notes on: THOR: God of Thunder, "THE GOD BUTCHER" and "GODBOMB"
MEDIUM: Comic Book
Genre: Superhero
Issues: #1-#11
Favorite Issues: “THE LAST GOD IN ASGARD” “DREAM OF A GODLESS AGE” “GODBOMB PART THREE: THUNDER IN THE BLOOD” “GODBOMB PART FOUR: TO THE LAST GOD” “GODBOMB PART FIVE: THE LAST PRAYER”
Least Favorite Issues: N/A
Creators: Jason Aaron (writer), Esad Ribic (artist), Dean White (colorist), Ive Svorcina (colorist)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Year: 2012-2013
“Human beings in a mob. What's a mob to a king? What's a king to a God? What's a God to a non-believer? Who don't believe in anything?”
- Jay Z & Kanye West ft. Frank Ocean, “No Church In The Wild”, Watch The Throne (2011)
Before Taika Wakiki and Marvel Studios’ 2022 film, Thor: Love and Thunder, there was the 11-issue comic book arc that introduced Gorr, “THE GOD BUTCHER” and “GODBOMB.” Thor: Love and Thunder is primarily inspired by these stories but it also pulls inspiration from Jason Aaron’s run on The Mighty Thor.
“THE GOD BUTCHER” story arc marks the beginning of the Thor: God of Thunder series. The series follows three iterations of Thor at different times of his life. The first version of Thor is young, at least comparatively. He is filled with vice. He’s impulsive, he’s brash, he’s arrogant. Angry. He’s unworthy. Young Thor drifts from world to world, seeking war and sex. He cannot use Mjolnir yet, so his weapon of choice is a battle axe, named Jarnbjorn.
The second version of Thor is the one we are most familiar with, Avenger Thor. Avenger Thor lives in modern times. He has a sense of duty and responsibility. He’s seen war and is no longer excited by it. Mjolnir has been at his disposal for many years and he’s eager to change the universe, not yet jaded by its ugly nature.
The final version of Thor is Old King Thor. Old King Thor is the ruler of Asgard and the All-Father, a position he’s held longer than Odin ever did. He is completely jaded by his reality, defeated and cast aside. A king to no one, he lost his people and is a prisoner of his throne rather than a master of it. Old King Thor is frank and wise and much like his father, in ways that he does not like. He lost an arm and he’s lost an eye. Time has not been kind to him.
However, the entire crux of the story rests on the shoulders of Gorr The God Butcher. Gorr was a suffering everyman from an unnamed planet, that is until he was infected by “the all-black necrosword” and pledged to kill all gods. Gorr is calculated and ruthless and vindictive and even animalistic at times. He was a good man that was left behind by the inaction of his gods and became something different altogether. Gorr thinks it is the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak and that’s a message worth rallying around. Great power, great responsibility. When he gains power himself, he decides to use it to enact revenge on the strong rather than help the weak. There is a religious saying: walk by faith, not by sight. Gorr is a nonbeliever of the gods by sight, not by faith. Gorr saw the eye, the actions, the intentions, and the consequences of the will of the gods and he decided that he was apt to judge it.
“THE GOD BUTCHER” and “GODBOMB” asks a few questions about apathy, fear, corruption, divinity, excess, hunger, faith, and ignorance. How does time change a man versus a god? How can you kill a god? What does it say when you can kill a god? How does one ascend to godhood? Can you destroy your oppressors without becoming them? Can a god be a victim? What is a world without gods? What do we do in the face of fear? How far can a man go when he’s lost his faith? When does a god fear a nonbeliever?
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ISSUE #1: “A WORLD WITHOUT GODS”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
893 AD, EARTH, THE WESTERN COAST OF IRELAND
Young Thor and his cabal of Viking worshippers and believers celebrate. He led a mob of men in an assault against a frost giant. They wield the frost giant’s head on a stick. This is the fourth day of their celebration. Young Thor has enjoyed his share of women and alcohol. He remarks “I love my life.”
The festivities are interrupted when they hear a bloodcurdling scream. Someone found a beheaded Native American warrior/god. Panic ensues as Young Thor recognizes the horror in the strange god’s eyes. They all wonder, “what in all the nine worlds… can butcher a god?” Young Thor calms the crowd and an old woman begins to pray.
“To which gods do you pray, old woman?” Young Thor asks.
“All of them,” she replies.
