Awesome / The Mighty Thor

He stood alone at Gjallerbru... and that answer is enough.

• Loki's very first appearance in the series ended with Thor tying him to Mjolnir and literally throwing him back to Asgard.
• In a very early issue, Loki erected an impenetrable barrier around Thor's hammer, preventing him from lifting it. The day was saved when Donald Blake tricked him into dropping his guard... with a plastic dummy◊ of Thor. Yes. Thor once outwitted the God of Lies with a plastic dummy and second-rate ventriloquism.
• Thor once defeated the Absorbing Man by turning him into air.
• From the 70s: the Absorbing Man is giving Thor a really tough fight since he touched Mjölnir. Thor turns and runs into a store with Absorbing Man following him and cornering him. Thor has had enough fighting so he hands his hammer over which Absorbing Man takes gleefully and then decks Thor, only for his hand to get painfully squashed and then knocked out by one punch. The store they're in? A toy store and Absorbing Man had unwittingly absorbed the powers of a cheap cardboard Mjölnir.
• Another time Absorbing Man touched Thor himself and copied his powers. Thor still curbstomped him with his superior skill.
• When Beta Ray Bill knocks Thor's alter ego Donald Blake unconscious. Looking for the powerful weapon Thor used he finds only a stick. Whacking it against a his ship in anger and exclaiming the curse "Thunder and lightning!" he is surprised to find himself holding a magic hammer that lets him easily defeat some SHIELD agents. (Iss. 337) This was Walter Simonson's first issue and it immediately changed the status quo established by Lee and Kirby with the shock that a seeming monster is actually a great hero, the first one not of Asgard to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir.
• Odin, facing down Mjölnir thrown by Beta Ray Thor so hard the air behind it is on fire, catches it in mid air. (Iss. 338)
• After Agnar attacks Balder, he has to sit through a 5 page lecture by Volstagg (with Volstagg sitting on him) on why Baldur won't fight him back. He is finally let up and left with some parting words from Volstagg: "Surely if some harm came now to Balder and you were responsible, why I might even find it in my heart, so much larger than that of ordinary men, to forgive you. Why, even Thor or Fandral the Dashing might forgive you because they were once young and daring themselves. But Hogun the Grim? Hogun was never young. He would never forget ... or forgive!" (Iss. 340)
  • Cue Hogun right behind Agnar, complete with a look of sheer, pants-wetting terror on Agnar's face.
• Balder, willing to die to protect his oath not to kill, is goaded by Malekith and forced to kill a battalion of demons to fulfill a mission that could save billions of lives. He then proceeds to force Malekith to teleport away and beheads Loki.
  • Who then manages to make the scene even more awesome by getting up once Balder leaves and finding his head with all the concern of someone missing a sock.
    Loki: "After all, the first thing a sorcerer of quality learns is to make himself as difficult to kill as possible."
• Surtur, the ruler of the fiery realm of Muspelheim, destroys a galaxy because he needs the heat to forge a sword.
  • The forging of Twilight is a CMOA of its own. For an entire year, Simonson had one page per issue of the forging, with each strike producing a massive "DOOM!".
• The final three-issue confrontation in Asgard where Thor, Odin and Loki fight Surtur to keep him from ending the world.
  Odin: But how better for a god to die, Surtur of Muspelheim, than facing fearful odds! And when better to die, than with a man's sons beside him? For Asgard!
  Thor: For Midgard!
  Loki: For myself!
• The Last Stand of Skurge the Executioner, holding the bridge at Gjallerbru in the underworld, dual-wielding M-16s against an onrushing horde of the dead. "He stood alone at Gjallerbru. And that answer is enough."
  • Two decades later in Thor: God-Size, they established that bringing Skurge back to life would destroy the entire Marvel multiverse in a story that was just as manly, just as epic, and just as much of a Tear Jerker.
  • Many forget exactly why Hela was so furious as to send countless hordes of undead at the heroes. It's not because Thor was leaving with cartloads of falsely-taken souls. It's because Skurge learned to his horror that at Ragnarok, he was prophesied to lead the evil dead as they attacked Asgard. He showed everyone what he thought of that by throwing his dimension-rending axe at Naglfar, the warship of the dead, blowing it into smithereens, delaying Ragnarok until it is rebuilt.
