First of all, it shows a page of Iron Man and some dwarves in armor of his design along with the Fantastic Four fighting Laufey. but later, in a caption Thor senses that Laufey will soon be the last Frost Giant in Manhattan, so they presumably won't kill him, but his army will be pretty much defeated. The bigger part is that Malekith has set a trap for Thor. Turns out Odin and Freyja are NOT dead, but they are being held hostage by Malekith at Stonehenge. He has erected a magical forcefield that only Thor can cross, and he's goading Thor via some magic communication spell to come rescue them. Though of course he's got an army on the other side of that forcefield, which is probably too much for Thor alone to face, especially since he would also be facing Malekith himself, who is still wielding his new Venom sword, and has presumably set assorted magical traps. Ultimate Mjolnir, though shattered, calls out to Jane, and she picks it up against Heimdall's protests. She says, as she picks it up, that there must always be a Thor, and sometimes there must be more than one, and as she picks up the largest piece of the hammer, other fragments fly out. It is not quite clear if the fragments will simply re-form the hammer, or if they are flying out to find the worthy, but if more than one Thor is needed, then Loki could be one of them, based on the cover for his solo. It's not my preferred resolution, but... I'll take it, and a lot will sort of depend on how it's handled, as well. The last page was not terribly clear, it was more a hint of what is to come rather than a real explanation. I am not sure if it will be due to fragments from War Mjolnir, (as mentioned it may be that the hammer is simply re-forming) and the hammer Loki has on the cover is classic Mjolnir. So it may be that Mjolnir in the sun, where Thor is, is the one that flies out to find an additional worthy person, apparently Loki, of all people. Thor himself doesn't need to be carrying a hammer to pass the field, so it becomes in his best interest to share his power with someone else so that an additional 'Thor' can enter the force field, rather than claim it himself. So it may be that it are three Thors from the present, Thor himself, Jane with War Mjolnir, and Loki with classic Mjolnir, plus some time travel shenanigans bringing in King Thor and viking era Thor, based on the cover from next issue. |