Thor God of Thunder 17

The concluding chapter of 'The Accursed' story arc begins with a fight between the denizens of the Nine Realms underneath the streets of New York. Thor isn't doing very well as he is being attacked by a truly horrid creature referred to as a 'demonic centipede'. Yuk.

Then we get a great panel showing the timely arrival of the League of Realms.

The Light Elves represented by Ivory Honeyshot. Ud for the Trolls. Screwbeard for the Dwarves.

The adversary is the classic Thor villain, Malekith of the Dark Elves. Malekith's magic is particularly grisly under Jason Aaron's pen but this one bit is very nicely done.

Thor's arrival wreathed with lightining is impressive enough but look at the panel at the lower left - when Mjolnir hits, Malekith changes into a a swarm of butterflies; the Dark Elf is shown to reform himself at a later panel. Just delightful.

I did say that Malekith's magic was very grisly right. Here's a great sample.

Eyes into vipers - holy shit!

Let's take a closer look at Screwbeard.

Here's what really got me up in arms.

So Screwbeard gets his hand lobbed off (by a friend no less). Ok, par for the course, I've been watching and reading a lot of Game of Thrones. Now we have this panel.

What the? Notice that Screwbeard is (1) apparently not feeling any pain and (2) making light of the loss of his limb. That's just off for me. I would think that in any battle the loss of a hand would have both a tremendous physical and psychological effect on the recipient - he certainly shouldn't be running around shouting battle cries 'for his hand'.

As the story continues, Malekith keeps throwing those cruel spells of his.

'Liver into a tangle of broken glass'; and Thor manages to spit the said glass on his assailant. The Thunder God is just one tough customer.

Eventually, Malekith is subdued and Thor and company turns him over to the Tribal Council of the Dark Elves, presumably for execution or some similar punishment. The Tribal Council surprises everyone with a baffling move.

Baffling it may be but I actually like this move. I like it because I don't understand it and it makes sense that the minds of the Dark Elves are so strange that we can't understand how they think and why they do the things they do. They're Dark Elves and the fact that the rest of us can't second guess them only makes future tales about them richer - and surprising.

Speaking of future tales this story concludes with a hint about the formation of a rival group to the League of Realms - I'm sure this will form the foundation of more Thor adventures going forward.

Here's a map of the Nine Realms.

Next: Tintin Cigars of the Pharaoh