Thor #283
Suddenly — The Celestials!
Heading south to investigate the enigmatic Celestials, Thor makes a stop in Mexico City where he prevents a bank robbery. When the crooks are brought to justice, Thor wonders why he bothered stopping, noting that of late he has been more focused on cosmic level threats than the typical street-crime handled by his fellow superheroes.
With an identity crisis brewing, the thunder god decides to stop his travel and makes an attempt to summon his father, Odin, even though he has been exiled from Asgard.[1] Surprisingly, Odin answers Thor’s summons and the thunder god demands answers to the questions that burn in his mind. These questions include the identity of his biological mother, or why he continues to have the mortal identity of Donald Blake long after he has learned humility.[2] Odin refuses to answer these questions. When Thor then asks why Odin staged a fake Ragnarok that cost lives. The All-Father will only explain that he did what needed to be done to protect Asgard and, probably, the Earth. Lastly, Thor demands to know what Odin knows about the Celestials and their 50 year judgement of Earth. This shocks Odin to silence and when he is about to speak on this, he decides against it and disappears.[3]
Frustrated by the lack of answers, Thor continues traveling south toward Peru where the Celestials are said to be observing the Earth to pass their judgement upon it. Along the way he passes a commercial airliner and, moments later, a massive dome erected around the ancient Incan temples that serve as the Celestials base of operations. Suddenly, Gammenon the Gatherer emerges from the dome and grabs the aircraft out of the sky. When Thor tries to come to the passengers rescue the massive Celestial seemingly atomizes the thunder god with a single blast of energy before turning around and entering the dome once more.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Odin, Gammenon the Gatherer, Ereshkigal (disguised)
Continuity Notes
When Odin caused a false Ragnarok that resulted in Balder being put in a death-like state and cost the life of two mortals, Thor was angered by his father’s manipulations and was banished to Earth. See Thor #273-278.
Thor’s biological mother is revealed to be the Earth Mother Gaea when she was operating under the identity of Jord, per Thor Annual #11. As explained in Thor #159, Odin banished Thor to Earth prior to the Modern Age in the mortal form of Don Blake to teach him humility. He later earned back his birthright in Journey into Mystery #83. What is not explained here is that Blake is a mystical construct created by Odin and although merged with Thor is a separate entity, see Thor (vol. 3) #1.
Thor also mentioned his encounter with the Eternals a centuries earlier that he was made to forget until recently. That happened in Thor Annual #7. What Odin is keeping a secret is that he and the various Godheads of Earth were forced to bow down to the Celestials to bide time and come up with a means to prevent them from judging against humanity. This will all be revealed in Thor #300.
Topical References
Thor states that his encounter with the Eternals happened a millennia ago. This should be taken as a general statement instead of a specific time. The flashback of Thor’s encounter with the Eternals in Thor Annual #7 is accepted as happening around 1000 AD. The length of time between then and this story will continue to grow longer due to the Sliding Timescale.