  • It's telling that this scene is the page image for the Awesome page of The Mighty Thor, despite it not actually being a moment for the title character himself! That's how legendary this story was!
• In the aftermath with Odin missing, some frost giants are spying and think it might be a good time to attack Asgard. Hela comes to claim Odin's spirit for Hel. After administering a vicious beating, Thor yells at her as she flees "Flee, Death! Flee and lick thy wounds, you who are not fit to utter my father's name! And know that Thor shall not be far behind!" The frost giants quickly reconsider their attack plans and opt for a long trip to the mountains.
• Thor, under a love spell, walks in to find Loki sleeping with the object of his affections. She has him bow down but teases him too much and his rage offers him a moment of sanity. He throws his hammer up into space and holds Loki by the throat over the balcony until he will release Thor from the spell: "Look you, Loki, to the sky! For there soars the hammer of Thor and by royal Odin's decree, it must return to my hand. Nothing may bar its way! Not even the head of Loki!"
  • As they're waiting for Mjolnir and over Loki's protests that Thor must be bluffing, Thor references the incident with Balder mentioned above and informs him that while he was able to put himself back together then, this time Thor will make sure he's in no condition to do so.
• Loki once turned Thor into a frog. The story was played seriously, and even had heartwarming moments as Thor defended the Central Park frogs against an army of rats. With Loki about to seize the throne of Asgard, Thor had to lift Mjölnir in frog form to be able to stop him. With the rats closing in on him and his back about to break, Thor succeeded in lifting the hammer. The next issue's cover and title say it all.
  Cover: What do you call a 6'6'' fighting-mad frog? (Answer inside.)
  Title: SIR!
• Thor leads an army of Asgardians into Hel to rescue mortal souls held there by Hela. He wrestles Hela for their souls and is winning when she smites him with the hand of glory, mangling his face and sapping the life from him. Hela tries to make him kiss her cape and he rips it from her, robbing her of her power. He forces her to abide by the bargain or he will rip the cape (which he barely has the strength left to do). He grows his beard to hide the scars. (Iss 361)
• Hela curses Thor with brittle bones that won't heal and an inability to die. He proceeds to break his arm, some ribs and a hand but creates a suit of Asgardian steel that will hold his body together. He wakes up in Loki's castle and saves him from frost giants. They break in just as the armor materializes around him and don't recognize him so he has to explain himself: "MY sire was ruler of the GODS rash thurse! Odin was my father and the thunder and lightning are my birthright! They speak my name in whispers in the nurseries of thine icy home!"
• The giants summon the world serpent (which encircles the entire Earth) who is destined to kill and be killed by Thor at the end of time. Some of the best dialog in a comic ensues in Thor #379 as the world serpent appears in another guise as Fin Fang Foom (complete with underwear!) to find Thor and fails to recognize him due to the armor.
• The time Thor hit a serpent the size of a small state so hard that it breaks every bone in both of their bodies. The explosion was so big the sound effect had seventeen Os.
• To save the world, Thor unleashes his full power against the world-serpent, knowing it will break every bone in his body, forcing him to live in torment until Hela lets him die.
  Thor: You are a mighty fighter, but in the end, you are only a selfish creature while heroes... heroes have an infinite capacity for stupidity! Thus are legends born!
• Also, did we mention that Jormungandr is the size of New Jersey? And Thor gets swallowed and gets free by flying out through his teeth?!
• In fact, that entire issue with Thor versus Jormungandr, aside from the dialogue, is written as and in the style of classical Old Norse skaldic poetry. It's also done entirely in splash pages. Yes, the entire issue is a Crowning Moment for Simonson's run on the title.
  Nine steps the hero takes striding as a giant
• As giants are taking out their frustrations on the immobile form of Thor's armor filled with his undying jellied body, Loki summons the Destroyer, the ultimate weapon created by Odin to fight the Celestials, who has been a melted pile of slag in the Andes for years. After using the life force of one giant to kill all the others, the Destroyer tries to kill Thor but cannot because of Hela's curse. The Destroyer enters the spirit realm to claim this indestructible life force which will make him invincible, but fails to recognize the being as Thor, who had beaten the Destroyer there before. As the spirit Destroyer tries to run away and screams "NO!!!", spirit Thor grabs him and says that only one will leave alive. Back in the real world the Destroyer puts on Thor's cape, belt and head feathers, picks up Mjölnir and teleports away. (Issue 381.) To reiterate: The Destroyer's controller's reaction when he finds out his foe is Thor is absolute terror.
