Al Ewing talks The Immortal Thor! #marvelcomics #thorloveandthunder

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hello fellow Travelers and welcome to

another episode The ders Stars podcast

third season are my loyal listeners

thank you for your continued support

it's an amazing episode because Al Ying

bores of M ship talk The Immortal Thor

from Marvel Comics now come on Bor as we

go traversing the Stars hi Mr Ying thank

you so much for coming to the virtu

Stars podcast thank you glad to be here

again so now you're the right of the

immortal Thor and you just came you came

off a a amazing run a very well-received

run of immortal Hall so yeah yeah so is

there something specific about the

adjective Immortal that kind

of represents specific theme or tone in

common that you're writing I want it to

feel like the sort of luxury good um no

I kind of want it to to

be it's more like a challenge to myself

um I knew going into thought that I

wanted to do a long run I wanted to I

wanted to try and get 50 issues out of

it I wanted to kind of um do it at the

highest level I can do stuff um try and

bring my game to it now you know there's

certain um so it was kind of it was both

like a challenge to me it was like well

can I do this again because I don't want

to only do it the once do a comic that

sort of lands on a similar level

and you know people like as much and

carries a lot of the same themes you

know we're starting to see the kind of

environmental thing creeping and we're

starting to see a couple of the horror

beats it's not a horror book it's like a

fantasy book um as we go we're going to

kind of get more and more into other

other things that people might feelings

that people might recognize from from H

um it was also kind of calling it that

was very

much I I kind of didn't want to because

it's like Well everybody's going to have

these expectations and then when they

pick up issue one it's going to be a

very different book and so it came to

pass I did do the thing I did do the

thing again where I had two double

spreads in a

row um that was a deliberate callback

that was a deliberate like linking my

teeth

um but it is it is a very different book

and I know when people got started it

settled down a little now but when

people got started there was a lot of

like from you know the sort of the cogn

Senti the the critic the CRI karate um

were very much kind of like oh I don't o

I don't know what this is oh this isn't

what I expected I like yeah that's the

point that's why it's got a all on it um

but

like you know we're sort of settling

into a bit now where I've got my feet

under me now we're starting to go places

um it was also calling it that was also

basically saying to

editorial and the hups like look I'm

serious I want a long run on this um and

I still you know I still had to pitch a

long run still had to go into the room

and go

like okay here's what I'm doing for the

next 25 issues here's what I'm doing for

next 50

issues you know and I sort of tested the

water slightly by going like listen this

beat do you want it in 25 because it

could go in 20 I said no no no that's a

25 be and I said okay um I still don't

know how secure it is I don't know how

secure anything is but there was

definitely calling it Immortal was a

deliberate tying this new book

to you know what has

been a very successful book but also

quite a critically successful book um it

was basically say you know saying to

everybody to like to myself to the

higher ups to the editorial to like uh

to the readers I want to try and do this

again um operative word is

try uh but like

like yeah and you know I mean Immortal

he was a very it was a very difficult

book in a lot of ways it was very kind

of I didn't have too good A Time coming

out the other end of it um so there is

there is also an element of like I want

to kind of Pi another run at this you

know I want to take another run at the

football and see if I

can it's like yeah yeah yeah you said

really good it's not you know I I think

I want to do better I want to have

another crack at

it um so it's all of these things um is

the reason the reasoning there well it's

kind of ironic that um Donnie Cades

followed your inal haulk run with his

Hulk run and you follow the um his Thor

run with your Immortal Thor run and it's

kind of interesting and when you think

about Thor you have great run by Lee W

Simonson like said you had case had a

great run what did you decide to make

your run distinct from what came before

and what did you want to add to the

Mythos that the others prior to you did

not add I mean I was coming after some

great stuff in that um I mean Thor has a

tendency to kind of bring out

everybody's

a um and yeah so you had Jason doing

this multi-year run this massive epic

Saga which I was kind of like off at the

sidelines for the big beginning of doing

Loki and then you know I kind of like

dipped out of Asgard all together for

like a long

time um and then you know coming coming

after Jason you had like you had Donnie

who was

basically did this very kind of like

highly epic run um in that it was kind

of trying to kind of it was it you you

felt this similar sense of scale to what

Jason was doing but much more of the

sort of grandio kind of heavy metal um

almost almost dialing that up a little

bit um so I guess um coming after that

and sort of coming

in especially coming in when that story

was kind

of unable to come to a close because of

you know Donny's accident and the rest

of it

um

basically I was I was kind of in at the

