Summary

• Immortal Thor #5 revealed Thor's mother, Gaea, to be the first ever hero in the Marvel Universe, with the power to see the cyclical nature of the gods and their conflicts.
• The story of the Elder Gods and their wars is a commentary on the repetitive nature of superhero stories, highlighting how they often follow the same story beats.
• Immortal Thor explores the concept of cyclical storytelling, with the goal of creating a better model for superhero comics.

Contains Spoilers for Immortal Thor #5!

Thor’s most recent adventure is retelling the very origins of life on Marvel’s Earth, along with revealing that Thor’s mother, Gaea, was the first ever hero. This exploration of the Marvel Universe’s primordial era expands on the cyclical nature of the gods, and provides a metatextual commentary on how superhero stories often feel like they’re repeating the same story beats. Whether that cycle can be broken remains to be seen.

The Immortal Thor #5 – written by Al Ewing, illustrated by MartÍn Cóccolo, colored by Matthew Wilson and lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino –​​​ delves further into the mythology of the Utgard-Gods, beings from the dawn of existence who prefigure current deities, such as the Asgardians.

Created by the Demiurge, the living embodiment of Earth’s life-energy, the Elder Gods spread out across the Earth, eventually becoming warlike and brutal. That was, until Thor’s mother Gaea, the only heroic Elder God, had a child with the Demiurge: the sun god Atum, also called the Demogorge, who destroyed most of the Elder Gods.

The Demiurge is a reference to the mythological Greek being of the same name, originally described by ancient writers, including Plato, as the creator of the universe. The term later became popular among gnostic sects to describe the false god that created reality, as distinct from the true, unknowable God.

Gaea Is The One Who Can See The Pattern

The mythology of the Elder Gods was first introduced in 1982's Thor Annual #10 – written by Mark Gruenwald and Alan Zelenetz, penciled by Bob Hall, inked by Rick Bryant, Joe Rubenstein, Andy Mushynsky, Al Gordon and Kevin Dzuban, colored by George Roussos and lettered by Rick Parker.

The Elder Gods are the first living beings, and gods of Earth. Immortal Thor #5 firmly establishes Gaea as Marvel’s first hero, a title earned for her role in stopping the Elder Gods’ rampages. In the issue, readers see a flashback to the creation of the Elder Gods by the Demiurge, emphasizing their wars as cyclical conflicts. As the series’ yet unrevealed narrator notes, Gaea is the only Elder God to see this pattern. Rather than destroy all the Elder Gods, several of the recently introduced Utgard-beings are ultimately only being banished, including Immortal Thor antagonist and original God of Thunder Toranos.

The idea of cyclical conflict is inherent to the mythos of Marvel's Thor. Most famous are the cycles of Ragnarök – with the continued destructions and rebirths of Asgard's gods – but by introducing the Utgard-Thor and Utgard-Loki, the Elder Thunder and Trickster gods, Immortal Thor suggests the very idea of a Thunder God in conflict with a Trickster God has been happening since the dawn of creation. Immortal #5 also reveals that the Demiurge itself has existed in previous realities, making even this progenitor only a part of a larger cyclical story. In this way, writer Al Ewing has crafted the perfect expansion of the gods’ cyclical nature.

Immortal Thor Is A Story About Stories

Immortal Thor goes a step further by having the cyclical conflict that Gaea is trying to prevent also act as a metatextual commentary on mainstream superhero comic storytelling. In Immortal Thor #1 (by Ewing, Cóccolo, Wilson and Sabino) the narrator notes that “gods are creatures of story.” The fact that these battles keep repeating is a commentary on how superhero comics habitually tell variations on the same story ad infinitum. Gaea’s story is the first superhero battle, and the series hints that her eventual goal is to make a better cycle, a better model for storytelling and thus, metaphorically, for superhero comics.

Loki: Agent of Asgard #13 is written by Al Ewing, illustrated by Lee Garbett, colored by Antonio Fabela and lettered by Clayton Cowles. It was released in 2013; Defenders Beyond #5 –written by Ewing, illustrated by Javier Rodriguez and lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna – came out in 2022.

This has been a constant theme in Al Ewing’s Asgardian work. Loki: Agent of Asgard #13 literally transformd Loki into the God of Stories and later, Defenders Beyond #5 had Loki reframe their mission as freeing heroes from the cyclical return to the status quo. Loki has appeared regularly in the first several issues of Immortal Thor, and is likely still pursuing this secret mission. As Thor continues to battle the resurgent Utgard-Gods, the question becomes whether Loki or Gaea's desires will lead them to be allies, or their different methods will lead them to be rivals – and of course, it remains to be determined how Thor will factor into the mix.

The Immortal Thor #5 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.