PRESENT DAY, DEEP SPACE, THE PLANET INDIGAR
A little alien girl prays to Thor. It has not rained on her planet, Indigar, for years. Everything has died and soon they will too. Their civilization is on its last legs. “Save us,” she prays.
Avenger Thor answers her prayers. He hears her and arrives on Indigar and brings rain with him, saving their entire people. Just as he’s about to leave, they convince him to stay for ale made from cave slime. As he regales them with tales from his adventures, he finds out the startling reality of how their planet had gotten in such bad shape: Indigar has no gods. Avenger Thor is angered by this and sets out to find them and return them to their responsibilities.
He finds the Indigar pantheon’s temple but it’s empty. He roams the deserted temple until he happens upon a room with its doors chained shut. Avenger Thor breaks the chains and enters the room to find a tomb filled with butchered gods; Hoggscarr the Harsh, Krawskin the Cruel, Lady Vyle the Goddess of Atrocities, Lord All-Blud the Inexorable and his thirteen sons by thirteen brides. They’ve been dead for hundreds of years. Avenger Thor reflects on who could be powerful enough to have killed them all as he’s attacked by one of Gorr’s guard dogs. He quickly deduces that his attacker was planted there to protect the decaying, long dead corpses but wasn’t smart enough to be their killer. No skill, only fury. He knows this could only be the work of Gorr The God Butcher.
MANY MILLENNIA FROM NOW, THE GREAT HALL OF ASGARD
Old King Thor sits on his throne. He hates the silence, recalling memories of the lively nights that used to inhabit the Great Hall of Asgard. But now he’s all alone, as the last living god in Asgard. He hopes to see Valhalla (he hopes to die). He fights off an endless horde of guard dogs all by himself. He’s cursed to be the King of a Broken Asgard. He vaguely remembers his life as Young Thor and Avenger Thor but those are only compatriots and they’re only in his mind. He wars alone.
The primary function of Issue #1 was to introduce the starting point of our titular hero, Thor. All 3 versions of him are in completely different spaces in their respective lives but they’re all engaging with Gorr’s legacy in one way or another. Young Thor begins as a hero of earth, a god to his people but lost to himself. He lives on vice, not fulfillment. Avenger Thor begins as a hero to many worlds and he wears his title as a god as more of a responsibility than a nobility. He’s a god living from mission to mission and because of Gorr, he’s found a big one. The final man he’s destined to become, Old King Thor, begins a prisoner. More of a ceaseless gladiator than a king, he awaits a death that will never come.
ISSUE #2: “BLOOD IN THE CLOUDS”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
Young Thor wants Mjolnir by his side as he embarks on his journey to find the God Butcher, but he is unworthy. He warns of the threat he’d become with Mjolnir by his side, but he settles for jarnbjorn. He guides his viking followers through the Baltic sea in an effort to find Gorr. He thinks he’s hunting Gorr when Gorr is truly hunting him. Three days pass and eventually they dock on the banks of the Neva River.
Perun’s pegasus appears from the sky, bloody. Perun is a recently slain god. Young Thor mounts the pegasus and chases what he believes to be Gorr but it’s simply another of his victims, Chernobog The Black. Chernobog is a slavic god and he’s headless.
Gorr beheads Perun’s pegasus as Young Thor rides it and they begin to fall from the sky. Gorr appears and begins his attack. Gorr says gods often die like frightened children. As they battle in the clouds, falling all the while, Young Thor recalls an Asgardian god named Dagr. Dagr killed hundreds and while Thor’s father, Odin, killed thousands and was sung in greatness… Dagr killed for fun. There was a difference between war and murder. Losing yourself to bloodlust turns you into a monster. Thor visited Dagr after his capture, in the pits of Asgard. In his youth, he fell in. He recalls Dagr’s frighteningly severe eyes. Thor said Dagr’s eyes made you feel dead and his voice was delicate but still filled with passion and conviction. Thor still did not feel or understand Dagr’s motives but that suddenly felt like more of his failing than Dagr’s. When Dagr was executed beneath Odin's blade, he did not beg for mercy. Not once. They called him crazy but he wasn’t crazy at all and Thor knew that was much more horrifying. Young Thor remembers prayers to never see eyes like Dagr’s again, prayers that went unheard because he sees them in Gorr, right now, as they battle.
Gorr gets the upper hand in the fight and just before Young Thor resigns himself to defeat, he calls a giant bolt of lightning and strikes them both from the sky.
