Marvel Rivals | How to Play Thor - Abilities, Skins, and Tips

Thor is an B-Tier, Vanguard class Hero in Marvel Rivals. Read on to learn how to play Thor, as well as a list of abilities, skins, and voice actors!

Table of Contents

Thor Hero Overview
Thor Pros and Cons
Best Hero Companions
How to Play Thor
Thor - Hero Lore

Hero Tier List (Season 1)

Thor Hero Overview

Tier
Role	Vanguard
Difficulty	★★★・・
Real Name	Thor Odinson
VA	EN: Travis Willingham JP: Katsuki Monma

A bulky damage dealer

Thor is classified as a Vanguard, but plays more like a classic Bruiser character with a large healthpool and a respectable amount of damage. Thor's skillset revolves around managing his Thorforce resource, forcing the player to make split-second decisions while engaging the enemy. By selecting the correct abilities at the right times, Thor becomes a formidable dive tank that can both initiate fights and duel enemies.

Hero Tier List (Season 1)

Thor Pros and Cons

Pros	- High damage for a vanguard
Cons	- Abilities share a cooldown

Adaptable to Most Ranges

Most Heroes are locked into a ranged or melee playstyle, whereas Thor can use Awakening Rune to greatly boost his damage and enable the use of ranged attacks for a short period of time.

Generates Bonus Shields

While not as tanky as other Vanguards, Thor has the ability to self-generate bonus health when spending his Thorforce. This implies that Storm Surge [LSHIFT] and Hammer Throw [Right Click] grant Thor bonus hp, with Awakening Rune granting the most bonus health since it consumes the most Thorforce.

The bonus health is denoted by the blue portion of your HP, and will slowly disappear over time. So timing is key when trying to stay alive for the longest amount of time possible.

Abilities Share Cooldowns

Thor's Shared Cooldowns
	- Storm Surge - Hammer Throw - Awakening Rune

Thor's Storm Surge [LSHIFT], Hammer Throw [Right Click], and Awakening Rune [E] all share a 2s cooldown. This means that using any of the above mentioned abilities will put the other two on a short 2s cooldown.

Best Hero Companions

Hela

Hela is easily Thor's most potent offensive ally in Marvel Rivals. Both Heroes want to play aggressively, with Thor fighting on the front, and Hela fighting from the back, their playstyles directly compliment one another.

Furthermore, having both these heroes on your team gives Thor access to the Ragnarok Rebirth Team-Up, which allows Thor to continue fighting whenever Hela can land a kill.

Captain America

Captain America can takes up the role of your team's primary tank. Not only is he sturdier than Thor with his larger HP pool, but he also has a much better defensive option in Living Legend.

Both characters are also dive-oriented Vanguards which allows Thor to lean further into this playstyle without worrying about leaving his backline unprotected. Captain America can take the brunt of the enemy fire, which enables Thor to look for key targets in the backline or charge up his Ultimate ability.

In addition, Thor and Captain America also have access to the Voltaic Union Team-Up, which infuses Cap with electricity that allows him to move faster and deal damage to surrounding enemies.

What is A Team-Up?

How to Play Thor

Aim for Enemy Strategists

Thor's high HP and damage makes him a great character for breaking through the frontline and dispatching opposing Strategists. Pushing past the enemy Vanguards causes the enemy team to focus on you and creates an opening for your allies to engage. Ideally, you want to eliminate 1 or 2 backline characters to grant your team the advantage during the fight.

Weave Your Abilities and Normal Attacks

Ability > Normal Attack > Normal Attack > Ability

Thorforce's description is somewhat misleading when it talks about instantly recharging Thorforce. In actuality, landing a normal attack only recharges 1-stack of Thorforce and then goes on a cooldown until your next ability cast.

What this means is that to efficiently consume and recharge Thorforce using basic attacks, you want to use an ability then normal attack, and then immediately use abilities again. Doing it this way will allow you to consistently throw out abilities without worrying about Thorforce stacks.

