.

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Eldarion said on April 8th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

I often feel like the Asgardians suffer from a problem very similar to one plaguing Doctor Strange: A lack of rules governing their cosmology. MGK’s point is a very good one–Norse mythology has a fixed endpoint. Anything prophesied in the past SHOULD have occurred by Ragnarok. That was the brilliance of having Ragnarok over and done with, as now the Asgardians aren’t limited by the mythology any longer (assuming you ignore the mythological accounts of post-Ragnarok Asgard). Is it possible Odin was actually aware of at least the potential for events outside of the Ragnarok cycle? It’s probably too much to hope for in an event comic, but I’d love to see a coherent explanation of Asgardian metaphysics.

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mygif

Thor: Disassembled pretty much hit ‘recurring Ragnarock cycle’ over the head with a big hammer. *cymbal crash* Essentially it established that there were some meta-gods formatted after the ol’ Greek fate weavers who were feeding on the recurring rebirth cycle of the Norse gods. As this was a Thor comic, their feeding got pre-empted by Hammertime.

I forget if Odin was implied to be aware, but in that comic, Thor was to have made himself more perceptive than Odin (hilariously).

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NCallahan said on April 8th, 2011 at 3:10 pm

An alt Thor? Okay, damnit, this has got to be a fourth damn evil alt Thor in the last ten years.

I mean, let’s see… Red Norvall got killed and resurrected by Set as evil. There was the Heroes Reborn universe were Thor was a rapist and then 616 Thor laid some hammertime. Then we had Thor-borg/Ragnarok/Hank’s-worse-idea-ever. And now this?

Unless this is going to climax is a battle between the Thor Corps and the Anti Thor Corps, one of my favorite characters is starting to sound a little too much like the Teen Titans.

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NCallahan said on April 8th, 2011 at 3:11 pm

I mean, they could bring back the Thor Corps. Dargo’s not around anymore, but I think he’s easily replaced by Thor Girl.

…I’m just saying.

…….that’d be awesome.

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Horatio Caine said on April 8th, 2011 at 3:39 pm

If there were a battle between the Thor and Anti-Thor Corps, then I guess whichever side got defeated would become…

(puts on sunglasses)

…a bunch of Thor Losers.

YYYYEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

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Fred Davis said on April 8th, 2011 at 5:54 pm

The trouble is that the title promises an asgardian Abraham Lincoln based conflict, probably culminating in an olde english rap battle between Thor and Lincoln that will shake the heavens themselves… and will not deliver on that promise at all, because it’ll just be loki with a fear demon on a stick or something.

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mygif

I disagree about Legion of Three Worlds. It didn’t re-establish the status quo, but created a new one. The current Legion does bare some similarities to the original one, but the writers choose and ignore what they feel like.

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fsherman said on April 11th, 2011 at 8:33 pm

“Still, you’re never quite sure why Odin is being a dick. Is it tough love for Thor, to teach him a lesson? Or part of some big godly master plan? Or good old-fashioned dickery?”

I’m reminded of Hercules’ comment in Incredible Herc to the effect that “Zeus tells me I’m his favorite son but all he ever seems to do is banish me.”

I think the first Ragnarok was Roy Thomas’s in the late seventies. Which was specifically set up to fulfill the prophecies without actually triggering Ragnarok, thereby negating them. Yeah, see how well that worked?

And now I remember the Egyptian Seth mocking Odin (“Every other pantheon thinks you’re a laughing stock! All your power, and all you do is stand around whining about destiny!”). Guess he had a point.

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Horatio Caine said on April 12th, 2011 at 8:53 am

I think the evidence will show that there already has been an olde English rap battle between Lincoln and the God of Thunder…

(puts on sunglasses)

…Thorscore and seven years ago.

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Scavenger said on April 14th, 2011 at 3:14 am

Thank you!

I’m glad someone else feels that anyone caring that the Asgardians go back to asgard is just dumb.

I mean, it’s not like they’ve been useful or helpful to this point…

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CommenCzar said on April 14th, 2011 at 5:34 am

Norse mythology had the Norns, their own trinity of fate-spinning women, pretty much identical to the Fates.

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mygif

if anything, there’s still howard the duck in this event. god do i miss that duck, albert camus in a duckman body

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