THE PRESENT DAY, DEEP SPACE, A WORLD OF DEAD GODS
Avenger Thor finally defeats Gorr’s guard dog after hours of fighting but realizes he has a lot more work to do. He rushes off and states that more gods will suffer the longer he takes, as we see a panel of Old King Thor battling a horde of Gorr’s guard dogs followed by a panel of Young Thor crumpled in the snow.
Issue #2 introduces Gorr The God Butcher as a legitimate threat to not just all gods, but to the Mighty Thor throughout every stage of his life. We see that Thor has both a history and future with the character. Much of the character of Gorr is explained through Young Thor’s anecdote about Dagr. Like Dagr, Gorr does mad things but with calculated precision. Gorr knows exactly what he is doing and he isn't driven to bloodlust by insanity but instead by his vivid and cogent rationale. He does not know fear because he is fear.
ISSUE #3: “THE HALL OF THE LOST”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
Avenger Thor travels to Omnipotence City for answers about the fallen gods and about Gorr The God Butcher. Omnipotence City was built 12 billion years ago by the Lords of Dawn and is a place of divine fellowship, the nexus of all the gods. The librarian leads Avenger Thor to the Hall of The Lost, a section of the archives dedicated to chronicling Gods who simply disappeared. Avenger Thor is startled at the size of the section. The gods in charge of Omnipotence City have simply ignored their disappearance.
It does not take much time for Avenger Thor to come to the conclusion that every name in the deep halls of the lost are victims of Gorr. Avenger Thor investigates each last known locale of each god and finds Gorr’s guard dogs at each place.
The Oaken King and Sequoia Queen of Glenglavenglade, dead 2000 years
The War Faeries of Wendigorge, the Guardians of the Hornworld, dead 1200 years
The Coral immortals of Cataract, the Walkers of the Outer Void, the Last of the Lava Colossi
Voord Bloodeye, the Badoon God of Beheadings, Zorr’Kiri the Skrull Goddess of Love, Yug-Sluggoth the Unseeable, Baron of The Elder Hell
ALL DEAD 500 YEARS OR LONGER
Fallgar The Behemoth, dead for 5 years
Everywhere Avenger Thor goes, there is no god butcher, only the remnants of his handiwork. Avenger Thor pledges to destroy Gorr and end his conflict early, this pledge is not upheld.
893 AD, ALONG THE BANKS OF THE NEVA RIVER
Young Thor awakes from his sleep after 7 days. He asks his believers if he killed the God Butcher. He did not. Young Thor immediately goes out to look for him. He finds the dying body of the Siberian God of The Hunt, Hinkon. He warns Young Thor of Gorr’s power, Young Thor does not heed his warning.
PRESENT DAY, LAKE LAGODA, RUSSIA
Iron Man helps Avenger Thor find a cave he remembers from his past. He tells Iron Man he has to handle this problem alone, that it’s god business. He sends Tony off to warn the gods of Earth.
Avenger Thor explains how god memory works. The lifetime of an immortal is exponentially longer than that of a human and their memory is less reliable over time as a result. He only remembers in fragments, never the full picture. But he remembers this cave. This is where the God Butcher taught him fear.
At the same time, over 1000 years ago, Young Thor found Gorr in the cave. He challenges him but Gorr promises to save him for last for hurting him. He will not kill him now.
We know this to be true because over a millenia later, Old King Thor is fighting off the endless masses of Gorr’s power.
Avenger Thor finds someone in the same cave, hiding. It’s not Gorr. The mystery being says he’s hiding from Gorr in the last place he’d care to look and that he’s doing everything he’s doing because of Thor. Thor will be the last god.
Issue #3 serves as the introduction of apathy as a theme of the narrative, especially from those with the responsibility to protect. Thousands of gods have been missing for hundreds or thousands of years and none of the gods in charge of their safekeeping have moved to investigate at all. The consequences of their inaction could lead to the downfall of them all.
Another interesting development is the idea that Gorr is personally invested in defeating Thor. He has a personal vendetta against him, he does not only want to succeed. He must see Thor fail. Thor has to be part of his failure. This wrinkle adds a lot of texture to their dynamic and makes Gorr a more interesting character and villain overall.
ISSUE #4: “THE LAST GOD IN ASGARD”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
ASGARD, THOUSANDS OF YEARS FROM NOW
Old King Thor is defeated by the guard dogs. He celebrates finally dying and going to Hel. But they do not kill him, they place him back on his throne. He remains saved for last.
“Come back here and kill me!”