Thor Hero Lore

Thor Odinson

Prince of Asgard and God of Thunder, Thor Odinson is one of the bravest warriors the cosmos has ever known. With his enchanted hammer in hand, Thor summons the full fury of the storm to smite his foes... but only if he proves himself worthy of Mjölnir's might.

Alas, Thor has suffered greatly since the Timestream Entanglement. When the All-Father was forced to enter his regenerative Odinsleep, Thor and his brother Loki battled for the throne. Through deceit and trickery, Loki bested his brother, exiling Thor to a distant and dangerous timeline.

Hero Story

Gone With The Thunder

Boom. Thor sat in the Tower of Solitude, the library-prison once used by All-Father Odin. Hunched over a stone bench in a stone room, the Tower's sole prisoner on the orders of his brother, he fumed silently, waiting for the chance to act, and fearing what fate might befall Asgard if he could not act soon. Boom. From outside came rhythmic impacts, as something powerful hurled itself against the tower's walls. Thor could only wait. Loki had outwitted him, duping him into entering the Tower and imprisoning him there. As one might expect of a clever usurper such as Loki, the room was enchanted to stifle any sound he might utter. Boom. Dust and mortar drifted from one wall of Thor's cell. He stood. It was almost time. Loki might have betrayed him and made his devious play for the throne of Asgard, but even Loki could not think of everything. Boom. It had not occurred to him, for example, that Thor could call Mjölnir without making a sound. BOOM Mjölnir exploded through the wall of the Tower of Solitude and met Thor's extended hand. He gave a shout, relieved to hear the sound of his voice again. "Brother!" With its walls shattered, the Tower of Solitude no longer held its enchantments. More quietly than his initial challenge, Thor added, "You have a surprise in store." He flew through the hole, over the city of Asgard and toward the palace. Yggdrasill's roots arched far overhead. Loki had crews at hard labor tapping the World-Tree's sap, which was rich in Chronovium. Thor had no doubt that Loki would cut a deal with the dwarves or anyone else who could use the rich sap to create magical weapons or instruments. If he hadn't already. Chronovium had also transformed Loki's magic, making him even more powerful -- but Thor felt it too. It glimmered in the carvings on Mjölnir's Uru head. He felt it even in the Odinforce. Now Loki would feel it, too. He shouted out his brother's name, letting the challenge echo across the city. "Your plan didn't work, brother! You see I'm free!" And Loki was there, manifesting in the air just out of Thor's reach. "On the contrary, brother, my plan is working perfectly. Do you not think I anticipated you would solve this problem the only way you ever solve any problem?" He smirked. "That is to say, with brute force?" The smirk was the opening Thor needed, the single moment of inattention that always got Loki in trouble. He seized Loki and dropped to the ground, smashing his brother into the stones of Asgard's palace plaza. He raised Mjölnir, but Loki stung Thor's hand with a short knife and twisted away. How long had they been inexorably moving toward this moment? Centuries. Tens of centuries. I have tried, Thor thought. I tried to make him feel like one of us. But Loki only ever looks out for Loki, and now -- again -- Asgard's future hangs in the balance. "I knew you had escaped the Tower before you were all the way through the hole," Loki sneered. "It's always makes me chuckle when you scream ‘Brother' like when we were children." "And yet you have answered my call," Thor shot back. "If you could have stopped me, why the charade?" "Oh, brother," Loki said, twisting the word, "you know I love a charade. And by escaping, you have helped settle a little dispute I was having. You see, a certain someone who may shortly be joining our conversation did not believe you would escape. And now that you have, she will doubtless see the wisdom of my proposed course of action." As if he had summoned it, a portal opened. Through it, Thor saw the unmistakable landscape of Hel, bleak and dark and endless. Hela's legions of dead were on the march, Chronovium glittering in their empty eyes, Hela herself leading them on. Space bent around her, and in the next instant, she had stepped through the portal.",
0_Content": "Boom. Thor sat in the Tower of Solitude, the library-prison once used by All-Father Odin. Hunched over a stone bench in a stone room, the Tower's sole prisoner on the orders of his brother, he fumed silently, waiting for the chance to act, and fearing what fate might befall Asgard if he could not act soon. Boom. From outside came rhythmic impacts, as something powerful hurled itself against the tower's walls. Thor could only wait. Loki had outwitted him, duping him into entering the Tower and imprisoning him there. As one might expect of a clever usurper such as Loki, the room was enchanted to stifle any sound he might utter. Boom. Dust and mortar drifted from one wall of Thor's cell. He stood. It was almost time. Loki might have betrayed him and made his devious play for the throne of Asgard, but even Loki could not think of everything. Boom. It had not occurred to him, for example, that Thor could call Mjölnir without making a sound. BOOM Mjölnir exploded through