Thor Bows Before No One in Thor #2

In which Thor performs some knee surgery on Galactus, courtesy of Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino. Things get worse in Asgard. Galactus levels up.

Vishal Gullapalli: Thor is the Herald of Galactus! The Black Winter is coming! In just one issue Donny Cates has breathed new life into an already-alive series, and it’s really keeping me on my toes for the entire ride. There’s a lot of really fun stuff to dig into here, I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth on both of the issues so far.

Chris Eddleman: I for one was very excited to read more about Super Saiyan Thor going on a Journey to ~~the West~~ Space. I kid of course. The space adventures of Thor haven’t been explored a whole lot recently, with the exception of things like Thor fighting Shi’ar gods. This seems more cosmic somehow though, which feels like a nice fresh take.

No One’s Servant

VG: So the DC Universe exists somewhere in the Marvel Universe! Or it existed, considering we just saw the entire world disintegrate horrifically. The Black Winter is serious business! It’s a really cool choice to have this show the clear threat that the Black Winter serves right before Thor has his very first moral quandary as the Herald of Galactus.

CE: I absolutely love when we get Marvel and DC representing each other’s universes. There’s currently a Marvel Universe analogue in the 52 Earths scheme of DC, and at least two Justice Leagues in Marvel (RIP this one). It is practically tradition for all Heralds of Galactus to try to convince him that wholesale munching of entire established planets is verboten, or at least heavily frowned upon. However, unlike the early Silver Surfer, Thor establishes a pretty character specific quirk—if Galactus doesn’t listen to him when lives are at stake, Thor just starts creating Mjolnir-shaped holes in the ancient Hungry Man entity.

VG: It’s really awesome to watch Thor fight Galactus – there’s a shot where Klein draws Mjolnir flying through the air (and through Galactus’s knee) where the aura of the hammer looks so much like the Silver Surfer’s board. This fight is incredibly grand and Epic, yet so brutal that it’s almost no question that the small beings watching this immediately became scared of their world being destroyed – you’d definitely think that was happening, too.

CE: It’s honestly kind of gross how visceral this fight is. You see some gnarly chunks o’ Galactus flying around. To me, it evokes how powerless and scarred Galactus is from his encounter with the Black Winter just how (Allison forgive me, this is gonna get gross) much he seems to burst open like a gross rotting melon everytime Mjolnir hits him. It’s not even like he seems to be able to stop it. But it also establishes Thor as his own man. He is King of Asgard regardless of whether or not his powers came from Galactus. [Ed. note: I LOVED THE KNEECAPPING, IT’S FINE.]

VG: There’s an awesome scene where Galactus screams at Thor and tries to remind him who he serves, and Thor responds “Aye. Asgard.” If there was any scene that made it clear how different Thor was from the rest of the heralds, it’s this one. Cates has an awesome voice for the God of Thunder.

CE: So the one thing that bugged me about the opening was that it’s revealed that that Black Winter devours EVERY universe, which makes it seem not unlike the threat of the Incursions. I was hoping this would be a 616 specific problem. It does, however, mean that multiple Galactuses (Galacti?) have likely been consumed by it. [Ed. note: If it’s like “octopus”, I do believe we’re looking at “Galactuses” as the plural. Wheeze.]

We also seem to find out that it’s sentient, which was something we were both wondering last issue.

VG: The Black Winter being sentient is a good beat – it makes it seem more menacing than the Incursions, despite offering essentially the same threat. This isn’t just a natural occurrence that the heroes have to stave off, it’s an entity that is aware of what it is doing and does it anyway. This is Galactus’s Galactus.

CE: A meta-Galactus. Delightful.

Asgard Without Thor

VG: One of the hallmarks of great Thor writers is their ability to write Volstagg well. While I think Aaron didn’t do a terrible job, I did get tired of the whole War Thor deal. [Ed. note: Noooooo, I loved War Thor.] This is a fantastic return to form for the god who taught his children to say “Death to Nazis!” Volstagg struggling to take care of Asgard while Thor is away on his journey is a delight, and I really do love how Cates writes him.

CE: I like that he has mentioned ale in both issues of this comic so far, and he is quartermastering with the best of them. It’s fun to see Sif, Thori, Balder, and Volstagg as the “back at the ranch” crew. I was interested to see how much Asgard was going to be separated from the adventures of Thor and Galactus but I suppose he is always a rainbow bridge away. Thor, being Thor, uses said bridge to Noah’s Ark an entire planet’s worth of folks to Asgard, before Galactus can do the Big Gulp. Which means the people of the planet go from trying to murder Thor to begrudingly accepting his help. I kind of wanted to see Thor’s walkie-talkie ravens parlaying with these furry aliens but, I suppose that would have halted the pace a bit too much.

