Thor #34

[Cable]

The mystery within Bor's vault is finally revealed!

Spoiler: show

When Dr Doom defeated Hela she let out a last line: "How is your arm, Victor?" As he travels through time now, he wonders what she knew that he does not. Also unbeknownst to him, Thor has reunited with teenage Laussa and they have entered the time storm in pursuit of Doom. In the past we see the origin of a warrior named Varg who becomes a giant wolf. We then see Thanos who has encountered the infant girl and theorizes that sacrificing her will produce the Death Stone that he seeks. Doom now arrives though, soon followed by Thor and Laussa. Thor directs the girl to grab the infant and hide while he confronts Doom and Thanos. Doom recognizes who this child will become and he wants to use her, but Thanos attacks with his knife and wounds Doom on the hand. Thor then strikes the mad Titan with Mjolnir. Thanos curses "Odinson" and this is overheard by a surprised Bor. In the present, the cadaverous Brun is playing peek-a-boo with baby Laussa. Runa tells her they must go, Jane Foster needs their help. Speaking of the Valkyrie, Foster is currently encountering the spirits of Bor and Odin. Bor informs them how someone is attempting to recreate a ritual he once performed in his youth. He then relates to Odin that he once actually met Thor...We then return to the moment of the past, as Thor engages Thanos in combat. Thanos then tries to grab Doom who is holding the child but Doom chooses to instead fling her into the time storm for her to fulfill her fate. Within the time storm she ages many years and seems to gain knowledge from the lives of people from various times. Laussa then plucks her back out. They are attacked by the giant wolf but Laussa uses her sword to defend them. The sword then becomes imbued with the wolf's power. The magic however is causing reality to tear to pieces and monsters are emerging. The girls flee and reunite with Thor, as Odinson also now recognizes who the mystery child is. Bor tells Thor to go, but says the girl is not a child but merely a source of power. Thor says the child is a goddess and Bor will understand if he looks into the storm. Bor did so and now is relating what he saw to Odin and Foster. He saw his era, and the age of Odin, and the time of Thor. The dawn, the day, and now the night. Meanwhile (meanwhen?) Thor has taken Laussa and the mystery girl to Jotunheim. They are clearly in the past as they spy upon an encounter involving younger Thor fighting some frost giants. It is then that the present Thor turns to the mystery girl and calls her by her name, Hela, and tells her he wants her to meet her father: Loki!

As I've said previously, throughout this arc I have had little idea where it is going. It has gotten pretty crazy with Thanos and Doom thrown in along the way, not to mention the ridiculous time-warping shenanigans involved, but now the destination has been made clear: this is a goddess origin story! That is pretty awesome because while I think it has been assumed Loki is her father due to that being the case in actual Nordic mythology, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of her backstory has ever actually been told in the Marvel Comics. And this has been quite an epic tale befitting such a character. I can't wait to see how the relationship with Loki actually plays out.

[Monolith]

No, unfortunately, a pretty cool origin for Hela was already established in Gillen's Journey into Mystery series starring Kid Loki. If this meandering arc undoes that as it looks like its doing, I'll be upset.

There's no short answer, but as brief as I can:

- The pre-teen Kid Loki has debts involving Hela, and so she sent her handmaiden Leah to mind him. Leah was literally Hela's missing hand, an aspect of herself cast into a separate mind/personality as a pre-teen girl. She and Loki became besties, though they constantly tormented each other as well.

- During Fear Itself, a prophecy said Thor would die fighting the Serpent, his uncle Cul. Loki used a magic quill to rewrite Cul's history slightly, telling a story of how a young girl cared for Cul when he was injured as a child. The memory of this girl was enough to make the Serpent hesitate in battle in the present, meaning Thor's sacrifice would end the Serpent's threat as well. At a rush to rewrite reality, Loki based the girl on Leah.

- But this Leah didn't stop existing just because Loki stopped writing about her. Instead, she remained a mythological creature with no purpose or destiny, a void of meaning weighing on her existence. She lived thousands of years into the present to take revenge on her creator Loki for metaphysically abandoning her. Meanwhile, Hela was made whole and reabsorbed the original Leah into herself.

- In Everything Burns, Loki met Leah II in the present and made peace with her. However, circumstances conspired for the original Loki to return and possess the body of his reincarnation, Kid Loki, obliterating the boy's soul in the process. Kid Loki could not stop it and he could not tell anyone it was about to happen. He was allowed only three conversations before it happened as well. He wanted to protect Leah from OG Loki's return, and so he asked Hela to remove Leah II far from him before she was unwittingly in harm's way. From Leah's perspective, Loki had her banished without explanation, without speaking or even looking at her.

Afterwards, Hela let on that she was more informed than it seemed. She basically told Loki that Leah II was sent back in time to the ancient past of Asgard, and grew up to become Hela herself. So Hela was originally a magical construct created by Loki, inspired by Leah, who was herself a magical construct created by Hela.

[Gremlin]

Wow, that rivals the whole Longshot-Shatterstar father-son loop.

[Cable]

No, unfortunately, a pretty cool origin for Hela was already established in Gillen's Journey into Mystery series starring Kid Loki. If this meandering arc undoes that as it looks like its doing, I'll be upset.

There's no short answer, but as brief as I can:

- The pre-teen Kid Loki has debts involving Hela, and so she sent her handmaiden Leah to mind him. Leah was literally Hela's missing hand, an aspect of herself cast into a separate mind/personality as a pre-teen girl. She and Loki became besties, though they constantly tormented each other as well.

- During Fear Itself, a prophecy said Thor would die fighting the Serpent, his uncle Cul. Loki used a magic quill to rewrite Cul's history slightly, telling a story of how a young girl cared for Cul when he was injured as a child. The memory of this girl was enough to make the Serpent hesitate in battle in the present, meaning Thor's sacrifice would end the Serpent's threat as well. At a rush to rewrite reality, Loki based the girl on Leah.

- But this Leah didn't stop existing just because Loki stopped writing about her. Instead, she remained a mythological creature with no purpose or destiny, a void of meaning weighing on her existence. She lived thousands of years into the present to take revenge on her creator Loki for metaphysically abandoning her. Meanwhile, Hela was made whole and reabsorbed the original Leah into herself.

- In Everything Burns, Loki met Leah II in the present and made peace with her. However, circumstances conspired for the original Loki to return and possess the body of his reincarnation, Kid Loki, obliterating the boy's soul in the process. Kid Loki could not stop it and he could not tell anyone it was about to happen. He was allowed only three conversations before it happened as well. He wanted to protect Leah from OG Loki's return, and so he asked Hela to remove Leah II far from him before she was unwittingly in harm's way. From Leah's perspective, Loki had her banished without explanation, without speaking or even looking at her.

Afterwards, Hela let on that she was more informed than it seemed. She basically told Loki that Leah II was sent back in time to the ancient past of Asgard, and grew up to become Hela herself. So Hela was originally a magical construct created by Loki, inspired by Leah, who was herself a magical construct created by Hela.

Ah, I see. I did not read that story. I personally hate causal loops like that, but Gronbekk should certainly mention it.