the wall of the Tower of Solitude and met Thor's extended hand. He gave a shout, relieved to hear the sound of his voice again. "Brother!" With its walls shattered, the Tower of Solitude no longer held its enchantments. More quietly than his initial challenge, Thor added, "You have a surprise in store." He flew through the hole, over the city of Asgard and toward the palace. Yggdrasill's roots arched far overhead. Loki had crews at hard labor tapping the World-Tree's sap, which was rich in Chronovium. Thor had no doubt that Loki would cut a deal with the dwarves or anyone else who could use the rich sap to create magical weapons or instruments. If he hadn't already. Chronovium had also transformed Loki's magic, making him even more powerful -- but Thor felt it too. It glimmered in the carvings on Mjölnir's Uru head. He felt it even in the Odinforce. Now Loki would feel it, too. He shouted out his brother's name, letting the challenge echo across the city. "Your plan didn't work, brother! You see I'm free!" And Loki was there, manifesting in the air just out of Thor's reach. "On the contrary, brother, my plan is working perfectly. Do you not think I anticipated you would solve this problem the only way you ever solve any problem?" He smirked. "That is to say, with brute force?" The smirk was the opening Thor needed, the single moment of inattention that always got Loki in trouble. He seized Loki and dropped to the ground, smashing his brother into the stones of Asgard's palace plaza. He raised Mjölnir, but Loki stung Thor's hand with a short knife and twisted away. How long had they been inexorably moving toward this moment? Centuries. Tens of centuries. I have tried, Thor thought. I tried to make him feel like one of us. But Loki only ever looks out for Loki, and now -- again -- Asgard's future hangs in the balance. "I knew you had escaped the Tower before you were all the way through the hole," Loki sneered. "It always makes me chuckle when you scream 'Brother' like when we were children." "And yet you have answered my call," Thor shot back. "If you could have stopped me, why the charade?" "Oh, brother," Loki said, twisting the word, "you know I love a charade. And by escaping, you have helped settle a little dispute I was having. You see, a certain someone who may shortly be joining our conversation did not believe you would escape. And now that you have, she will doubtless see the wisdom of my proposed course of action." As if he had summoned it, a portal opened. Through it, Thor saw the unmistakable landscape of Hel, bleak and dark and endless. Hela's legions of dead were on the march, Chronovium glittering in their empty eyes, Hela herself leading them on. Space bent around her, and in the next instant, she had stepped through the portal. "Loki," she said. "I see you let your brother escape." "He is more resourceful than he seems," Loki said, keeping a wary eye on Thor. "Or you were overconfident?" Hela countered. "Hardly," Loki snapped. "I have anticipated everything thus far. Of course he would break down the Tower's walls and come to find me. If I were a creature of muscle and rage, with just enough brain to speak, that is what I would do. And of course at the moment he was seeking his revenge, which he thinks of as protecting Asgard from me, you would make your grand entrance, because even more than me, Hela, you love to be the center of attention." Loki spread his arms, taking in the situation. "Where was I wrong?" "You betrayed Asgard to Hela?" Rage nearly blinded Thor. Lightning crackled from Mjölnir, and from Thor's eyes, as the Odinforce rose within him. This was unforgivable treason -- again! How many times had Loki done this, or tried to? And now, with the mortal Doctor Doom upending time and space, he was doing it again? "Asgard was always destined to be mine," Loki said. "The All-Father sleeps while the Realms are torn apart by scheming mortals. We do nothing as so-called Heroes blunder through their failed solutions to the problem. I intend to change that. But I cannot do that while you lumber around getting in the way. So." He gestured toward the portal. When Thor looked that way, he saw that the portal had enlarged a hundredfold, and the legions of the dead were upon him. They came in seemingly endless waves, eyes empty and mouths open in snarls of mindless hate. Thor tore great swathes through them with Mjölnir, lightning breaking apart Hela's armies. Asgardians, Dark Elves, trolls of Jotunheim…the denizens of all the Ten Realms came together in Hela's legions, since death alone united every race connected to the World Tree. Thor fought them alone, while Hela and Loki watched, as if he was a gladiator whose life was their entertainment. He shattered them with Mjölnir, annihilated them with lightning, but cawing over Hela's legions were an endless flock of the Nastrond Crows, hellish creatures that Thor's blows could not destroy. They swooped and pecked and clawed, and no matter how Thor struck at them, they reformed from clouds of black feathers and came at him again. No help was coming. Asgard was crippled by fear of Loki. The Valkyrior and the Crimson Hawks were away from the city fighting pointless wars in other realms, another maneuver by Loki to leave the city defenseless. All that stood between Asgard and Hela's legions was Thor himself. So be it, he thought. He