• Thor, in the Destroyer's body, lays waste to Hel with ease. (Issue 382)
• Thor drops by for a friendly chat with Loki about all the trouble he caused Thor and Asgard lately. Thor nonchalantly breaks Loki's arm with Mjölnir as a reminder "Only Odin's forebearance was infinite!" And then flies merrily off, musing about how visiting his brother always cheers him up, and he should do it more often.
• All of the moments from 337-382 come from Walter Simonson's time on the comic. There's a reason many fans consider it not just the best run of Thor, but the best run of any title ever.
  • Simonson wrote, drew and inked the first two and a half years of the title, along with #380 (the aforementioned all double-page-spread issue). He would've drawn more had he not taken on other titles at the time. There were only two writer fill-ins during his tenure.
  • When Comic Book Resources ran a "Greatest Thor Stories Ever Told" contest, six of the winning choices were by Simonson... including the entire top five. The only other writer close to achieving such domination in one of those contests was Larry Hama, who took nine out of ten slots on the Greatest G.I. Joe Stories contest. Keep in mind that Hama has written about 75 percent of all G.I. Joe stories ever published, while Simonson's run was only about fifty issues in the title of one of Marvel's major characters.
• In one of the earliest stories, Thor vs the Carbon Copy Man, Thor is against an alien that can change forms to anything. So said alien makes himself invisible, and whales on Thor with an iron fist. Thor, cunning bastard he is, makes rain, and finds his adversary. After knocking him out in one blow, Thor wraps him up in a metal net. And then throws him OUT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
• That line he gives to Ultron.
  Ultron. We would have words with thee.
  • During the Godbomb saga, this line gets a Call-Back from Viking!Thor, who is then trumped by Avenger!Thor delivering a truly epic line:
  Viking!Thor: Gorr! We would have words with thee.
  Avenger!Thor: Nay. The time for words has passed. Now we let the hammers talk.
• The Hammer And the Holocaust! (Thor 127, April 1966): Stripped of half his powers then beaten to a bloody pulp by Hercules, Thor still manages to single-handedly save Asgard from usurper Seidring The Merciless. As Thor collapses near death at the foot of the Odinsword (yes, it was that close), The Old Man finally admits: "Thou art the noblest Asgardian of all."
• Three issues later, a newly recovered Thor takes down the entire frigging Netherworld in a battle for Hercules' soul. When Thor finally emerges victorious, the Son of Zeus proclaims him the greatest warrior he hath "e'er known," swearing friendship until his dying breath.
• Shall Earth Endure? (FF 243, 1982): While the Fantastic Four helplessly watch Galactus prepare to nuke the whole damned planet, a Sound of Thunder splits the heavens: "I SAY THEE NAY!!" The cavalry has arrived, and their hero has a hammer!
  • In the issue preceding the above, Thor and Iron Man are the first to respond when the catastrophic effects of Galactus' arrival are felt, namely the flooding of Manhattan's tunnels and subways by the East River. Thor promptly plunges into the water, and unleashes a HURRICANE under the river, a hurricane powerful enough to part the East River, ala Moses. This act is so impressive, even the hardened, self-assured cynic Iron Man, who had fought beside Thor for years by this point, is struck by awe. Writer John Byrne put it best in his captions: "Sealed within his armored shell, Tony Stark suppresses a shudder, feeling suddenly very small and helpless before the might of a Living God".
• Meeting Iron Man again in Thor vol 3 #3 after the events of Civil War (2006) and proceeding to curb stomp him before telling him the reason that Tony's been able to take him on before was because he was holding back, and then lecturing him on just who he is, what that means and about the incidents in Civil War. It's worth mentioning that Iron Man initiated the confrontation and believed he was fully prepared to deal with him. Thor took him down with one hit.
