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Welcome to part three of  Thor: The Eternals Saga. This is easily the most intriguing and confusing portion of this story. I left you last week with some teasers and will deliver for sure right now. To recap, we have seen Thor at odds with his father Odin, his first encounter with the Eternals, and also a visit to their homeland of Olympia. Thor has also clashed with the mighty Celestial that is still looming over Earth with its judgment at hand. Finally, an epic battle pitting Thor and the Eternals on one side, and Odin together with Zeus and his minions from Olympus on the other. Issue number 291 leaves us with Odin poised to impale his son with his mighty spear, Gungnir!
The next part of our journey starts off with Odin crying out, “I’ll not slay mine own blood son again!” I know what you’re thinking… again? This was quite a shock to me the first time I read it, and let me tell you the answer to the question is positively amazing. After shouting this out loud Odin hurls his spear into a wall, and not even the strength of Hercules can remove it. Meanwhile, Thor questions Odin about this decree and he’s initially brushed off, but then Odin recites a riddle instead of giving Thor a direct answer. Without going into all the details, Odin basically says to seek out his missing eyeball for the clarity he is wanting. After a brief scuffle between Zeus and Zuras , the Olympians leave to return to their native land and Thor ponders his next move. He recalls the day when Odin plucked out his own eye and threw it into the fiery beast, Mimir, to gain certain knowledge of future events. Not knowing what to think he calls upon his mighty hammer Mjolnir to show him where Odin’s eye is, and once he sees a place that is foreign to him he again uses his hammer to travel to this weird place. Once he arrives he observes some dwarfs who seem to be frightened by his appearance, but he soon realizes that they really fear The Eye of Odin.
At this time in our story Thor comes face to face with said eye. They have a short battle with Thor summoning a whirlwind to capture the eye and use it to get the facts about Odin’s decree of having killed his son once before. OK now this is where things get a bit crazy, so stay with me. The eye grants Thor one question only, even though he has many for the floating organ. So Thor asks him about his father’s alleged killing of him:  from here on out in this story the writer Roy Thomas uses the spelling “eye” when the eyeball refers to himself instead of “I”. It doesn’t sound like much but when you read the story it seems really cool. The eye then takes our hero on a journey into his past, starting from his most recent adventures and moving backwards. Thor relives everything right up until the day his father bound him to a human form (we all know this alter ego is Dr. Donald Blake). He even sees himself as a baby. This all leads up to Thor witnessing a huge locked door in his mind, which is symbolizing something that has been hidden from him. What happens next is unbelievable for the son of Odin: he observes an event the Asgardians call Ragnarok. Which is simply doomsday for their race by means of a gigantic battle with all the evil beings in their universe. The problem is that the people he is witnessing aren’t the same people he knows as Asgardians. These others resemble his countrymen but are slightly different in physical ways as well as their clothing. On this day of Ragnarok there are many casualties, including Odin himself, but in this strange land Odin also has more than one son to take the mantle of leader after he is felled by the Fenris Wolf. At this point Asgard is destroyed and the few survivors there make their way to the other side of the barren land and look down upon Midgard (their name for Earth), and conclude that this is a new beginning for them and their world. Thor goes absolutely nuts and accuses the eye of lying but then realizes these are all events unfolding in his mind, so how can they be lies? He demands that the eye tell him when this took place and it shows him a scene of a baby being born in a manger with a bright star burning in the sky above. Thor immediately says “It was nearly two thousand years ago!” 
Thor then ponders with the eye about how is it possible that these nine survivors are foreign to him? The eye shows him The Celestial Axis: basically it’s a way of showing Thor that there are different planes of existence and his Asgard isn’t very diverse from the one he is seeing. Basically he’s trying to show how a mighty river has tributaries but ultimately they all flow from the same place. Get it? We then return to the nine wanderers that survived Ragnarok searching for some kind of sign about what to do, when they stumble upon small statues or figures of all the dead participants from the deadly battle. While most are amazed, two of the warriors who happen to be Thor’s sons in the tale that the eye is spinning, wander farther ahead and find their father’s hammer. At first they think to use it for gain but they realize it should be more trouble than good so they toss it towards Earth. Meanwhile the other group finds a mighty spear in the ground and they lift it out only to be simultaneously transformed into Odin; Now alive and possessing all the power and knowledge from the previous nine elders of Asgard. Odin then finds the figures of all the mighty warriors slain and uses his enormous magical and mystical supremacy to reanimate all the Asgardians to start anew.
The eye then turns Thor’s attention to the hammer that was hurled to Earth and landed in Europe. We see three mermaids guarding the remains of the hammer which has turned to gold. Their frolicking is interrupted by a man calling himself Alberich who claims to want information but really just wants to steal the gold. After learning the powerful nature of the precious metal he steals it and runs away with plans to use it for his evil purposes. Next we see Odin watching over two storm giants Fasolt and Fafnir (the guy who eventually gets turned into a dragon) building a huge structure for him, but in return he has promised them the beautiful goddess Idunn. Idunn is the chick who makes the magical apples that keeps the Asgardians from growing old. After finishing the job they try to collect their payment but are stopped by Thor. Odin then tells Thor that the bargain was made and he must keep his word. Thor is furious that his father would strike such a deal, but along comes Loki to inform Odin that the gold that was being guarded is now gone. Odin knows that the Frost Giants would trade Idunn back for that gold so he, Loki and Thor embark on a mission to find Alberich and his new treasure. Once they find him a wild battle ensues with Alberich using his new powers to turn into a dragon and he tries to fight them off but to no avail. Odin then tells Alberich that they are taking back the gold but before he does Alberich puts a curse on the gold that whoever owns it will experience nothing but grief. Odin and Loki basically laugh in his face and they all depart for Odin’s palace.
They do return and tell the Storm Giants that they will trade and they accept but when Odin tries to keep the ring that Alberich put the spell on, he finds himself wanting to keep it for unknown reasons. All of a sudden a witch of sorts appears and proclaims that  Odin will regret it if he doesn’t get rid of the ring. Realizing his folly he throws the ring away and the two giants take their gold and leave. Thor attempts to give them a parting whooping but they use their new found magical power to transport themselves away. See, I told you things were going to get crazy! Next week we will conclude this tale with a stunning tale of Thor as a mortal, the beautiful Valkyrie, Thor wrestling a bear, The answer to Thor’s question to the Eye and a final act to the Celestials judgment that will leave a scion of Asgard pushing up daisies. Until next week, EYE bid thee farewell!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net