would strike them down until he could no longer raise his arm. That time was coming. He slew crows by the thousand and yet their numbers were undiminished. He was still the Odinson, god of thunder…but even gods grew old, and Thor felt the centuries in his bones as he shattered the lava-crusted skeleton of a Muspelheim fire demon and unleashed a blast of lightning that tore a great hole in Hela's ranks reaching across the plaza into the portal itself. If he could only close it…but no, he had not the magic. He would fight until he fell and earn his passage to Valhalla. Then, just as Thor had abandoned hope, Hela prolonged his misery. "I tire of this game," she said. With a gesture she dispelled her armies. The sudden silence in the plaza was jarring, broken only by the cawing of Hela's crows, who remained fluttering and squawking over the broad plaza before the Palace of Asgard. One alit on Hela's shoulder as Thor calmed his battle frenzy and turned to face her. If she wanted single combat, he would offer it, but he was tired and Hela's magic was mighty. He had no faith that he would survive, or that Loki would intervene on his behalf. But she did not strike him down. "Thor," she said, "the die is cast. Asgard is Loki's. Your father abandoned it and you could not protect it. Now Loki will." With a diabolical smile she added, "And of course I will offer my own guidance." "None of the Realms will survive if you destroy the balance among them," Thor said. "You will bring Ragnarök." "No," Hela said. "The universes and the Realms are torn asunder and remade, doomed by those meddling mortals whose names for once speak true. The old ways, the old balances, they no longer apply. And you, Thor Odinson, are but a stumbling block, interfering with a new vision of the Ten Realms and beyond." Thor flexed his arms to strike at her, but a powerful enchantment held him fast. Such was her power that he had not seen her make a motion or speak a spell. "The old must make way for the new," Hela said. "And sooner or later, everyone will make way for the dead." Thor could see Loki just behind Hela, looking smug and completely in control as he created a portal from his newly tapped Chronovium. But how long before the trickster understood that Hela was playing her own tricks? The brothers locked eyes. Thor knew Loki could read his expression, even though he could not speak. This is not over, brother. I am coming for you, and when I do, no god or magic in the Ten Realms will save you. "Goodbye, Odinson," Hela sneered, her dark power ensnaring him. And with a toss of her glorious hand, Thor was flung on a journey into mystery. He fell from the sky trailing fire, and his impact left a ring of scorched ground a thousand feet across. When Thor stood, the echoes of his landing were still sounding in the dry hills that surrounded him. He was in a desert, with those hills receding in all directions under a sky that glowed an infernal red. He had never seen this place before. It was Midgard, certainly, but not the Earth he knew. Loki's sorcery had flung him very far from home indeed. Thinking of his brother got Thor moving. Whatever Earth this was, he needed to find allies to accompany him back to Asgard and remove Loki from the throne before Loki's scheming backfired and Hela ruled all the Ten Realms. But where to go…? On the horizon he could see what might be a small city. Lights blazed around a tall tower. He would start there. Then he saw something rise up into the sky from near the tower. It grew rapidly, silhouetted against a red sun, and Thor realized it was moving. Toward him. And very fast. He had just gotten Mjölnir up in front of him when a giant came screaming down out of the sky, smashing Thor into the bottom of a new impact crater. Thor felt his power rebuilding within him, along with his battle fury. He released both in a blow from Mjölnir that knocked the giant back out of the crater. Thor leaped up after him, Mjölnir poised for another blow -- and he saw his opponent was none other than the Hulk. But a different Hulk, crackling with vivid green energy and even bigger than the last time Thor had seen him, wearing a belt featuring various lights and devices. "Banner!" Thor cried out, dodging a swipe of Hulk's massive fist. "What sorcery is this?" Hulk roared and smashed Thor into the ground again. Very well, Thor thought. He knew his one-time ally was prone to unthinking rages when in battle. Sometimes he had to be brought out of them another way. Hulk's next punch met the head of Mjölnir, swung with all Thor's might. The blast wave from that collision knocked them both sprawling. Thor was up first. He leaped in a high arc over Hulk, coming down to deliver a mighty hammer blow to Hulk's belt. Gamma energy exploded out, searing Thor's eyes and knocking him flat. Dazed, he tried to get to his feet. When he could see again, the monstrous Hulk was gone and Banner sat in the shreds of his clothes and shattered pieces of his belt. "Oh," he said. "Thor." He rubbed his face as he stood, and his expression swiftly changed as he registered that it was actually Thor who stood before him. "Thor! Do you know how long we've been looking for you?" Thor didn't know. He didn't know where they were or what Banner was talking about, and he didn't care. All that mattered was Asgard. "Banner," he said, "I need your help."