  • The best part has to be the speech he gives Tony on just how done he is with bowing to mortal concerns, and how he is ready to remind them of his Person of Mass Destruction powers extend to his Weather Manipulation abilities as well as his Super-Strength, something the page emphasizes with a depiction of Washington DC flooded to the point only the bell-dome of the Capitol emerges above the water, and of a flooded airport beneath a lightning-filled sky. For added emphasis, he gives the speech whilst holding Tony in a Neck Lift — hard enough to bruise his neck through the armor, as we see in the final pages — and after casually tearing off his faceplate.
    Thor: Give your orders and ultimatums to those who choose to obey, or are too cowardly to fight, not to me. Or learn again the difference between a god of thunder — and a mortal man in a metal suit. As for your masters, since power is all they understand, tell them that Thor says this: if any mortal comes uninvited to Asgard on behalf of those who suppose themselves to be powers — within the hour they will learn what true power is. The skies will open and deliver the first part of that message in terms even the blind could not fail to see. Anyone attempting to escape the message will find entering the skies even more dangerous. And this will be only the beginning of their education. For their own good, and yours, go to them and convey that warning. Do not let them forget what a god of thunder is, and what that means. Now that your war of brothers is done, I have no interest in becoming involved on either side of the disagreement. I am, for the moment, neutral. Do not give me cause to reconsider that position.
  • Later on, at the very start of Invincible Iron Man, Thor and Iron Man meet at the funeral of a group of super-heroes. When they confront each other, Thor very lightly taps Iron Man's armor... and cracks it. This was the Extremis Armor, which at the time was arguably the strongest conventional armor Tony had ever fielded.
• Journey Into Mystery #106 involves Mr. Hyde ambushing Thor after the thunder god saves a coliseum full of innocent people from him and the Cobra. Fed up with being jerked around by Hyde and disgusted by Hyde's threatening so many innocent bystanders, Thor decides to settle with him once and for all. Thor does so by deliberately dropping Mjölnir, saying that if he can't defeat Hyde within sixty seconds he doesn't deserve his powers. Thor then pulverizes Hyde in a vicious Curb-Stomp Battle, beating him down with his bare hands and leaving him unconscious for the police, all within less than a minute.
• In the latest series of Thor books, the Thunder God himself is teaming up with his future Old Father self to face off and finally destroy the 'God Killer'. However...the main point of awesome recently is Thor's younger self, back in Viking Times: he manages to face Apocalypse of all people, survives...and...later beats him and mortally wounds him with his axe despite his father's wishes!
• In Siege #2, Norman Osborn sends Daken and a team of H.A.M.M.E.R. soldiers into Braxton to find a battered and supposedly defenseless Thor. And they find him, and in one panel he blasts the H.A.M.M.E.R. soldiers and Daken, leaving Daken a severely burnt, smoking corpse before making a Badass Boast.
  Thor: I will not run from you Osborn, nor your minions. I will not hide. I will defend my home, and the home of my father... with my very last breath.
• During the Infinity Crisis Crossover, Thor meets with one of the aliens they're fighting on the conquered Kree homeworld for a parley. The aliens require Thor to disarm himself, and Thor agrees, nonchalantly tossing Mjölnir away. A few panels later, Mjölnir comes back, smashing a hole right through the chest of the alien. Despite his apparent unconcern, Thor had actually thrown Mjölnir around the sun and hit a target about the same size as Thor himself with pinpoint accuracy.
• The tragic, heroic death of Bill, born of Bills. He was a mortal fry cook who fell in love with Kelda, a goddess of light. Against all odds, he successfully wooed her, but when he learned that Doctor Doom and Loki were concocting a plan to dissect Asgardians, he tried to stop them with a sword despite having no experience wielding one. Bill was mortally wounded and died, but passed on the message that saved the people of Asgard, and with his last breath, killing an evil Asgardian who tried to stab Balder from the back. As a reward, he was taken to Valhalla—and when Kelda herself died later on, they reunited there.
  • The last words of Bill, Born of Bills. He doesn't care that he's going to be honored like a god after death. All he wants is for Balder to make sure to tell Kelda that even after the arguments they'd had recently over the fact that she's an Aesir and he's mortal, he still loves her.