VG: I agree it would have slowed it down a bit too much, but when Thor later said to Galactus that he promised these aliens would have a home to return to, it hit me a bit weird, because we didn’t really get to see that promise. He just explains it to Volstagg. That being said, I’m really worried about the World Tree – Volstagg was about to say something that sounded important but Thor, in his Heraldy haste, ended up not hearing. Alas!

CE: It does seem like the poor Asgard crew is covering for Thor as best they can as he galivants (not happily) around the universe. They’re being very good friends here but I’m sure Thor’s lack of attentiveness is going to bite him later. Just last issue we had him being slightly bored of his sedentary kingship, so a part of me thinks he loves going on this mission with a great enemy. It’s a very good ballad.

VG: I’m really enjoying how much Thor is trying to do something he’s just naturally not designed for, and how he uses the first excuse he can to get away from it. Granted, it’s a really good excuse, but still.

Desperate Galactus

CE: So Thor definitely indirectly breaks a promise towards the end of our issue, as Galactus doesn’t just eat all of the life energy of a planet as he tends to normally do. He decides to get all the way to the center of this tootsie pop, devouring every last morsel of the planet Clypse. This is one of the five planets that apparently gives Galactus the super power-up needed to fight the Black Winter, and I guess he can’t just sample them. Poor Thor is just messing up this king thing. But as we saw last issue, Galactus seems pretty ready to grasp on to any bit of power he can snag here. As we mentioned up top, he is super weak and frankly pretty scared.

VG: In the manner of countless other media, making the new villain terrify or easily destroy the old “strongest enemy ever” is a surefire way to make an immediately pressing threat. It works really well here – something that can scare Galactus and leave him like this is definitely pressing, and there’s a real sense of urgency to the whole thing, and I guess it means Galactus has to get to absolutely devour this planet.

CE: Klein and Wilson absolutely nail the scene of Clypse getting ripped to absolute pieces and Galactus getting a subsequent red glowing armor. This art team is really selling this book for me. I like Galactus as the measuring stick. It’s perfect and lets Cates get to work in all the space stuff he seems to play around in best. Galactus, post power-up, seems ready to commit a little light treachery, as he gets ready to take out his frustrations on our boy Thor.

VG: Oh this is quickly going to go sour for Thor – Galactus’s vision of his impending demise is just as much a pressing concern as the Black Winter. I can’t wait to see the fully loaded Galactus at the moment, though – this is some Metroid Prime upgrading going on and I am HERE for it. Give him all the armor and weapons! He’s going to need them to face this new enemy, who is the best character in the whole Thor franchise. I love me some Bill.

CE: If I have to have one picky gripe about Jason Aaron’s Thor, it’s that there frankly was not enough Beta Ray Bill for my taste. But when you send Thor on a long-term space adventure, you’re going to see everyone’s favorite Horsehead Alien. It comes with admission, basically. This is a really fun last page as Bill arrives with a giant space battleship.

VG: His new helmet rules, as does this entire design! His top reminds me of Nova at the moment, though, those three circles got me real excited. It’s obviously not what’s happening, but now I can’t get the idea of Nova Beta Ray Bill out of my head. Please help.

CE: There is unfortunately no cure, Vishal.

VG: This book is really darn good. Cates and Klein are really coming out swinging here, with some really strong Thor comics and some awesome cosmic storytelling. I can’t get over how much fun I’m having, I didn’t expect it to feel this fresh.

CE: To have one tiny gripe with it, Cates has started two issues thus far with several pages of weighty narration. Now granted, these pages have been completely beautiful, and even nicely written, but it makes it just slightly more decompressed than I would prefer. However, that’s only the tiniest gripe because they both did things I love—introduce the Ten Realms, and then annihilate a Justice League analogue as a time-tested tradition. I think this book is still feeling new and fun, with some good pathos and adventure to keep me reading. Kudos to this great team on another engaging installment.

Marvelous Musings

I cannot get other how Dragonball Z this Thor run is. Galactus has a “this isn’t even my final form.”
Planet Clypse. Apo…Clypse?
No Gods, No Masters. No Thors, No Cosmic Eaters

Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.

Vishal Gullapalli is a comics enthusiast studying computer science to enable his media consumption. He’s currently reading through the entirety of DC’s New 52 (for some reason) and logging his experience.