Boom.

Thor sat in the Tower of Solitude, the library-prison once used by All-Father Odin. Hunched over a stone bench in a stone room, the Tower's sole prisoner on the orders of his brother, he fumed silently, waiting for the chance to act, and fearing what fate might befall Asgard if he could not act soon.

Boom.

From outside came rhythmic impacts, as something powerful hurled itself against the tower's walls. Thor could only wait. Loki had outwitted him, duping him into entering the Tower and imprisoning him there. As one might expect of a clever usurper such as Loki, the room was enchanted to stifle any sound he might utter.

Boom.

Dust and mortar drifted from one wall of Thor's cell. He stood. It was almost time. Loki might have betrayed him and made his devious play for the throne of Asgard, but even Loki could not think of everything.

Boom.

It had not occurred to him, for example, that Thor could call Mjölnir without making a sound.

BOOM

Mjölnir exploded through the wall of the Tower of Solitude and met Thor's extended hand. He gave a shout, relieved to hear the sound of his voice again.

"Brother!" With its walls shattered, the Tower of Solitude no longer held its enchantments. More quietly than his initial challenge, Thor added, "You have a surprise in store."

He flew through the hole, over the city of Asgard and toward the palace. Yggdrasill's roots arched far overhead. Loki had crews at hard labor tapping the World-Tree's sap, which was rich in Chronovium. Thor had no doubt that Loki would cut a deal with the dwarves or anyone else who could use the rich sap to create magical weapons or instruments. If he hadn't already. Chronovium had also transformed Loki's magic, making him even more powerful -- but Thor felt it too. It glimmered in the carvings on Mjölnir's Uru head. He felt it even in the Odinforce.

Now Loki would feel it, too.

He shouted out his brother's name, letting the challenge echo across the city. "Your plan didn't work, brother! You see I'm free!"

