The God of Thunders has finally revealed its true nature, and it could mean that Thor’s iconic hammer has always been evil underneath the surface.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Thor #21, available now from Marvel.
The God of Hammers has finally revealed itself in its quest to destroy the God of Thunder along with the rest of Asgard. As it turns out, Thor’s latest nemesis is more than just his enchanted hammer, but the combination of the God Tempest which was trapped within Mjolnir and the remaining essence of the monstrous Mangog. So far, the God of Hammers has proven to be unstoppable as it tears a gruesome swath through the Marvel Universe. Then again, both the God Tempest and Mangog have never been anything but destructive, which begs the question of whether Mjolnir has always been just a similar kind of evil as well.
No matter how many allies or what tactics the God of Thunder employs, he has so far been completely incapable of overpowering the God of Hammers. Not even the former All-Father Odin stood a chance against it even after exiling Mjolnir to the farthest reaches of the universe. As Thor #21 by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson, and VC’s Joe Sabino has just revealed, the ceaseless fury of the God of Hammers is one fueled by the rage of Mangog. This classic villain was somehow fused with Mjolnir when the two were hurled into the sun. Now, what has emerged is more powerful than either of the two ever were on their own. The torrent of violence that has been unleashed is unquestionably a bad thing every way around. Yet by its very nature, the God of Hammers might not be as evil as it would appear.
First introduced in 2016’s Mighty Thor #10 by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman, the God Tempest was an ancient phenomenon that had existed since the dawn of time. Also referred to as the Mother of Thunder or Mother Storm, it grew in size as the ages passed, unleashing its thundery wrath on those it deemed deserving of such brutal punishment. When the God Tempest reached the halls of Asgard, Odin battled the storm for days, eventually capturing it within the piece of raw Uru which would be forged into the mythical Mjolnir. As incredible as the story is, the Mother Storm’s place in the universe as a naturally occurring wonder, albeit an occasionally malevolent one, does call into question whether it was ever Odin’s place to quell it to begin with.
Apart from the harm that storms naturally create from time to time and an overtly judgmental demeanor, the God Tempest on its own is just another of the many naturally (or supernaturally) occurring phenomena that exist within the realms of the Marvel Universe. Much like Galactus, the universe consuming Black Winter, or the monstrous Alioth which feasted on time itself, the God Tempest has only ever carried on with its existence in the one way it knows how. Despite all of the destruction these forces have wrought, rarely did that occur out of pure malice. Unlike other impossibly powerful, primordial beings such as Knull, these ultimate predators subsist off of what they consume rather than unleashing death and chaos for their own sakes or out of any twisted sense of vengeance. If destroying out of necessity is at face value evil, then the God Tempest is certainly that, although by that standard Asgard and humanity would both have to answer for the exact same crimes.
The God Tempest’s pointed wrath does add a layer of nuance to its story that doesn’t quite exist in the realms of actual predators such as the Devourer of Worlds or Black Winter, yet even that doesn’t diminish the fact that it is merely a part of the universe as it formed. Odin did prove once before that the Mother Storm could be contained, though the addition of Mangog’s spirit to the equation may have made that an obsolete tactic. Hopefully Thor will find some way to calm the storm before its thunder eclipses his own, assuming that is even possible anymore.
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