EARTH, NOW
Shadrak tells Avenger Thor that he’s met Gorr and lived. He says he is the god of wine and waterfalls. Shadrak talks about Chronux but Avenger Thor does not know what that is. Avenger Thor takes them to Omnipotence City to learn about Chronux. Gorr’s guard dogs are at the library when he arrives. The librarian is incapacitated.
893 AD, THE CAVE OF THE GOD BUTCHER
Young Thor is suspended in the air, being tortured by Gorr. Gorr wants information about the gods of Earth. Young Thor refuses to say anything. Torture continues.
Meanwhile, in the future, Avenger Thor battles the guard dogs. The librarian tells Avenger Thor that Chronux is a hidden world of time gods, not a god.
Meanwhile, even further in the future, Old King Thor crawls from his throne and calls Mjolnir to his side; set on dying in battle. Gorr’s guard dogs are helplessly thrown aside as they fail to be worthy of its might.
“for asgard.”
Avenger Thor retrieves the needed information about Chronux just as it burns in his hands. Shadrak tells the librarian that he’s the god of songs and somersaults, a different answer than he provided Avenger Thor in the cave. Thor flies off to Chronux, the Palace of Infinity, alone “to claim the head of Gorr.”
The berserker guard dogs slaughter the gods of Chronux and fill a pool with their blood. The time gods use small amounts of their blood to travel time. Gorr has used all of their blood because he needs to execute a big mission.
The last remaining time god calls his people, “peaceable beings” who take care of time and do nothing more. Gorr says there are two kinds of gods: gods who do harm and gods who do nothing at all.
“I have yet to decide which I find more worthy of my wrath.”
Either way, Gorr predicts all gods will be dead regardless of their intentions or actions.
Old King Thor is impaled by a guard dog and pleads for Gorr to finish the job. But just as he prays for death, a flash of light comes and Avenger Thor arrives in the future, looking for Gorr. The timelines have converged.
Thematically, apathy and fear are once again at the forefront of the ideas Jason Aaron is engaging with. However, this time Gorr states plainly that his main issue with gods in general is that there is no much pain and suffering in the world and they move to do nothing at all. Their inaction does just as much harm as their evil.
ISSUE #5: “DREAM OF A GODLESS AGE”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
Gorr uses the pool of time god blood to travel 19 billion years into the past and kill the first god in the void of existence. He claims the heart of the first god and then tells the time gods he needs a moon or two, centuries of time, and slaves. A lot of slaves.
Avenger Thor arrives on the scene and hits Gorr with a lightning bolt.
893 AD, CAVE OF THE GOD BUTCHER
Gorr has tortured Young Thor for 17 days, double the time it took for him to break the torture God. Young Thor has relinquished nothing. As Gorr continues his torture, Thor’s viking believers find them in the cave. They fight Gorr for him. Gorr does not wish to fight them.
The next few pages contain two mirrored battles of Thor vs Gorr at two different times, 893 AD and the present. The textures of these fights are very different and they’re both told through interspersed panels. The spoken text all comes from present day Gorr, looking back at the battle from the cave.
Gorr says the vikings' zeal or wicked glee to sacrifice their lives for him taught him two things: mortals’ fear of a godless world would always outweigh their fear of death and he could no longer do his job alone.
Gorr defeats Avenger Thor as Young Thor escapes bondage and punctures Gorr while he taunts the vikings. Gorr explains to Avenger Thor that he’s saving him for last because he showed him what he truly had to do to achieve his goal.
Gorr kills the final time god after he programs the time pool for the future. Avenger Thor breaks free and follows Gorr into the pool and emerges in Asgard… thousands of years of years later. We have now arrived at the final panel of Issue #4.
Avenger Thor mistakes his older self for Odin, his father.
The vikings celebrate their victory over Gorr and exclaim that songs will be sung about their triumph. Young Thor tells them not to speak of this day for as long as they shall live.
Avenger Thor and Old King Thor drive back the hordes of Gorr’s endless army. Avenger Thor is looking for Gorr but Old King Thor reveals to him that he’s arrived 900 years after him.The siege has ended but Gorr is still the victor. Gorr, who has been in the future for 900 years, says the time to kill Thor has finally arrived.
With two of the timelines officially converged, it finally feels like the story is in full swing. Gorr further lays out his motivations. We know that he thinks the world will be better without gods and he has enough conviction to continue to move in that direction regardless of the resistance he gets from man. He thinks their attachment to the gods is rooted in fear and that fear is given back to them as apathy and inaction. It’s a nonsensical conundrum. But what will man do when you’re forced to make the decisions that mold your life and foster life and care for life on your own? Are we human enough to live without gods? Gorr thinks so.