And Loki was there, manifesting in the air just out of Thor's reach. "On the contrary, brother, my plan is working perfectly. Do you not think I anticipated you would solve this problem the only way you ever solve any problem?" He smirked. "That is to say, with brute force?"

The smirk was the opening Thor needed, the single moment of inattention that always got Loki in trouble. He seized Loki and dropped to the ground, smashing his brother into the stones of Asgard's palace plaza. He raised Mjölnir, but Loki stung Thor's hand with a short knife and twisted away.

How long had they been inexorably moving toward this moment? Centuries. Tens of centuries. I have tried, Thor thought. I tried to make him feel like one of us. But Loki only ever looks out for Loki, and now -- again -- Asgard's future hangs in the balance.

"I knew you had escaped the Tower before you were all the way through the hole," Loki sneered. "It's always makes me chuckle when you scream ‘Brother' like when we were children."

"And yet you have answered my call," Thor shot back. "If you could have stopped me, why the charade?"

"Oh, brother," Loki said, twisting the word, "you know I love a charade. And by escaping, you have helped settle a little dispute I was having. You see, a certain someone who may shortly be joining our conversation did not believe you would escape. And now that you have, she will doubtless see the wisdom of my proposed course of action."

As if he had summoned it, a portal opened. Through it, Thor saw the unmistakable landscape of Hel, bleak and dark and endless. Hela's legions of dead were on the march, Chronovium glittering in their empty eyes, Hela herself leading them on. Space bent around her, and in the next instant, she had stepped through the portal.",

0_Content": "Boom.

Thor sat in the Tower of Solitude, the library-prison once used by All-Father Odin. Hunched over a stone bench in a stone room, the Tower's sole prisoner on the orders of his brother, he fumed silently, waiting for the chance to act, and fearing what fate might befall Asgard if he could not act soon.

Boom.

From outside came rhythmic impacts, as something powerful hurled itself against the tower's walls. Thor could only wait. Loki had outwitted him, duping him into entering the Tower and imprisoning him there. As one might expect of a clever usurper such as Loki, the room was enchanted to stifle any sound he might utter.

Boom.

Dust and mortar drifted from one wall of Thor's cell. He stood. It was almost time. Loki might have betrayed him and made his devious play for the throne of Asgard, but even Loki could not think of everything.

Boom.

It had not occurred to him, for example, that Thor could call Mjölnir without making a sound.

BOOM

Mjölnir exploded through the wall of the Tower of Solitude and met Thor's extended hand. He gave a shout, relieved to hear the sound of his voice again.

"Brother!" With its walls shattered, the Tower of Solitude no longer held its enchantments. More quietly than his initial challenge, Thor added, "You have a surprise in store."

He flew through the hole, over the city of Asgard and toward the palace. Yggdrasill's roots arched far overhead. Loki had crews at hard labor tapping the World-Tree's sap, which was rich in Chronovium. Thor had no doubt that Loki would cut a deal with the dwarves or anyone else who could use the rich sap to create magical weapons or instruments. If he hadn't already. Chronovium had also transformed Loki's magic, making him even more powerful -- but Thor felt it too. It glimmered in the carvings on Mjölnir's Uru head. He felt it even in the Odinforce.

Now Loki would feel it, too.

He shouted out his brother's name, letting the challenge echo across the city. "Your plan didn't work, brother! You see I'm free!"

And Loki was there, manifesting in the air just out of Thor's reach. "On the contrary, brother, my plan is working perfectly. Do you not think I anticipated you would solve this problem the only way you ever solve any problem?" He smirked. "That is to say, with brute force?"

The smirk was the opening Thor needed, the single moment of inattention that always got Loki in trouble. He seized Loki and dropped to the ground, smashing his brother into the stones of Asgard's palace plaza. He raised Mjölnir, but Loki stung Thor's hand with a short knife and twisted away.

How long had they been inexorably moving toward this moment? Centuries. Tens of centuries. I have tried, Thor thought. I tried to make him feel like one of us. But Loki only ever looks out for Loki, and now -- again -- Asgard's future hangs in the balance.

