Al Ewing Brings Thor Back to Life, Reveals Mortal Thor Plans

Thor‘s journey under the watchful eye of writer Al Ewing continues, and there are plenty of twists and turns in store for the Thunder God’s legion of fans. Immortal Thor #25 marked the end of the title, and it concluded with a thunderstrike after Loki killed his brother. Of course, you can’t keep a good Thunder God down for long, and readers got to witness Thor’s death and rebirth, leading into the new Mortal Thor. This is the natural progression of Al Ewing’s work on the God of Thunder, and he’s offering up some more details to keep fans on the edge of their seats.

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ComicBook spoke with Al Ewing about the ending of Immortal Thor #25 and the upcoming Mortal Thor #1. Ewing spoke about Thor’s confrontation with Donald Blake in the afterlife, how Blake’s involvement grew in the larger story, Thor’s new status quo as Sigurd Jarlson, how Midgard and Asgard will respond to recent events, what readers can expect in future issues of Mortal Thor, and much more. We can also exclusively reveal interior pages for Mortal Thor #1 by Pasqual Ferry

ComicBook: We have some fun mysteries heading into Mortal Thor #1, but let’s start with the ending of Immortal Thor #25. How important was Thor’s confrontation with Donald Blake as the title transitions to Mortal Thor?

Al Ewing: Well, when I first came up with the idea way back before Issue #1, Donald Blake didn’t figure so much – Thor would die as a God and be reborn as a mortal through some other means, that probably wouldn’t have been as interesting. Weirdly, I’d actually been the last person to touch Donald Blake after Donny Cates gave him the role of God of Lies – I was writing a crossover between Thor and Venom, and the main plot point Donny requested was that Blake should become the Serpent at the end, so he obviously had some plans for that status quo that were sadly curtailed, so I wasn’t planning to do much with them at first.

But then, the closer I got to actually writing the story, the more Blake wove himself back in. First the Enchantress returned, and it became obvious that the Keep would be back too, which gave me an opportunity to touch on how Blake had started down the road to what he was now after his more heroic role in the JMS run. And then with #17, I ended up calling back to that run, to the old Thor #1 when Thor returned after his long absence, in a story which also deals with Gods living as mortals. You see how these things all connect and rhyme. Anyway, by the time I got to #25 – which I’d planned for a while to be “Thor in the land of the dead” – in the same place he’d returned to in #17 and that JMS Thor #1 – it seemed like Donald Blake was the obvious missing piece I needed to complete things, and I’d almost accidentally set him up to be exactly that.

What can you tell us about Sigurd Jarlson? All readers know so far, thanks to Lukki, is that he’s got a wallet and an apartment key. What will be his status quo going into the first issue, and how will he go about filling the blanks of his memory?

You know as much as he does. The first issue is a pretty good introduction to this big, amnesiac Scandinavian with no powers, but it won’t be the beginning of his quest. Sigurd just wants what any other ordinary mortal wants – a job, friends, a life for himself. He doesn’t set on the quest, the quest sets on him – and it might not let him go once it’s grabbed him.

I love this trajectory you’ve set Thor on, where he and Asgard have been forgotten by Midgard, and it’s up to Thor to bring the magic of the Gods back to Earth. How will Midgard, and Asgard, respond to these recent events?

Midgard doesn’t know there are any events to respond to – it’s just Earth. Nobody thinks of it as Midgard… except, of course, for any Asgardians who were on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge when it all went down. There are one or two… or three or four… but it might not be Thor that they’re a problem for. Asgard, meanwhile, is cut off from Midgard along with the other realms, and they’re all making the best of it, starting with deciding who’s going to ascend to the throne of Asgard now the All-Father is dead. Magni doesn’t want it – but will he have a choice? We’ll be exploring that subplot in regular “Tales Of Asgard” issues by some great guest artists. Oh, and there’s at least one mortal who’s trapped in Asgard – and I’m not talking about Blackjack O’Hare.