• One of the earlier Simonson issues involves the last Viking trying to goad Thor into killing him. Thor is impressed and gives the Viking some strength and a flying horse to help him against an attacking dragon, Thor's old enemy Fafnir. An old man approaches the Viking and enchants his spear with good luck before the fight, the Viking receives a mortal wound and loses his strength. He is determined to keep fighting so with the last of his strength he falls with his spear beneath him and finally wounds the dragon and giving Thor an opening to finish. He earned his place in Valhalla that day.
• Thor vs. Malekith in issue 347: Malekith's monster form cannot even touch Thor and is thrashed around for a page.
• Roger is a badass normal Korean War vet who is not afraid to fight Dark Elves, hell hounds and nearly kills Malekith even when he can't see him and delays the eternal winter.
• New Avengers 32. Thor, after suffering through humiliations & some sort of emotional breakdown, finally proves himself worthy yet again. How does he do so? By making a Last Stand together with his "brother" Hyperion against an entire army of Beyonders (same guys who wiped out entire Marvel cosmic across the entire multiverse including Living Tribunal himself).
• A CMOH too. After being humiliated after Odin removes half of Thor's powers during a fight with Hercules over Jane Foster, Odin telepathically contacts her and urges her to comfort him.
• Thor #387-389 features an epic battle with the Celestials as Thor tries to stop them from annihilating an alien world. His first attacks include shattering the mountain Arishem the Judge is standing on, attacking him with a huge storm, and then blasting him with the magnetic field of the entire planet. Arishem doesn't even appear to notice all this, and then Exitar the Exterminator shows up, forcing Thor to pull out all the stops. He manages to pierce Exitar's armor and enters the Celestial, at which point he confronts the bizarre reality inside. He fights his way through hordes of monsters to Exitar's brain, encased in an impenetrable shell. Thor cracks this shell (destroying Mjolnir in the process) and, with nothing left to do, dives bodily into Exitar's pure-energy brain. After all this... he manages to momentarily disrupt the Celestials' process of eliminating the alien species they had judged unworthy. It might not sound like much, but the whole story really makes it clear that Thor operates on a scale most superheroes never even approach.
• In the last issue of the Marvel Godzilla comic, the Big Guy attacks New York City. He takes on the SHIELD helicarrier, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and J. Jonah Jameson. Godzilla is slowed but mostly just angered by all of this. Until Thor arrives. Thor belts Godzilla with Mjolnir, and the near-invincible King of the Monsters simply screams in agony.
• Almost every time Odin decides to flex a muscle and show his power, it is awesome. Many examples come to mind, but a few stand out:
  • When Odin was under the Odinsleep, a powered-up Annihilus attacked. The entire horde of Asgardians, including Thor, were fighting a losing battle against the villain. Odin then wakes up and then proceeds to swiftly defeat Annihilus.
    • To be fair, Asgard seems to face an Odin-level threat during a good 75% of the Odinsleeps shown in the comics. Half of those times, the threat is even something that Odin is directly or indirectly responsible for, like the first attack of Mangog.
  • The curbstomp battle he delivered to Silver Surfer and the Infinity Watch was awesome to behold.
    • His stompage of Iron Man was awesome as well. In both battles, the vastly powerful heroes were shown to be completely outmatched.
  • His complete domination of Thanos in their fight also counts
  • His epic battles with Surtur and Seth that were felt across the universe are this as well
  • Thor's spirit once possessed the Destroyer Armor and after defeating the enemy, and now being affected by the violent urges caused by possessing the armor, turned to fry Loki who was responsible for the mess. Odin arrives, and stops the Destroyer by simply commanding it to kneel before him. And it does.◊
  • Odin taking back his powers from the Dark God Zelia who had stolen his powers.
  • Odin taking down his dark half which was tapping into the power of the abstract being Infinity.
  • It was a jerk move, but Odin shutting up Thor by literally removing his mouth was awesome as well.
  • Right after Thor and Beta Ray Bill first fought (and Bill usurped Mjolnir), Odin mistakenly transports Bill to Asgard. Bill's feeling pretty confident and immediately throws Mjolnir at Odin. Odin simply catches the hammer and imprisons Bill in a force field, making Bill realize that he might have misjudged the situation.