tail end like inting slightly I did like

a couple of I did a couple of issues

um of like Thor and Venom teaming up

where like I was kind of trying to

do very much um I'm you know don't

ignore me I'm not even here you know

this is Don show um and kind of trying

to do

something he have liked and and you know

take you a couple of notes on him on how

to leave things the the Don Blake Beats

at the end where Don Blake gets infected

by like you know evil Venom

is you know that was that was basically

much his his specification so so kind of

coming in after all this I I knew I had

to kind of make a a strong left

turn and I guess the big thing was I

don't really want to

do a story where Thor is questioning his

own worthiness because that has been

done very

well and then following that we've had a

thing where like Thor is kind of

questioning his own worthiness to be

king which has been done very well and

you know I've kind of have had a look

back at like and it was like oh yeah D

was when he was all f as well and he was

kind of like oh why do you spend so much

time on midgard like so I'm glad I

didn't do that beat because that's been

done very well um so like I was kind of

okay well we need to have a Thor who is

secure in himself and now all of the

kind of the threats and the the problems

and the issues are kind of coming at

him from outside but like what he can do

in the face of this is sort of retreat

to his core and like take strength from

all of the lessons he has learned in the

previous

runs and in that sense it'll both be

different to what's come before but ALS

also true to what's come with um which

is important to me because I don't I I

really don't want to do this thing where

it's like oh hey remember remember

everything you were just reading well

forget it and I did I did a little bit

of that because I kind of brought the

Rainbow Bridge back because I was like

that was that was my big number one

moment I was like we got to have the

Rainbow Bridge back and since it only

just got destroyed it's got to come back

at a huge terrible

cost and we won't tell anybody what that

cost is for a long

time uh but we'll hinted it when I was

originally thinking I was like oh let's

go really Viking with this let's have

like s a kind of a beard in plates and

like uh

well you know we'll we'll sort of do the

current costume but we'll kind of Viking

it up even more we'll we'll put lot of

chain mail on him we'll kind of have him

sort

of almost becoming this sort of Odin

figure with like and I was like well

here's how I she thought and I just like

oh oh oh and then he sent me this long

email which like actually I was thinking

of going back to the Kirby for the

covers and this is why and he gets into

it and it's really smart stuff because

he sort of oh see Thor as this kind of

living piece of Pop Culture I think to

give Alex credit he knows exactly what I

say to me

um and he's got I see Thor is this like

living piece of pop culture and it's

like yeah he should be like a living

fiction walking the Earth and sort of so

no no we shouldn't we shouldn't like

push this further we should we should go

back um but

also yeah if you look at all the covers

he's got this kind of blow coming out of

him from within andex had this thing of

like

um oh he should be like glowing all the

time he should have this kind of Godly

Radiance coming out of him so he seems

he's not like other he's not like the

other super he's different and it's like

well we can't have him do that all the

time time but yeah anytime he's using

like his all power um yeah we'll give

him like the blue go and we'll do we'll

do the Alex stuff and basically you know

Alex was

also uh what did he do he um so he kind

of designed like well redesigned

designed how to go back to the the Kirby

um he also designed

tonos uh which really

informed a lot of stuff because I was

already doing like the art God Gods

thing and he designed up God Lok as

well and that was all like okay right so

like that aligns with what I've been

thinking and encourages me to push that

thinking even

further um because previously it was

like well what have we seen about god

Loki oh he's got a very flat hat made of

gold um and he's got a kind of bit no no

no now he's like now he looks like this

and it's like oh okay

wellow um that's frightening please okay

this is now we're getting into it um and

look Alex designed one more thing which

we haven't seen yet and we won't for a

while but this is something I've been

planning since issue one and Alex was

like wait wait wait wait wa I put it

right at the end I oh yeah and then

we're gonna do this um if we you know

well I assume we'll get it but if we do

we'll do this um and

I what's what's this tell me more about

this thing I was like well this won't be

till like issue 25 or so oh okay and and

another giant email going like well this

is what I think I was like Wow and once

again all the Beats it's like yeah we're

on the same and I can't say a single

other word about it because it's gonna

come up in issue

25 so I think one thing that's very

interesting about the the Run um for

casual Thor fans especially fans of the

of the films Thor's mother has always

been a fr forget how however you want to

pronounce the name now issue a clearly

states that he's the son of Gaia or

literally Earth uh Gaia can you explain

um the contradiction there a little bit

and how does this change the origin and

our understanding of Thor in the

original North mythology um Thor is the

son of Jord who is the earth um

so yeah this is

