Al Ewing and Martin Coccolo have not wasted anytime with making their mark on the Thor franchise. Right out of the gate they’ve had our favorite God of Thunder and All-Father of Asgard taking on Toranos, the Elder God known also known as Utgard-Thor. The power of the Elder God proved to be too much for Thor to take on alone. Because of that in the most recent issues of Immortal Thor we saw the God of Thunder and All-Father of Asgard assemble his own Thor Corps super team.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON IN IMMORTAL THOR
Ewing and Coccolo Immortal Thor picked up directly from where Donny Cates and Torunn Grønbekk left the franchise off. Thor was still dealing with the weight of the Black Winter prophecy that has yet to fully be resolved. While that weighed heavily on him Thor has made attempts to repair previously broken relationships due to his lone wolf attitude he took after the Black Winter prophecy.
One of the most important relationships Thor had repaired was that with his brother Loki. Thor and Loki reunited in more friendly terms led to Loki repairing the Bifrost, aka Rainbow Bridge, after it was broken by a Gamma-powered Thor during the Banner of War event.
With the Bifrost repaired Thor decided to spend some time going on superhero adventures. This adventuring was quickly put to an end when Toranos, the Utgard-Thor, showed up to fight Thor. The battle was intense with Thor forced to send Toranos into the Yawning Void to buy time to figure out a way to defeat the Elder God.
THOR CORPS ASSEMBLED
In looking for a way to defeat Toranos, Thor was tested by his brother Loki. In the process of passing the test Thor came to realize he needed to assemble his own super team who could handle the power of the God of Thunder. To that end Thor, after some convincing, recruited Storm, Beta Ray Bill, Loki, and Jane Foster to form the new Thor Corps.
While the Thor Corps was a powerful team that met Toranos after he broke out of the Yawning Void without fear there was a drawback. That was a time limit of one minute for Thor, Storm, Beta Ray Bill, Loki, and Jane Foster to share all the powers of the God of Thunder at the same time that Mjolnir provided them.
To maximize that time Thor came up with a plan to throw Mjolnir between himself and the other Gods of Thunder to make Toranos focus on claiming the hammer for himself. With that Toranos took Mjolnir to become the sole God of Thunder.
That played right into Thor’s plan as Toranos was filled with what it means to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir’s full power. As Thor states, Toranos was filled with all of the “compassion, restraint, nobility, hard-won wisdom” that comes with the responsibility of fully accessing the power of Mjolnir. This responsibility was too much for the evil Toranos to handle and gave Thor his hammer back, disappearing right afterwards.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THOR
Defeating an Elder God is something that the Thor Corps can be proud in accomplishing in their first mission as a super team. Though the time for celebration was quickly extinguished as Toranos warned that the Elder Gods’ Utgard-Loki and Gaea would be coming to destroy Thor. If that wasn’t enough Immortal Thor #5 ended with Executioner and Enchantress forming a alliance with CEO of Roxxon Energy and new Marvel Comics owner Dario Agger, aka Minotaur.
All this taking place its no surprise that Thor would be shaken by both finding out the other Elder Gods are coming after him and the unknown of Enchantress and Minotaur’s alliance. What makes the latter’s alliance even more dangerous is the fact Minotaur owns Marvel Comics, something that was revealed at the end of Immortal Thor #4. This is a major wild card as Minotaur mentioned by owning Marvel Comics he will be able to create the true story of the Marvel Universe.
Adding intrigue to this development is if we will see Minotaur be the new owner of Marvel Comics is something that Utgard-Loki has a hand in. In their appearance at the end of Immortal Thor #1, Utgard-Loki used the words “Skald” and storyteller that Minotaur would use when he made his “Make Mine Marvel” statement a few issues later. This may just be a coincidence but given how early on into Ewing and Coccolo’s run we are in having Utgard-Loki play some role in Enchantress and Minotaur’s alliance would tie everything much closer together.
Given how their predecessors have made Thor have epic, big event storytelling the latest Elder Gods saga is something Ewing and Coccolo will make even bigger. The foundation is there in the aftermath of the battle against Toranos, the Utgard-Thor. Now we’ll see what other epic things Ewing and Coccolo have planned for their Immortal Thor run.