ISSUE #6: “WHAT THE GODS HAVE WROUGHT”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Butch Guice, Colors by Tom Palmer
3000 YEARS AGO, A PLANET WITH NO NAME
This issue recounts the origin of Gorr and his development into a nonbeliever by faith. Gorr is on a dying planet with his mother. His mother tells him to always honor the gods just before dying, fighting for her life, as Gorr fled from danger. Many years later, when he’s an adult, Gorr and his pregnant wife, Arra, live in a cave. They eat worms and are near death by the hands of starvation. She says to honor the gods just before the cave collapses and she falls to her death as Gorr looks on. Months later, Gorr carries his son in the blistering sun with the rest of his tribe. His son dies of dehydration in his arms. He buries his son in the ground. The others tell him he cannot do so and he must hang him for the gods to see. They say he’ll be damned to die like a worm. Gorr says they’re already damned. He speaks out publicly against the gods and his tribe stones him nearly to death. They leave him to die from his wounds in the heat.
As Gorr crawls to certain death, dying gods entrenched in battle crash onto the planet. One is covered in golden armor, the other in black armor. The golden clad one faintly says, “help me.” Gorr angrily screams at the god, incredulous that he’d ask for help. Black matter hitches on him in his anger and he uses it to kill both of them.
“I wonder if there are more.”
Many millennia into the future, a starved and skinny, Volstagg the Voluminous is being beaten by Gorr, who fails to see the irony. Volstagg tells Gorr that he cannot kill all of the gods because he has become one.
“When was the last time you hungered?”
Gorr angrily crucifies Volstagg on a cross for his comment. He tells his son, who watched the entire encounter, that the time for the gods is coming to an end very soon.
Issue #6 chronicles Gorr’s growth from boy to man to God Butcher to god. Gorr isn't hip to the final development of his life cycle yet. But as Volstagg stated, he no longer hungers. He can create life. He does not need sleep. He is powerful enough to kill a god, any god. He is worshiped. He does not age. He does not bow to anyone. He is a god. In the Marvel Universe, being a god is often more of a circumstance than mandation. Gorr had the opportunity to take his power and be the god who takes action and helps mankind, but he chose hate instead.
The art in this issue is different because it was done by Butch Guice rather than Esad Ribic and that’s a little disorienting but it does give Gorr’s origin story its own flavor.
ISSUE #7: “GODBOMB PART ONE: WHERE DO GODS GO TO DIE”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
ICELAND, 893 AD
Young Thor awakes in a tremor and looks to head out into the night to catch Gorr. He’s panicked, he had a nightmare. The woman that was resting by his side convinces him to stay inside and continue having sex. However, the berserker guard dogs have come to retrieve Young Thor from the past.
ASGARD, MANY MILLENNIA FROM NOW
Avenger Thor has a lot of questions. Old King Thor is only interested in answering one: “where is the god butcher?” Old King Thor discloses Thor is the all-father now and that he has been so longer than Odin ever was.
The 900-year siege of Asgard at the hands of the berserkers has ended. Old King Thor tells him to prepare for battle. Avenger Thor isn't the biggest fan of his older self and laments becoming his father. He comes upon a cellar of wine… “one drink wouldn’t hurt.”
ICELAND, 893 AD
Young Thor fights the berserker guard dogs. One of them breaks a crystal and summons him to the future, to face Gorr in his most mature form. All 3 Thors are now in the future.
Old King Thor explains to Avenger Thor that Gorr has enslaved most of Asgard’s gods and that he’s been spawning berserkers for 900 years. Everyone fell but him. Avenger Thor’s presence has revitalized him and given him hope as well as re-initiated his bond with the Thorforce. They embark on “THE LAST RIDE OF THE GODS OF THUNDER.”
Gorr throws Young Thor amongst his slaves and says that he wants to Young Thor to drive home the last nail of the weapon he has been creating for the past 900 years.
PRESENT DAY, OMNIPOTENCE CITY
The librarian is trying to patch things up following the attack on the archives. He’s worried. He presses Shadrak for answers, who switches his identity again. “Bubbles and Ballerinas.” “Pancakes and Tambourines.” “Kittens and Coconuts.” The librarian threatens him one final time and Shadrak divulges his true identity. Shadrak is the “god of bombs” and he designed a godbomb for Gorr that will kill all gods throughout all time.
