The Mighty Thor Appreciation

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

This issue was full of great moments.

[JKtheMac]

My favourite panel is the one where Jane is standing framed by the ominous lightning-eyed War Thor with the blood soaked hammer. That is just perfect.

[Digifiend]

Come to think of it, it's a good thing Jane asked Roz to take over as senator... she's just lost her other job.

[JKtheMac]

Come to think of it, it's a good thing Jane asked Roz to take over as senator... she's just lost her other job.

Yes. Good point. About time she changed her clothes.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

This time tomorrow I'll be reading Mighty Thor #700.

http://www.cbr.com/the-mighty-thor-700/

[JKtheMac]

Very intrigued by how they use Mangog. I have been looking back on his old appearances to get a better handle on him. Indeed I had never read his last appearance before, in the pages of Thunderstrike. But Mangog's reappearance in Mighty Thor does seem to follow from that.

The main question with Mangog is exactly how his power works. It has developed and transformed over the decades.

Firstly, back in the Lee/Kirby story, it was directly linked to the spell Odin cast to hold Mangog's race. Indeed the clear implication was that he was the manifestation of that spell. A living prison. Mangog disappeared once Odin released them. So his "power of a Billion Billion beings", was very literal.

In the Conway story four years later, it is revealed that Mangog did not dissipate, but was sent to a rocky prison by Odin, and Loki releases him. There is a commentary on Odin's haste to judgement, as he sends Loki to the same place with little thought.

Mangog is empowered by vengeance and hatred, the emotions of his race. Those emotions seem current, now that his race has been released. Mangog goes out of his way to explain that "though they do now live, they still hate..." and that they "crave Odin's doom!"

Thor cuts his connection to his race and fights him, while being very dismissive of Mangog, and to his surprise each time he hits him Mangog gets smaller. There is perhaps also an implication that calling him out and belittling him with words is partly responsible for his shrinkage. With Thor asking "Mayhap none may destroy thee but thyself." But also implying Mangog is consuming the power he has within him because the link is severed, and cannot replenish it.

In Len Wein's story. Mangog is disguised as Odin, Igron the Invincible found his tiny form in the palace dungeons. He empowers Mangog by tapping the power of the Asgardian's themselves. It is implicit that this is not a permanent solution to Mangog's empowering. He is still motivated by hatred.

His downfall is revealing himself and thereby again loosing the connection to his power. The worship of Odin by his subjects no longer flowing into him.

Jurgens has Thanos using Mangog as an aide. Now he seems to state he does "Carry the power of an entire race" but it isn't explained how this connection has been renewed. He seems to change his story, suggesting that Odin annihilated his race. He says they "craved revenge and death" and compares that craving to Thanos' own cravings.

Thanos seems to have him on a leash, calling him off at opportune moments when he is about to defeat Thor. Mangog acts in a secondary capacity, to Thanos. He is defeated in a practical and physical way, without reference to his power, and is left prone and possibly dead as Thor moves onto more important matters.

Following a cameo in Oeming's Ragnarok story Mangog's last main appearance is in Thunderstrike, where he has been summoned from "beyond this mortal realm" suggesting he did indeed die previously. He now calls himself "The hatred who walks. the living vengeance who must be satiated." He declares that he "hates gods". He still declares himself the "living hatred of a billion billion beings" and tellingly declares that power can never be truly destroyed. Living "as long as hate endures". He is eventually banished into what looks like a far away fiery star or planet.

In the current Mighty Thor run we find him emerging from fire on a "nameless world somewhere in the darkest corners of the cosmos." he is now referred to as "the ultimate judgement of all the gods."

So the questions that beg answers are how his race died, because they were not originally killed by Odin, but Mangog seems convinced that he did at some point. How his power is now manifested. He seems now to be a physical manifestation of hatred in general, and hatred towards gods in particular. Ultimately he was a force unleashed by Odin, for a supposedly just purpose given Mangog's race were seeking to destroy Asgard, but that force has mutated into something much more powerful.

When Aaron suggested Mangog would come back, I imagined he would use him as a mirror of worship. A billion billion followers empowering him against the power of belief, but now having read back, I wonder if Aaron will address the shift from being connected to a living race and a supposedly annihilated race. Is he a manifestation of Odin's hubris?

[theoneandonly]

What will his motivations be apart from pulping Asgard and asgardians remains to be seen. perhaps Arron will reveal he is the father storm given form composed of billion billion air elementals whom Odin imprisoned inside mangog.

[JKtheMac]

What will his motivations be apart from pulping Asgard and asgardians remains to be seen. perhaps Arron will reveal he is the father storm given form composed of billion billion air elementals whom Odin imprisoned inside mangog.

Well satire aside, I am sure his motivation will remain the same. Although I have my doubts we will have a return of his overall goal of weilding the Odinsword as the method to achieve it. Especially as that was an inconsistency in the previous apperences, some comics asserting just unsheathing it will bring doom while other showing Mangog weilding it.

But the reason for choosing this particular character is worth considering as we read the upcoming arc. Aaron tends to choose his characters carefully to allow us to reflect upon his main themes.

[Digifiend]

MIGHTY THOR #703

JASON AARON (W), RUSSELL DAUTERMAN (A/C) Avengers Variant Cover by ROB LIEFELD

THE DEATH OF THE MIGHTY THOR Part 4

* The Mangog has come to Asgardia. But as every god assembles to meet him, there is one noticeable absence.

* Where is Thor? Where is Jane Foster?

* Without their mightiest hero, who among the Asgardians can face the wrath of a billion murdered beings--and survive?

32 pages, $3.99.

[Witchfan]

MIGHTY THOR #703

JASON AARON (W), RUSSELL DAUTERMAN (A/C) Avengers Variant Cover by ROB LIEFELD

THE DEATH OF THE MIGHTY THOR Part 4

* The Mangog has come to Asgardia. But as every god assembles to meet him, there is one noticeable absence.

* Where is Thor? Where is Jane Foster?

* Without their mightiest hero, who among the Asgardians can face the wrath of a billion murdered beings--and survive?

32 pages, $3.99.

An Avenger dies in Avengers #678. Will it be Jane Thor? Is that why she is missing from this issue?

[JKtheMac]

An Avenger dies in Avengers #678. Will it be Jane Thor? Is that why she is missing from this issue?

I really don't think the crux of this storyline will be executed in the pages of an Avengers story. I would expect this whole story to happen either before or after that one.

[Skedatz]

Even though it was the War Thor who did it: That Thormehameha. lol

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

There are some scans from this issue that I want to post, but I'll hold out for about another ten hours till others have had a chance to read the issue.

[JKtheMac]

Without spoilers it was a shame there was so little Dauterman art (12 pages). The double page splash of what is to come is gorgeous. I had assumed the reason he has taken unsolicited breaks was to work on this issue. Turns out probably not.

Writing a synopsis may be taxing!