"I knew you had escaped the Tower before you were all the way through the hole," Loki sneered. "It always makes me chuckle when you scream 'Brother' like when we were children."

"And yet you have answered my call," Thor shot back. "If you could have stopped me, why the charade?"

"Oh, brother," Loki said, twisting the word, "you know I love a charade. And by escaping, you have helped settle a little dispute I was having. You see, a certain someone who may shortly be joining our conversation did not believe you would escape. And now that you have, she will doubtless see the wisdom of my proposed course of action."

As if he had summoned it, a portal opened. Through it, Thor saw the unmistakable landscape of Hel, bleak and dark and endless. Hela's legions of dead were on the march, Chronovium glittering in their empty eyes, Hela herself leading them on. Space bent around her, and in the next instant, she had stepped through the portal.

"Loki," she said. "I see you let your brother escape."

"He is more resourceful than he seems," Loki said, keeping a wary eye on Thor.

"Or you were overconfident?" Hela countered.

"Hardly," Loki snapped. "I have anticipated everything thus far. Of course he would break down the Tower's walls and come to find me. If I were a creature of muscle and rage, with just enough brain to speak, that is what I would do. And of course at the moment he was seeking his revenge, which he thinks of as protecting Asgard from me, you would make your grand entrance, because even more than me, Hela, you love to be the center of attention." Loki spread his arms, taking in the situation. "Where was I wrong?"

"You betrayed Asgard to Hela?" Rage nearly blinded Thor. Lightning crackled from Mjölnir, and from Thor's eyes, as the Odinforce rose within him. This was unforgivable treason -- again! How many times had Loki done this, or tried to? And now, with the mortal Doctor Doom upending time and space, he was doing it again?

"Asgard was always destined to be mine," Loki said. "The All-Father sleeps while the Realms are torn apart by scheming mortals. We do nothing as so-called Heroes blunder through their failed solutions to the problem. I intend to change that. But I cannot do that while you lumber around getting in the way. So." He gestured toward the portal.

When Thor looked that way, he saw that the portal had enlarged a hundredfold, and the legions of the dead were upon him.

They came in seemingly endless waves, eyes empty and mouths open in snarls of mindless hate. Thor tore great swathes through them with Mjölnir, lightning breaking apart Hela's armies. Asgardians, Dark Elves, trolls of Jotunheim…the denizens of all the Ten Realms came together in Hela's legions, since death alone united every race connected to the World Tree. Thor fought them alone, while Hela and Loki watched, as if he was a gladiator whose life was their entertainment. He shattered them with Mjölnir, annihilated them with lightning, but cawing over Hela's legions were an endless flock of the Nastrond Crows, hellish creatures that Thor's blows could not destroy. They swooped and pecked and clawed, and no matter how Thor struck at them, they reformed from clouds of black feathers and came at him again.

No help was coming. Asgard was crippled by fear of Loki. The Valkyrior and the Crimson Hawks were away from the city fighting pointless wars in other realms, another maneuver by Loki to leave the city defenseless. All that stood between Asgard and Hela's legions was Thor himself. So be it, he thought. He would strike them down until he could no longer raise his arm.

That time was coming. He slew crows by the thousand and yet their numbers were undiminished. He was still the Odinson, god of thunder…but even gods grew old, and Thor felt the centuries in his bones as he shattered the lava-crusted skeleton of a Muspelheim fire demon and unleashed a blast of lightning that tore a great hole in Hela's ranks reaching across the plaza into the portal itself. If he could only close it…but no, he had not the magic. He would fight until he fell and earn his passage to Valhalla.

Then, just as Thor had abandoned hope, Hela prolonged his misery. "I tire of this game," she said. With a gesture she dispelled her armies.

The sudden silence in the plaza was jarring, broken only by the cawing of Hela's crows, who remained fluttering and squawking over the broad plaza before the Palace of Asgard. One alit on Hela's shoulder as Thor calmed his battle frenzy and turned to face her. If she wanted single combat, he would offer it, but he was tired and Hela's magic was mighty. He had no faith that he would survive, or that Loki would intervene on his behalf.

