Kiss was never really my kind of band, I was a little too young. Death was more my style. The band Death that gave us the whole genre of death metal. RIP Chuck Schuldiner. Death did a cover of a Kiss song, back in the day. It was called God of Thunder and it's a pretty kickass song. Chuck does this amazing deathy growl of the chorus where he goes "God of thunder! . . . and rock and ro-o-oll."
Oh man when that song first came out did I wish that rock and roll part wasn't in it. It just cheesed up the whole song. Well, actually the song is so awesome that it was able to withstand the cheesy onslaught. But come on, as if Thor needs more in his portfolio than just thunder. Because what's more awesome than a thunder god?
The Marvel Now series Thor: God of Thunder says the answer to that question is nothing! Well, maybe one thing. We'll get to that in a second.

As someone who happily professes a love for death metal, maybe it comes as no surprise that I've been a fan of Thor all my life. That most Frazetta-ish of Marvel superheroes was also one of the most versatile, since he could be hanging out in Asgard with his fellow immortal Norse gods battling trolls and frost giants, and then he could hop over the Rainbow Bridge to Midgard* to fight Kang the Conqueror alongside Iron Man and Captain America. Then the next issue he would gladly take to space to aid Beta Ray Bill in stopping Galactus from devouring the planet Poppup.
Jason Aaron prefers to play a more god-like, heroic fantasy take on Thor, and Esad Ribic is the perfect artist for his interpretation. We are treated to no less than three different Thorian eras, or Ages of Thunder if you will. We get a young, brash Thor who relishes leading vikings into bloody battle. Current Marvel Universe Thor off gallivanting in space, and a far-future Thor who looks an awful lot like his dear old dad Odin. Not necessarily a good thing.
In each of these timelines Thor faces the menace of something known as the god butcher. A monster that goes around butchering gods of various pantheons. Thor, being a god from some pantheon or other, is square in the god butcher's sights. Not that Thor has any intention of being butchered, but he might not have much say in the matter. Because this guy butchers gods. That's what he does.
Having established that in the first two issues, I'm now curious to know why. I can dig it, and accept him as a worthy foe for Thor, I just hope there's an intriguing origin or motive for ole GB. We get a hint of the anger and contempt he feels for gods in this sequence:

SO bring it home for us, Mr. Aaron! What's more awesome than a thunder god? A god butcher, apparently. But I say thee nay! Thor shall prevail. What's a god without someone to have faith in him?

*Midgard means Earth, as if I needed to tell you that, true believer!

The library was kind enough to lend me the Marvel Civil War collected edition. Pretty cool. I liked how there was no major villain, but rather an ideological divide between allies, friends and even in some cases, lovers. I bought the first issue back in 2006 I think it was, and remember it as the one where Tony Stark reveals he's Iron Man. I thought that was their inspiration for the end of the movie. Memory's a funny thing since it was actually Spidey who unmasked. Weird.
Also what happened to Thor? In this series he was a clone or a robot or something. And Hercules snmashed his face in good using robot Mjolnir. That was cool.
Which reminds me of one of my favorite comics of all time- an old Thor (I would dig it out of my collection but that would require a lot of digging) where Hercules is out for a stroll in Central Park with the Avengers' butler and they come across a group of youngsters playing frisbee. Unbeknownst to Herc, one of the kids was being bullied by the others for always drawing pictures of his hero Thor. So the kids ask Hercules who would win in a fight, him or Thor. Herc, of course, starts spinning a tall tale about how he totally kicked Thor's ass after Thor bonked him on the head with Mjolnir. At one point he even picked up the entire island of Manhattan to throw at Thor ("I don't remember that," say the kids). Jarvis, the butler, notices what's actually going on and asks for a word with Herc, who then quickly edits his story to show that Thor was faking weakness the whole time and totally beat him up so bad. That was a good one. Oh yeah here it is:

I thought it was time to write something about Norse Gods. A little more serious than Homie Bear's regular stuff.

Ragnarok

Old gods have known their fate
since they were young gods
To die at the hands of their enemies
at Ragnarok
But they await that day
joyfully
For all that matters to old gods
and young gods
and even their enemies
Is to meet that fate steadfastly
and with valour

Ragnarok
After the ice storm yesterday, I was thinking Ragnarok was nigh. But today it is more like Ragnamuck out there. Very muddy.
Actually, Ragnarok will be preceded by a super-long winter called Fimbulvetr, which will last for three years. At the end of Fimbulvetr, the great wolf Skoll will devour the sun while his brother Hati eats the moon. Once that happens, chaos breaks out.
Now let me back up a bit. Skoll might be a big bad star-eating wolf, but the baddest of the wolves is Fenris, the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. It was prophesied that Fenris would destroy the world, so the gods decided to lock him up. Only Fenris didn't really want to be locked up, so the gods had to use trickery and deceit. Fenris could break any chains that held him, so the gods commisioned the dwarves to forge a magical chain, which was woven of six seperate threads: the footsteps of a cat, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear (hey!), a woman's beard, a fishies' breath, and a bird's spittle. This chain was called Gleipnir.
The gods were talking smack to Fenris, saying he was too weak to break free from Gleipnir. Fenris accepted the challenge, but since he was no dummy, he demanded that the gods give him a token of goodwill- he wanted one of them to put a hand in his jaw. If there was any trickery he would chomp off the hand. So Tyr, the god of war and the only god who really liked Fenris, agreed. And when Fenris couldn't break free of Gleipnir, he bit off Tyr's hand.
So all of that is to say, that when the earth started shaking after the destruction of the sun and moon, Gleipnir was finally broken and a very-pissed Fenris started fulfilling his destiny. Not only that, but Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, sworn enemy of Thor, starts to make his slow and slimy way to shore, poisoning land and sky with his foul breath as he goes.
The boiling sea frees the ship Naglfar, commanded by the giant Hymir and full of angrygiants. A second ship under the command of Loki sets sail from the underworld, carrying the inhabitants of hell. As if that wasn't bad enough, Surt and the fire giants leave Muspelheim to join the battle. Surt's sword is made of flame and scorches the earth as he walks.
Heimdall sounds his great horn, calling the Aesir to battle. Odin engages Fenris, Thor takes on Jormungand and a hundred other battles all take place. Fenris devours Odin, and Vidar his son kills Fenris, while Thor is victorious against the Midgard Serpent, but suffers a mortal wound which poisons him slowly to death.
Poor old one-handed Tyr fights Garm, the Norse equivalent of Cerebus ( instead of three heads he has four eyes), and they both die.
Then Surt starts flinging fire everywhere from his sword, and everyone dies. Well, two humans live and rebuild afterwards, but who really cares about them?
All this is foretold and the gods each know their fate, yet they eagerly await the day when they can engage the forces of chaos in the final battle.