Issue #7 is the start of the second story arc. All 3 versions of Thor have been moved into the future and this is where the majority of the remaining narrative will take place. Two of them are on the way and one of the Thors is already there. Gorr’s vendetta against Thor for defeating him is even further dramatized by him actively seeking out the version of Thor that beat him.
ISSUE #8: “GODBOMB PART TWO: GOD IN CHAINS”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
THE FAR FUTURE, THE BLACK OCEAN OF DEEP SPACE
Avenger Thor and Old King Thor travel the starways. Still a few billion lightyears away.
THE UNHOLY WORLD OF GORR, CITY OF GOD SLAVES, MOUNT OF THE GODBOMB
Young Thor gets whipped and decides to stop working. He curses Gorr and his guard dogs but 3 women come and beat him and tell him to relax himself because Gorr will sacrifice weaker gods if he doesn’t. Their names are Atli, Ellisiv, and Frigg. The Goddesses of Thunder. Young Thor’s future grandchildren.
Young Thor gets back to building the Godbomb at their request. Gorr’s son tells him that it’s a bomb and the world would be better off without gods. Young Thor promises that Gorr will die at his hands and that he is no longer a man at all.
On the seventh day, they can rest, Gorr’s idea of a joke. Playing off the biblical idea that God rested on the seventh day after he created the heavens and the earth. There are three more days until the bomb is finished and they all die. They want to take action but they need someone to take charge. Young Thor volunteers. They object, say he isn't really Thor. The goddesses of Thunder cannot summon a storm on Gorr’s planet and they say that the real Thor would be able to do so. And Young Thor cannot. They have assembled a a bomb constructed of stolen unstable matter. While they’re deliberating over who should go on the mission, Thor steals the mound of unstable matter and goes to destroy the godbomb.
“It’s suicide, a sacrifice.”
Young Thor sprints into a sea of berserkers and summons lightning. They all realize he really is Thor. As Young Thor runs along to his certain death, his only regret is that he was never able to pick up Mjolnir. He throws the bomb of unstable matter at the godbomb. There’s a massive explosion but it doesn’t destroy it.
Avenger Thor and Old King Thor hear the explosion, they’re close. Starsharks swim around the planet for the remains of dead enslaved gods. Young Thor boards their ship and slaps Avenger Thor with a starstark. They don’t attack him. They explain the situation. Young Thor eyes Mjolnir but he’s still unworthy. He arms himself with a battle hammer.
“The time for words has passed. Now we let the hammers talk.”
Issue #8 united the three Thors. Gorr’s enslavement style feels inspired by American chattel slavery. He uses his berserker guard dogs as overseers. He uses whips. He strips them of their power and nobility and forces them to work on his behalf. He lives with him slaves, in some capacity. The starsharks changing their hunting patterns to eat the dead bodies of castaway gods definitely mirrors the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade or the middle passage. When you’ve been enslaved as long as they have, it’s easy to forget who you are and fall into the role of what you have been forced to become. If you have the power to turn gods into slaves, what does this say about you? If the circumstances of being a god does not exist for them, what inaction are they being punished for?
ISSUE #9: “GODBOMB PART THREE: THUNDER IN BLOOD”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
Gorr watches his wife sleep. When she awakes, he tells her that the bomb is almost finished and after all of the gods are dead, he will finally be able to live.
He emerges from his conversation with his wife to battle all three of the thors. The God Butcher gets blasted from outer space back down to his planet by Old King Thor’s might.
Gorr throws the moon at them. Gorr begins to use his dark matter to sacrifice god slaves to give him more power. The godblood fuels him. He captures the two senior Thors in the mouth of a dark serpent of his own construction. Young Thor, who cannot fly, comes along riding a starshark which is pure comic book hysteria and I love it. Gorr hits Young Thor down to the other moon. Old King Thor uses his power to free Avenger Thor from the mouth of the dark serpent.
Avenger Thor fights Gorr but leaves to help a planet in turmoil from their rumblings. He quickly saves them for certain doom. Gorr says he can’t figure out Avenger Thor or put a finger on his motivations, especially in comparison to the two other versions of him on different ends of the timeline. Gorr says that Avenger Thor is his favorite. Calls him, “the god who doubts.”
All three Thors converge on Gorr and drive him into the sun. The sun turns black and we are given a beautiful page of poetry and art.
Somewhere in the cosmos,
starwhales beached
themselves on an asteroid
and died, hundreds of them,
for seemingly no reason
at all.
