Thor #21 reveals the origin of the God of Thunder’s greatest enemy and the godly mistake that brought the powerful being into existence.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Thor #21, available now from Marvel Comics.
Recent developments in the life of Thor, the God of Thunder have been quite unsettling. After struggling to control his enchanted hammer Mjolnir, the Asgardian warrior has discovered that the iconic weapon is leading a separate life of its own. Additionally, it has been revealed that the God of Hammers contains a significant part of Mangog, one of Thor’s greatest enemies who was believed to have been destroyed.
Thor and Odin’s search for Mjolnir has dragged the Asgardians across the cosmos to be beaten and broken by the enigmatic God of Hammers. Even worse, Thor #21 (by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson, and VC’s Joe Sabino) exposes the devastating truth that the God of Hammers is comprised not only of Mjolnir, but also the rage of Mangog.
First introduced in 1968’s Thor #154 (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Mangog was believed to be the sole survivor of an alien race slaughtered by Odin in the ancient past. However, it has now been revealed that the being is the physical manifestation of the hatred of those billions of lives Odin destroyed. For ages, Mangog had been imprisoned beneath Asgard, until it was set free by Ulik the Rock Troll. Rather than simply striking back at the All-Father or God of Thunder, however, Mangog set his sights set on bringing about the total destruction of Asgard through Ragnarok. The being was ultimately defeated when it was cut off from the fear, hatred, and other negative emotions that fueled its power.
Over the years Mangog has resurfaced to torment Asgard, although he has never posed as much of a threat as he does now thanks to his latest defeat. During the end of Jane Foster’s reign as Thor, Mangog had proven to be virtually unstoppable. The villain was ultimately felled when Foster chained the creature to Mjolnir and left them both at the heart of the sun. While this was enough to destroy the creature’s physical form, his essence remained. From there, all it took was Mjolnir being reforged during 2019’s War of the Realms for the hateful spirit to merge with the God Tempest within the hammer, and Asgard’s worst nightmare was reborn.
Mangog was already one of the most powerful enemies that Thor has ever faced, but merging with the God Tempest is the kind of upgrade that might make the creature truly unstoppable. Even worse is the fact that, like Mangog, the God Tempest was imprisoned within Mjolnir by a cruel and callous Odin over a million years ago. Although the God Tempest was believed to be dead, it was instead festering away in a silent hatred that now fuels its new form.
The unquenchable rage of Mangog has already proven beyond a doubt to be a very viable threat. If there is any being with a right to want to bring about the violent end of Odin’s legacy, it is certainly the being manifested from the race that was cruelly slaughtered by the former king of Asgard.
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