Marvel’s ‘Immortal Thor’ Is Giving Us Some Norse Mythology Deep Cuts

Issue #1 of Immortal Thor hit comic book shops a couple of weeks ago, and the series already promises to be a sprawling, epic adventure. In issue #1, Thor scares off a group of arrogant frost giants, led by a sorcerer named Skrymir who’s taken on the title “Utgard-Loki.” Thor makes short work of the giants, but soon faces an even greater threat: the real denizens of Utgard.

Veteran writer Al Ewing is at the helm of Immortal Thor, and as with his previous work—see, for instance, the mind-bending Defenders: Beyond—his love of magic and mythology is shining through. As a Norse mythology nerd, I grinned the moment that Skrymir announced his new name.

In the Norse Eddas, Skyrmir, a.k.a. Utgard-Loki, is a Jotunn who lives in Utgard (“the Outlands”). Thor, Loki, and two of Thor’s servants pay Skrymir a visit, and get caught up in a series of comical mishaps. They take shelter in a massive hall, which turns out to be Skrymir’s discarded glove. Skrymir challenges them to a series of competitions, which turn out to be rigged: he tells Thor to lift a cat, which is actually the world serpent Jormungandr, and Loki loses an eating contest to a being who turns out to be wildfire. The original story is funny, but also quietly awesome in scope, since Skrymir apparently has some of the most fundamental forces of nature under his command.

Immortal Thor #1 skips the comedy and goes straight for the awe. When a being from Utgard shows up to challenge Thor, we immediately understand the gravity of the situation. Ewing’s Utgard isn’t just the Outlands—it’s “the shadow-lands, home to those who sit above even the Gods. And if the Gods were as mortals to them? What, then, of mortals?”

A fully genderfluid Loki

Ewing also wrote Loki: Agent of Asgard, which, like Defenders: Beyond, fully embraced Loki’s identity as genderfluid.

Loki’s latest iteration in Immortal Thor (not to be confused with the Loki who’s currently cleaning up their own fingernail-filled mess in Loki) is fully, expansively genderfluid. Their appearance is androgynous (at least, at the moment). Thor uses they/them pronouns without blinking. The more queer Loki gets, the more I fall in love with them.

Of course, something seems to be troubling Loki by the end of the first issue. What do they know that Thor doesn’t? I can’t wait to find out in issue #2.

(featured image: Marvel Comics)