COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Thor 380 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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2106326023
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Owner:
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Thorseface
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Thor no. 380: “Mjolnir's Song”
Publication date: June 10, 1987
Signed by Walt Simonson with remarque on 8/25/21.
Census: As of 6/20/23, 4 copies in 9.8 (no change), 1 signed (no change). There is no Canadian variant listed.
Writer, penciler: Simonson
Inker: Sal Buscema
Letterer: Workman
Colorist: Stein
Favorite line(s) and some thoughts:
"I have read the pitiful fragments of mortal legends that survive telling of the battle between us at the end of time!....Truly, mortals are the most incorrigible fabulists!"
-Jormungand, who as gigantic mythical monsters goes is a rather literate one.
"...Heroes have an infinite capacity for stupidity!"
-Thor, hurling Mjolnir and himself at Jormungand in a heroic and seemingly suicidal effort to kill his greatest foe.
There are a great many epic moments in Simonson's Thor run, but none, not even the finale of the Surtur Saga, are as grand as this. It was important enough for Walt to take a break from X-Factor and return to pencil one last issue on his Thor run, though Sal did the inks. In one of the interviews I cited on the front page for this set, Walt remembers how kind it was for Sal to let him return for this purpose (I think Sal might have taken a pay cut as a result, which was a very kind thing for a senior, respected artist to do for a younger gun).
To be sure, the build to this issue was neither as complex nor as long as that for Thor no. 353, but the conclusion is earned through the suffering Thor has endured as a result of Hela's curse and his attendant transformation, through beard and armor, into something closer to the Thor "of legend." That his transformation is complete with this issue is signaled by the trade dress box, where Walt inserted the image of Thor's sacrifice from this very issue. And in this book we witness a battle truly on a Godlike, mythological scale, as the all splash-page format connotes. Walt was one of the first to employ this conceit in a superhero comic book (I believe). It is warranted by the scale of Jormungand--the serpent that encircles the world--and the apocalyptic, titanic confrontation between Thor and this greatest foe. The idea for an all-splash issue came to Walt in a "Eureka" moment...you can hear him describe that epiphany in the last episode of this excellent podcast: https://thelightningandthestorm.com/. Walt's comments about the final page, the only one in the issue to include multiple panels, are especially interesting. He clearly considered this issue the magnum opus of the run (or at least one of his best).
Walt's typical editorial voice is replaced in this book by that of a skald, or epic poet, and I'll confess that, as a kid who was only just learning about Norse mythology (largely through this book!) I assumed that the writer had copied "Mjolnir's Song" directly from some medieval source! The poetic narration is, in fact, Walt's wonderful creation, though one heavily indebted to Voluspa ("the Seeress' Prophecy") in the Poetic Edda. The poetic refrain "Would you know more" is borrowed more or less directly from that poem, in which a prophetess reveals to Odin how he and the Aesir will fall to their great enemies at Ragnarok.
The relevant stanza in Voluspa gives:
"Then comes Hloydn's glorious boy:
Odin's son advances to fight the serpent,
he strikes in wrath Midgard's protector,
all men must abandon their homesteads;
nine steps Fiorgyn's child takes,
exhausted, from the serpent which fears no shame."
After his epic, final collision with Jormungand, Walt's Thor, aflame, falls from the sky: "Nine steps the hero took, striding as a giant."
Though two issues remain in the run, Thor no. 380 represents the spiritual culmination of the journey Thor has been on since the disappearance of Odin, which is to say some 27 issues or over two years of continuity. We've watched our hero grapple with the reality that his father is gone and struggle to come to terms with what that means for his own life, a narrative eminently familiar to us mortals, especially those of us who have reached a certain age. But at the same time, one could argue that with this issue Walt completed his transformation of Marvel's Thor into the deity of Norse mythology, or at the very least brought him closer to those roots than anyone else had before him. This is expressed by Thor and Mjolnir's literal transfiguration before the final, earth-shattering collision with the serpent. Like Christ on Mount Tabor (yes, I went there), the divine essence of the God of Thunder is revealed in all its terrifying glory; the divine glow is so blinding that it hurts Jormungand's eyes. Simonson's Thorophany, if you will. I think I just invented a new word.
The trials are over. Thor's path is clear. Our hero is resigned to his prophesied fate but resolute, transcendent:
"All that I ever was, all that I might have been, has led me to this moment! And Thor the player is merely Thor the pawn! The curse of Hela has given me this chance...and whether my barrow is the highest hall of Asgard or an unmarked grace of earth, my father shall know that his son was true unto his fate. Thor will rid the world of this great evil, no matter the cost. This, father, I swear."
"Thus are legends born!" Indeed. I can remember exactly where I was when I first laid eyes on this book some 35 years ago. I read it to shreds, which is why I'm so amped to have Walt's signature on this copy along with a portrait in miniature of Thor. For me, this book is legendary. Every time I read it I notice something new or find myself newly inspired...that's the measure of an exemplary work of art and literature. Penguin, if you're listening, I'm ready to write the introduction for the Classics edition.
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