like this is something that has always

been in there and when it kind of

migrated to Marvel Comics um I believe

it was Roy Thomas who really there was a

period which I do need to go back and

read it's all the Ring of the nebling

stuff um but there was a period where

right on was like and this is post this

is kind of after like Tales of Asgard

which was in Kirby was getting into all

of the the nor stuff but I don't believe

and I'm going to come right out of this

podcast and go and hunt down Marvel

unlimited and see what the origin of

Thor is under Kirby I don't think he

mentioned

it um I think it was Roy Thomas he

basically has Odin basically come down

to G and go it's really blatant in that

first telling it's like hey G I'd like

to do some Eugenics game and G's like

yeah let's let's make a super child and

then you know s takes the baby back to

like uh frer who is like hey friger look

I just lay with guia and conceive this

baby and fr's like awesome I will raise

him as my own this is the great eugenic

like oh my God so I feel like it's kind

of more of a thing in like later

tellings where it's like oh oh wow so

you you know you cheated on me with the

earthless and it's like you're being

kind of weird and like and so you know

it's it's sort

of I mean the most recent one was

um there was a bit of talk about Thor's

mother being the Phoenix which I I think

was a very sort of good part of that

Avengers run

but gets a little sticky with larger

Thor so I think Jason did did a good

thing in the end which is he kind

of he had basically the Phoenix as a

sort of like Midwife to Thor

um kind of a godmother um in a very

literal sense and like basically that

allows thought you know

to

um you know in that in that particular

story Thor needs a little bit of that

juice and has it and that's great um I

feel like for what we're doing we're

wrangling slightly back towards the you

know the

previous just because um

there's

not much as we had um

Thor um saving a mutant and fighting

orcus in issue one that was when I was

working in the X office uh that made it

much easier to do I don't really want to

kind of

bring X stuff in all the time um you

know I'm not I'm not like so I'm sort of

like slightly backing away from it in

the fure future other Riders

May I'm not closing that door in the

future other Riders May back towards it

but like um I do like that original

mythology angle and it works really well

for what we're doing in this book so uh

now as the films I can only imagine that

there's only so much you can do in two

hours maybe they're saving it for Thor

five I don't

know but it is in the original mythology

s the films are wrong well well one

interesting thing and issue as well is

that Gaia states that she gave the human

race Thor um and Thor is basically her

mercy um to show to humanity

um U so what does this mean what do she

mean by this and for which crime

specifically did the humans need Mercy

from

punishment look out the window it's um

yeah it's like the humans have not been

treating Earth well uh even in the

Marvel Universe especially in the Marvel

Universe like roxon is like unab evil

um probably this series I think I think

Gia gets kind of a little angry

sometimes in some Comics but in general

she's very cuddly she's very much like

the Earth mother in the classic kind of

d t sort of hipping and if I was doing

some stuff with like Elder gods and sort

of God gods and you know these these

horrific kind of um uh these horrific

things that Alex was like adding to the

bottom of his emails

um yeah I mean I mean coming face to

face with Toros we kind of beefed him up

slightly from um Martin kind of beefed

him up slightly from Alex's original in

in Alex's original he's like this

horrific scrawny nightmare um I assume

this stuff is back matter or will become

back matter but like um yeah it was a

really horrific thing and I just thought

well at a certain point

um Thor's going to confront

guia and also we want to show guia at

like the beginning of time again I don't

think this is a Roy Thomas but this is

somebody else but it was in a Thor anual

we kind of learned where all the Elder

Gods came from it was basically a giant

this giant Philip K Dix facing the sky

like staring lightning down at the

primor Earth and that is my meat that's

my absolute Jam um anytime I can do a

giant Philip K dixar face in the sky

that is like vast and terrible and is

also God that's like I love that that's

idea um so I love I love having the Dem

around um I love that all these PE all

these dudes in the 70s were thinking

this way too um and yeah know yeah let's

have gu young go has burst from the

earth she looks frightening and weird

and inhuman and when Thor you know goes

down to like her cave like in the bottom

of the Death Mountain to kind

of you know have a stern word with her

it's like yeah she looks bad this is

this is like the the the Grim face of

nature this is the nature that will kill

you this is if you climb Everest he'll

probably die and he'll die in a

queue uh because of what humans have

done to

Everest and and it's like there's this

real thing of like we are you know I'm

increasingly like wonder if we're going

to make it out of this one it's it's

sort of we really are not doing a very

good job of our stewardship of

um of the earth and we we' we've known

we're not doing a good job for a very

long

time and it's not just that like we're

we're suddenly doing a job a bad job now

it's that we have always been doing a a

bad a bad job of the earth and our

inertia is what um is what guire is is

