COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Thor 349 Modern
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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0346246018
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Owner:
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Thorseface
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 349: “Debts of Honor!”
Publication date: November 10, 1984
Signed with remarque by Walt Simonson on 8/25/2021.
Census: As of 6/20/23, 20 copies in 9.8 (no change), of which only 1 is currently signed. There is 1 9.9. No Canadian 9.8 representation yet.
Writer, penciler, inker: Simonson
Letterer: Workman
Colorist: Scheele
Favorite line and some thoughts:
"Young they were and reckless, for had they not recently slain the father of all frost giants, the terrible Ymir? Had they not made the world of his body and the sky of his skull and the clouds of his brains? Were they not the sons of Bor, the grandsons of Buri, the first of all immortal Gods?"
-Odin, at the outset of his account of his first encounter with Surtur.
This issue is among my favorites in the run. Walt's Odin, like Kirby's, cuts a massive, imposing figure, but he always struck me as more mysterious, more given to introspection and less to anger. That said there is a hilarious moment in this issue when Odin spies Thor in love with "ANOTHER MORTAL WOMAN?" but quickly recollects himself upon recognizing Lorelei. The All-Father decides to leave off in the interests of his son's privacy.
Odin is really only around for the first third of Walt's run, but his appearances are all meaningful. In this issue we learn aspects of his history never before revealed: how shortly after the creation of the world, with his brothers Vili and Ve, he ventured into Muspelheim and confronted Surtur. Vili and Ve are shadowy figures in Norse mythology. With Odin, they seem originally to have formed something like a holy trinity, but Odin eventually supplanted them in prominence. Why this was so is uncertain. Walt seems to have addressed this through the brothers' ability to combine into one colossal warrior to do battle with the enormous Surtur. Afterward, as the brothers flee Muspelheim, Vili and Ve give their lives so that Odin can escape with the Eternal Flame, at which moment all of their power enters Odin. This, then, is a satisfying explanation both for the general absence of Vili and Ve from the mythological record and the origin of the "Odin Power" in Marvel's Thor. Odin tells his tale right before Surtur pierces the veil of Midgard, further upping the ante of the epic battle about to unfold in New York and Asgard.
It was an obvious choice to ask Walt for an Odin remarque, and I couldn't be happier with this little gem. How Walt was able to create these diminutive portraits with only a few strokes of a marker is beyond me. The cover to this issue is one of the best in the run. Odin's spear, Gungnir, serves to divide the composition into past and present.
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