A dog was born with
the face of a child,
screaming in terror.
It did not live
For long.
A saintly woman died and
found no one waiting for
her on the other side.
No white light to guide
her, nothing.
The sacred waters
of the well of mimir
turned red and
bitter.
The world tree bled
bled at the
roots.
In Asgard, the statues
of kings began
weeping.
And on a backwoods world,
an alien boy looked up at
the morning sky…
And saw the sun
turn black.
It rains blood, godblood. Then it rains hammers and Thors. Gorr stands supreme and exclaims, “make ready the bomb!”
The fighting and art in Issue #9 is brilliant and the poetry on the last few pages is amazing as well. I feel as though the poetry eloquently explained the spiritual core of their plight very well. There is so much desolation and dread among the many worlds and no one is doing anything about it. The worst are filled with passion and the best are moved towards nothing at all. There is no comfort, no white light, and it's easy to fall into melancholia about the state of it all. Gorr has seen the sun. Not only has he seen it, he was driven into it and there was no heat or comfort there for him. And for that, everything has to burn. Everything must go black.
ISSUE #10: “GODBOMB PART FOUR: TO THE LAST GOD”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
Old King Thor is nailed to a comet, sailing through space. Avenger Thor has fallen into a fissure on Gorr’s planet. Young Thor is in the clutches of Gorr, being dragged along the ground by his long hair.
Gorr’s wife approaches him, worried about the fighting. Gorr re-assures her and says that it is finally time to arm the godbomb. Gorr’s wife rejoices and says that Gorr is her God.
*pause* “... what did you say?”
Gorr murders his wife when she begins to repeat herself. Gorr’s son comes to his side, excited to finally kill all of the gods. He asks where his mother is and Gorr lies and says that he does not know then walks away. Gorr’s son notices the remnants of her hand strewn to the side.
The Goddesses of Thunder are stuck in a web of Gorr’s black mass. Frigga reaches for Mjolnir. Ellisiv has given up. Atli wants to bite her tongue off and choke on it rather than letting Gorr kill her.
Gorr explains the godbomb to Young Thor. Designed by Shadrak. Runs on godblood. Will kill all gods throughout all time.
Miles below the surface, Gorr’s son approaches Avenger Thor. He abhors his father for killing his mother. He says his father used to be a good man but now he’s a god. Gorr’s son says he does not know how to pray but he prays that Thor kills his father and then helps him escape his predicament.
The Goddesses of Thunder are released from the black mass once Gorr activates the bomb. They try to grab Mjolnir but fail. The hammers are headed back to their masters.
Gorr needs a god heart to baptize the machine. He wants the heart of Young Thor but Young Thor bites Gorr’s eye out and Gorr throws him away from the godbomb in retaliation. Young Thor spits the eye out and retrieves his battle axe, jarnbjorn. Avenger Thor and Old King Thor arrive, Mjolnir in hand. Gorr kills a different god and baptizes the godbomb with their heart.
“Too late, Thors! Behold your doom!”
The bomb is triggered. Old king Thor tackles Gorr, tells Avenger Thor to hit it with his hammer. Thor, the god who doubts, wonders if Gorr is right as he repeatedly wallops the godbomb and prays it does not detonate.
At this point in the narrative, it appears as though Gorr is not really moved towards his cause out of care but out of spite. He goaded Avenger Thor for not being entirely certain that gods did more good than harm and even jeopardized his mission by dragging Young Thor to the center of his godbomb instead of going the easier route. To Gorr’s credit, he does not seem to have any doubt in his lack of faith towards the will of the gods but doubt is likely what keeps us human. Gorr has lost all flexibility and is absolute in his power, his resolve, his hubris, and his hate.
ISSUE #11: “GODBOMB PART FIVE, THE LAST PRAYER”
Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Esad Ribic
PRESENT DAY, OMNIPOTENCE CITY
The librarian tries to warn the gods but it’s too late. The explosion that knows neither time nor space has begun and it hurts.
THE WORLD OF THE GODBOMB
Gorr gloats to Old King Thor. “You’re dying,” he says. Avenger Thor refuses to lose and raises his hammer to the bomb.
“What… is he doing?” Gorr wonders, incredulously.
“Dying. Like a God.”
All the gods throughout all time pray to Thor as he absorbs the blast into twin Mjolnirs. The prayers are giving him power. Even Odin himself prays to his son.
“Be the God of the gods.”