  • Thor's battle against Galactus for the Worldseed, which culminates in Odin headbutting Galactus so hard he knocks them both out cold. Oh, and he also knocks them both out of orbit in the process!
• The art when Odin fought Infinity is incredible.
• Thor finally taking down Gorr the God-Butcher, a battle whose tide truly begins to turn when Young!Thor bites out Gorr's eye.
  • And several issues before that:
    Gorr: Tell me, Prince of Asgard, before all you're able to do is whimper and scream...What was Thor the god of before he died?
    Young!Thor: Thunder.
    [Cue lightning bolt]
  • Avenger!Thor wielding two Mjolnirs, his own and Old King Thor's, during the arc's climactic final battle.
• Two more points for Thor during the first story to feature "The League of Realms" - an Avengers-esque team attempting to promote greater peace across the mystical realms of Yggdrasil by bringing together champions from each realm to work as a team, which is a pretty awesome concept itself.
  • Firstly, on their first mission to bring in Malekith, Thor seemingly breaks up the team when he wildly accuses team-member Ud the Troll of being a traitor and executes him, causing Sir Ivory Honeyshot the Light Elf and Screwbeard the Dwarf to quit the team in outrage, leaving just Thor and Lady Waziria the Dark Elf to pursue Malekith. During the battle, Thor and Waziria are saved by the sudden return of Sir Honeyshot, Screwbeard... and Ud, who reveal that Thor had actually deceived the entire team by secretly using a spell to transport Ud to safety with a note of his plan and leave behind a phantasmal duplicate he "killed", all without the team noticing what he was doing. This is impressive enough, as Thor is generally thought of as practically non-magical compared to Loki's mastery of wizardry, but Thor notes that he actually learned this spell from Loki.
  • During the climatic battle against Malekith, the Dark Elf wizard turns Thor's liver into broken glass. Thor's response? He spits a gobbet of blood and glass shards into Malekith's face before sneering that he doesn't need a liver to kill Malekith.
• In issue #3 of the War of the Realms book, a team consisting of Captain America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Wolverine are sent to Jotunheim to rescue Thor. The first foreshadowing of what they'll find is a literal river of frost giant blood, wide and deep enough as it snakes through the mountain valleys to be seen from their perch atop their flying horses. And then at the issue's end they find Thor... standing Atop a Mountain of Corpses, lightning crackling around him, oblivious to the bloody gashes marring his form, his golden arm torn from its stump, clutching the shattered remnants of a hammer in one hand, wide-eyed and staring. Up until this point, we've been told by multiple sources, such as Dare Devil (whose senses have been supercharged to Heimdall's level), that Thor is screaming. Turns out he wasn't screaming in pain... Say hello to Berserker Thor.
  Thor: More giants! Send me more Odin-damned giants! Send them ALL!!!
  • And later in the War, after over five years (real-world time) of being unworthy of even lifting the smallest fragment of Mjolnir, after allying with his past and future selves to confront Malekith, Thor channels the power of the cosmic storm to reforge Mjolnir, proclaiming that he will now forever be "the God of the Unworthy", fighting to always deserve the hammer as much as he is fighting for the innocent.
• Amazingly, Cul Borson, the God of Fear and Thor's Evil Uncle, gets a moment that is one-part this and one part Heartwarming in the War of the Realms story-arc (Thor #13): the issue focuses on Cul's perspective as he infiltrates the mine where Malekith's dark elves are mining magical mushrooms they need to fuel the Black Bifrost. Through the issue, Cul's narration talks about what an evil scumbag he is, and how he's had plenty of chances to redeem himself throughout his godly history — but always thrown them aside. Then, with dark elf overseers closing in on him and the dark elf children forced to mine the mushrooms, whom they'll kill just for being present, miraculously, Cul makes a different decision: he frees the children and sends them to safety whilst he holds the line and fights to save them. He holds the line until he's mortally wounded, and then goes out with a bang by detonating the mushrooms, killing himself and his attackers. As he dies, he muses on how pointless his actions were; no Asgardians will ever know of what he did, his dark deeds never amended... but, he concludes, he has no regrets, because he finally made the right choice for once.
