Thor #501
Out of the Blue
Now
Yggdrasil, the World Ash, has banished all the gods of Asgard to Earth and Thor has now made it his mission to find his lost people.[1] During his time in the ruins of Asgard, Thor had his powers restored but the same could not be said about Odin, who has somehow been living on the streets as a drunken bum for years.[2] With this seemingly impossible task ahead of him, Thor has enlisted the aid of his friend on the NYPD, Officer Kim Gaunt who has been looking into at least one Asgardian that has previous ties to Earth — Red Norvell, the man who replaced him as the thunder god.[3]
As it turns out, since being banished from Asgard, Red Norvell has been getting himself into some problem drinking of his own, leading to some drunk and disorderly charges. More concerning is that Red is indebted to a small time mobster named John Nash, aka Johnny the Gent. As they discuss Norvell’s file, a man walking past the police station suddenly pulls out a gun and begins trying to shoot people in the street. Thor quickly subdues the man long enough for police to take him in and Kim notes that people have been snapping recently almost as though there is some kind of evil force affecting people’s minds.[4] With the situation under control, Thor heads off to go find Red Norvell. After he leaves, Officer Gaunt is told that there is a hostage situation at a nearby subway station that they have to get under control.
Thor heads to the trailer park where Red Norvell now lives, since Red absolutely hates him the thunder god prepares himself for a fight. However, when he arrives he finds Red’s trailer has a huge gaping hole in the side of it. As he tries to figure out what happened, someone comes up from behind and puts a hand down on Thor’s shoulder. When he whirls around to see who it is, he is shocked by who is standing behind him.
Yesterday
Red Norvell is having the worst day of his life: Some of Johnny the Gent’s men came to collect the debt that he is owed. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the money and suffers a beating from the two goons. When a car suddenly pulls up in front of Red’s trailor, the heavies fear that it might be the cops and make a run for it. However, it is actually Sabrina the woman he has been dating. She apologizes for the attack, revealing that she is actually married to Johnny the Gent and that after she heard his men were coming for him she came to warn him. That’s when Johnny and his men arrive. John Nash has found out about Red’s affair with his wife and has come to shoot up his home to teach him a lesson.
If this isn’t bad enough, suddenly a helicopter appears and begins landing on Red’s front lawn. Also fearing this might be the cops, John Nash and his men decide to high tail it out of there. However, this isn’t the cops either but a representative from the television studio that Red has been working for. They have found out that Red had stolen camera equipment which was later used to produce an adult film and they have come to seize the equipment he took and deliver an enjoinment that prevents him from every stepping foot at the station again. Red tries to explain that he was tricked into thinking he was making an intimate anniversary gift and didn’t know that the porn he inadvertedly created would be uploaded onto the internet. This explanation doesn’t do much to redeem him and when the representatives from the TV station are done, they leave his trailer a complete mess. Red is pretty down in the dumps over all of this and as he sulks at his kitchen table, Sabrian then tries to break up with him — the last thing he needs at that moment.
However, there is a sudden bolt of lightning that strikes the trailer and suddenly Red’s body bulks up. He is happy that he has somehow become Thor again. Seeing how Red has suddenly changed has also made Sabrina suddenly have a change of heart about their break-up. Norvell explains how he was chosen by Odin to replace Thor, but something happened and he was cast out of Asgard about a year ago. He found himself in the ocean without his powers and had to swim to shore. Recalling how he lost his hammer, Red then decides to try to summon it back via its enchantment that makes it return when thrown. When it doesn’t come immediately, Red assumes that it is lost forever, no realizing that it is taking time for it to return from the ocean floor. He’s making out with Sabrina when the hammer comes smashing through the wall of his trailer and strikes him so hard it knocks him outside, putting in the hole that Thor would see the following day.
Now
The man who has sneaked up on Thor is none other than Red Norvell himself. Thor quickly explains how Asgard is in ruins and its people are in exile all over the Earth. Their conversation is interrupted by Wad — the drunken old bum who is apparently Odin — who comes stumbling up the path drunk to the gills. Thor had left him in the care of Doctor Strange, but it turns out that Wad has been drawn to them. Thor insists that they need to work together to find and restore all the lost gods.
Tomorrow
In the ruins of Asgard, two Ice Giants named Pyllar and Mroht and scouring the battlefield for scrap and weapons to sell. That’s when one of them comes across the unconscious body of the Enchantress and asks if they can keep her.[5]
Recurring Characters
Thor, Enchantress, Kim Gaunt, Red Norvell, Pyllar, Mroht,
Continuity Notes
This was caused by the WorldEngine which tricked Yggdrasil to thinking Ragnarok had already came to pass. This was all part of a larger scheme by Seth, the Egyptian god of death to kill all life in the universe as explain in Thor #491-494 and Journey into Mystery #505. As later explained in Journey into Mystery #511, Odin took advantage of this to save his people, causing Yggdrasil to banish all the Asgardians to Earth in mortal guises with no memories of their past. Odin himself ended up sent backward in time and has spent years living on the street as a drunken bum as seen in Thor #497.
Because of the WorldEngine, Thor’s powers were eventually canceled out, totally failing him in Thor #495. His powers were restored by the enchanted sword known as the Raven’s Eye last issue.
Red Norvell was once manipulated into obtaining the powers of Thor as a sacrifice during an earlier Ragnarok crisis so that the real Thor could live and prevent the prophecy from fulfilling itself as seen in Thor #276-278. More recently, in Thor #472, Thor turned his back on Asgard in face of another Ragnarok threat. Odin then went to Valhalla and resurrected Norvell to be his chosen champion, as seen in Thor #478.
This “evil mind force” and the motivation for the shooter are not clearly explained. I assume that this is foreshadowing the Onslaught event since Onslaught is an evil mental force. Thor will be pulled into this crisis starting in Onslaught: X-Men #1.
The Enchantress got caught up in a powerful whirlwind whipped up by Thor during the Ice Giant’s attempted invasion of Asgard last issue and was knocked out in the process.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced with the Freedom Tower.