The explosion stops. Gorr lost his weapon. Thor fucking took it and he looks fucking sick.
All-black necrosword, slicer of worlds, the annihilablade, meant to be wielded by a god.
Thor blasts the bejesus out of Gorr in the sickest fucking splash page of all time.
Gorr in his weakened and depowered state, manages a few more words. He says that godkind will eventually come to mean the end of mankind. His son confronts him about killing his mother. “It wasn’t a god who betrayed you, it was only ever yourself.” Gorr’s son dissolves and those are his last words. He was always just a product of Gorr’s black mass. Young Thor tires of Gorr and beheads him at last with jarnbjorn. Avenger Thor vomits then dies for the ninth time, poisoned by the annihilablade.
Three days later, he rose again. Old King Thor brings Avenger Thor back from the dead with the thorforce. He left the all-black necrosword where it was and destroyed Gorr’s planet. Asgard has become a safe haven for lost gods and they will eventually be farmed out to worlds in need of gods.
Old King Thor tells Young Thor that Odin will never accept him. Young Thor is miffed by that. They say their goodbyes and wonder if Gorr was right about them. Old King Thor sends them back to their rightful times. The memories of what they did together will fade due to the nature of time travel.
Avenger Thor returns to Indigarr, where they have water. He tells the little girl that summoned him with her prayers and set in motion his journey that “you need never pray again.”
Issue #11 wraps up the story in a beautiful bow, this issue has some of my favorite Esad Ribic panels of all time. Avenger Thor uses belief, hope, and prayer to will himself to victory… three weapons generally attributed to mankind, not godkind. He defeated the god butcher by being more mortal than him and in essence, by dying. He sacrificed himself just as Christ did in the bible and he rose three days later. He took the blast onto himself with no promise of return. Avenger Thor was able to become the God of gods by being selfless and walking with faith in a direction he was not entirely sure about. Man schemes, God plans.
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In Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 novel, Sirens of Titan, the character of Winston Niles Rumfoord came from the future with a message for the people of Earth from Revered C. Horner Redwine. Rumfoord surmised that God’s apathy is freedom. We are Earth wondering who’s gay or straight or drinking or fucking or speaking blessings onto God’s name and Rumfoord tells the people of Earth that God simply does not care. God is indifferent. And that’s the best thing that could have ever happened to us. At least according to Rumfoord. God is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. God can take care of themself, it is up to the people to take care of the people.
Winston Niles Rumfoord’s ethos correctly summed up the nub of Gorr’s beliefs, in my estimation. Gorr wants a focus on life and humanity living for themselves. The corruption of this ideal comes from his hate. By choosing to focus on killing gods rather than helping people, he became a god himself. A fate he both ran from and cluelessly sprinted into. He ascended to godhood by playing into his lowest self.
Perhaps the most popular character code in all of comic books is that of Spider-Man’s. With great power comes great responsibility. When bad things happen and you can do something about it and you choose to do nothing, those bad things are your fault! In a universe where gods have human motives, emotions, and sensibilities; it makes sense that they would also possess the human ability of empathy. But many of them do not. They watch the world go by and do nothing.
Lady Eboshi from Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 masterpiece, Princess Mononoke, said the way to kill a god is to have no fear of it. Gorr takes that to another level. He does not fear the gods and he puts the fear in them. This is a role reversal. Even in Islam, one of the primary virtues we have in place as being attractive to God is taqwa. Taqwa is the fear of God. Fear in a way that promotes consciousness, piety, cognizance, and remembrance. Gorr’s fear is more of self. He wants them to hate themselves. This is just another of many ways that Gorr became more of a god than the gods he sought to butcher.
Thor on the other hand, in all three iterations of the character, seemed to remember the primary lesson of Sirens of Titan, the lesson that Gorr forgot. Yes, we should focus on the people and the living and finding the space to provide for our responsibilities. But Vonnegut also prompted the idea that the point of life was to love whoever was around us to be loved. Thor never forgets this. Not in his youth when he’s drinking more than enough for 100 men and shagging enough women for 200 men. Not when he’s a hero; flying from planet to planet, trying to save those who have been forgotten, both mortals and immortals alike. Not when he’s a king, isolated and destined to die alone. Thor knows he has to love. Gorr let his quest for revenge obscure that truth from him. For all of its failings and triumphs, I think Thor: Love and Thunder did not forget this truth. Love is for whoever is around.
God is love.
4.5 APPLES OF 5 APPLES
published July 15, 2022