  Cul: And then one day you face one of those moments. Those pivotal seconds that outweigh all the rest. And much to your own surprise... you choose to be what you see in the eyes of some children. Cul, the Breaker of Chains. Cul, the God of Love. A love worth slaughtering for. Of course, love... isn't without its agonies. A pain that makes you scream sometimes. That makes you lose yourself. In all the worst and best of ways. That makes you bold. And fragile. And completely unstoppable. Love is roaring joy. And paralyzing fear. And unimaginable suffering. And gods help my wretched heart... why did I wait so damn long to find it?
  Cul: They will sing no songs of Cul in the halls of Asgard. Not this night or any other. No goddesses will weep and mourn. No children will be named in my honor. No temples built to my everlasting glory. My life could've been different. It could have been glorious. Realm-shaking. But why bother with regrets? Regrets are for fools and mortals. And despite whatever else I may have been... I was a god through and through. Right up until the Bor-damned end.
  Cul: Ah, who gives a dwarf fart about being remembered? Everyone gets forgotten in time. Even the name of Thor will someday blow away like so much ash in the wind. All that matters is what joy we make for ourselves when we're alive. And who we choose to be in our grandest or most intimate of moments. Took me a while, I know... but Hel... I finally got one of those right.
  • For icing on the cake, the last page of that issue? Is of the dark elf children he saved, taking up weapons and fighting their elders, to end Malekith's dark reign forever, chanting Cul's name as they battle. So, in the end, he will be remembered.

Loki

• Several times Loki has succeeded in his quest to rule Asgard, In early issues, this was done by stealing Odin's Odin-ring, which made Loki supreme ruler. When Thor tried to protest, their father responded by removing his mouth, as not even Odin can disagree with the one who wears the Odin-ring.
• He once turned Thor into a frog, and would have succeeded in gaining the throne if Thor hadn't lifted Mjölnir at the last moment.
• After Loki killed Balder with his one weakness, mistletoe, Balder was forced to wade through an ocean of blood and everyone he ever killed to return to the world of the living. Henceforth, he became a pacifist and renounced all violence. When he heard that Loki was consorting with Malekith the Accursed, and needed to deliver a message from Odin to Loki, Loki ignored him as he was captured and prepared for execution. Balder slipped his bonds and, with no other choice as the delivery of the letter could save billions of lives, was forced to renounce his vow as he singlehandedly killed◊ every demon◊ in the hall. At which point Loki revealed that he had already accepted to work with Malekith, tossed the letter over his head, and laughed that it was so delightful to watch a pacifist slay the thousands that he couldn't beat to mention it before. Balder then threatened to kill him via decapitation. Loki goaded him into it, and Balder ran screaming into the night, cursing himself... and when he left, Loki picked up his head◊ and placed it back on. After all, the first thing a sorcerer of quality learns is making himself as difficult to kill as possible.
• While plotting out his far-reaching plans before the Siege event he realized he needed control of the Dsir. You know, the undead Valkyries that eat souls that are considered The Dreaded? So naturally the best option was to beat them into submission with his bare hands, and get them to swear fealty to him.
• Loki gave the mercenary Deadpool his gift of Breaking the Fourth Wall by doing it himself. He also convinced him he was his son, to get back at Thor. When Deadpool failed to defeat Thor, Loki cursed Deadpool with the face of Tom Cruise and made him completely indestructible until he apologized.
• He turned his own grandfather into snow after traveling through time, then returned to the present and tricked Thor into killing him, causing him to be exiled yet again for killing a member of the Asgardian Royal Family.
• When fighting two Legacy Characters of sorts of Thor, Beta Ray Bill and Eric Masterson, he took out Beta Ray Bill with one shot from behind. He then became enraged when Eric sucker-punched him. Loki enacted revenge by seizing his arm with machinery and shocking him◊ enough to release his hammers, then slapped him◊ to the brink of unconsciousness. To make things even better, Eric then reverted to his mortal form due to losing hold of Mjölnir.
• Even Loki's LEGO self is not to be trifled with. In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, he successfully outwitted Doctor Doom and Magneto, and brainwashed Galactus to devour Earth and Asgard.
• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, he storms Asgard with an army of Frost Giants and trolls. When the heroes catch up to him, he deliberately throws the fight to trick them into freeing the Destroyer for him, which he then proceeds to control, making a deadly threat as-is even worse.

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