But she did not strike him down. "Thor," she said, "the die is cast. Asgard is Loki's. Your father abandoned it and you could not protect it. Now Loki will." With a diabolical smile she added, "And of course I will offer my own guidance."

"None of the Realms will survive if you destroy the balance among them," Thor said. "You will bring Ragnarök."

"No," Hela said. "The universes and the Realms are torn asunder and remade, doomed by those meddling mortals whose names for once speak true. The old ways, the old balances, they no longer apply. And you, Thor Odinson, are but a stumbling block, interfering with a new vision of the Ten Realms and beyond."

Thor flexed his arms to strike at her, but a powerful enchantment held him fast. Such was her power that he had not seen her make a motion or speak a spell.

"The old must make way for the new," Hela said. "And sooner or later, everyone will make way for the dead."

Thor could see Loki just behind Hela, looking smug and completely in control as he created a portal from his newly tapped Chronovium. But how long before the trickster understood that Hela was playing her own tricks? The brothers locked eyes. Thor knew Loki could read his expression, even though he could not speak. This is not over, brother. I am coming for you, and when I do, no god or magic in the Ten Realms will save you.

"Goodbye, Odinson," Hela sneered, her dark power ensnaring him. And with a toss of her glorious hand, Thor was flung on a journey into mystery.

He fell from the sky trailing fire, and his impact left a ring of scorched ground a thousand feet across. When Thor stood, the echoes of his landing were still sounding in the dry hills that surrounded him. He was in a desert, with those hills receding in all directions under a sky that glowed an infernal red. He had never seen this place before. It was Midgard, certainly, but not the Earth he knew. Loki's sorcery had flung him very far from home indeed.

Thinking of his brother got Thor moving. Whatever Earth this was, he needed to find allies to accompany him back to Asgard and remove Loki from the throne before Loki's scheming backfired and Hela ruled all the Ten Realms.

But where to go…?

On the horizon he could see what might be a small city. Lights blazed around a tall tower. He would start there.

Then he saw something rise up into the sky from near the tower. It grew rapidly, silhouetted against a red sun, and Thor realized it was moving.

Toward him. And very fast.

He had just gotten Mjölnir up in front of him when a giant came screaming down out of the sky, smashing Thor into the bottom of a new impact crater. Thor felt his power rebuilding within him, along with his battle fury. He released both in a blow from Mjölnir that knocked the giant back out of the crater. Thor leaped up after him, Mjölnir poised for another blow -- and he saw his opponent was none other than the Hulk. But a different Hulk, crackling with vivid green energy and even bigger than the last time Thor had seen him, wearing a belt featuring various lights and devices. "Banner!" Thor cried out, dodging a swipe of Hulk's massive fist. "What sorcery is this?"

Hulk roared and smashed Thor into the ground again.

Very well, Thor thought. He knew his one-time ally was prone to unthinking rages when in battle. Sometimes he had to be brought out of them another way.

Hulk's next punch met the head of Mjölnir, swung with all Thor's might. The blast wave from that collision knocked them both sprawling. Thor was up first. He leaped in a high arc over Hulk, coming down to deliver a mighty hammer blow to Hulk's belt. Gamma energy exploded out, searing Thor's eyes and knocking him flat. Dazed, he tried to get to his feet. When he could see again, the monstrous Hulk was gone and Banner sat in the shreds of his clothes and shattered pieces of his belt.

"Oh," he said. "Thor." He rubbed his face as he stood, and his expression swiftly changed as he registered that it was actually Thor who stood before him. "Thor! Do you know how long we've been looking for you?"

Thor didn't know. He didn't know where they were or what Banner was talking about, and he didn't care. All that mattered was Asgard. "Banner," he said, "I need your help."

Everything Burns

Coming Soon, Stay Tuned!

Frigga, Gaea And Firehair

Coming Soon, Stay Tuned!