punishing us for our our inability to

change our desperate Reliance on the

status

quo now this is all taking place in the

superhero comic so we're getting some

Wheels within Wheels here we're getting

some

mattera um and yeah one of the questions

is like okay cancel change yeah cancel

really change um he's he's smiling more

uh he's got it you know he's got it all

that's that's all is he

um I mean we we we're sort of doing this

thing where Thor's kind of on this Quest

um that he doesn't fully know he's on

but he's gained one additional magical

weapon already which he's about to be

tested with you know I can't say more

about that but it's

like yeah you know

um are you are you worthy to kind of

wield this thing means different things

with different magical weapons and it's

like sometimes it's just are you good

with it

um but like B yeah Thor is kind of on

this Quest where he is to gain these

magical weapons and sort of learn learn

their use yeah what what Gyra is kind of

all about is

basically Humanity cannot change

until we absolutely have to and and like

the time is coming fast when we're

absolutely going to have to you know you

ask why gu is is kind of punishing

Humanity it's like

well it's on two levels it's one it's

like okay we bring you know the Elder

Gods bring the Elder gods out to kind of

punish the world that's a very sort of

mythological kind of punishment for

hubris and two it's

like the the problem here is kind of

a it's a refusal to change it's a

refusal to leave the comfortable

systems that we're you know I'm as

guilty as this as anybody else you know

I'm um because you have the concept of

Gia as very much the villain Thor has to

confront her

Gia representing the Earth if Thor

beats Gaia or what does that mean Thor

cannot Thor cannot beat guy Thor cannot

fight guy all Thor can do is stay her

Roth um I mean go makes that very Play

Because th kind of does the thing of

um

not is like well yeah but realistically

though you know that's not you know

you're just you're just acting up at

this point um but yeah so so Thor cannot

fight Gia cannot beat guia all Thor can

do is sort of stay Gia's WTH

and uh who saw can be is

um the Elder

Gods uh who gu has unloose because gu's

not

attacking gu's not attacking Earth Earth

and Humanity herself

um it could be argued that like the

systems of the environmental systems of

the Earth are kind of

um but that's because of things that we

have done um I don't think go is go has

go does not have a thumb on the scales

in this what go has done is basically

let loose the Elder Gods as a kind of

warning um to

humanity and what Thor can do

[Music]

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being the monitor it's

like it's basically it I mean this is um

again I don't want to I don't want to

spoil the comic that's out literally

days from now but

um this isn't the most together plan THS

ever had uh it's pretty much right well

if you want me to confront a PO I will

here's one here's the one I know here's

one I'm on you know like speaking terms

with th Thor does not know

like it's you know Thor's going to roxon

he's he's going to fight an enemy he can

understand

essentially

um but like yeah the minur is basically

a kind of I mean Jason kind of created

him as a sort of

unfettered

um endstage capitalism

force uh he's always kind of been that

he's sort of come

he's also like self-destructive in the

way that endstate capitalism also is in

that you know the fact that he's

basically talking to without his face on

it um as a momento of his

last brilliant idea um is is kind of

um is very

telling uh I think

basically I mean the May gives gives a

speech in the com and comic that's

basically like this is what my deal is

this is why I do it and I feel like

that's what he says is kind of true

of I don't know it's it's um I'm not a

big fan of people with a billion dollars

I don't

um I don't I don't think I don't think

having that much money is or sort of

gaining that much money is kind

of possible without a degree of

exploitation of your fellow human beings

um and you know that's that's the monor

the monitor is kind of one of these

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um one of these great characters I

basically Jason stopped me from killing

him last time I was like and hell's the

man Joseph was like don't do that don't

do that you're gonna need this guy again

I was like okay well he really cuts the

m and it's like

um yeah but it's it's I the monor is

basically I think quite a necessary

villain because he's both that very

cartoonish kind of Captain Planet style

enemy and he's also kind of reminded

that yeah those guys are real

now um we've sort of gone off gone off

the bit where where where these people

would sort of wear suits somewhere and

keep

quiet now they're all like you know

they're

all buying social media so we all know

how stupid they

are uh yeah so anyway you know I'm I'm

um I don't know I'm I'm sort

of I'm very aware that like I I

reap I reap the benefits of the

capitalist system I'm also I'm also

aware that you know you can you can re

you can have enough and the more people

who have enough the better better it

is and you know maybe that maybe the

system could be a little less

capitalist uh so more people could have

enough and also we could maybe

fix some of the stuff that is being

driven by um I mean obviously I live in

I live in in England

where the the trains no longer exist and

uh the rivers are literally filled with

quite

literally packed packed with

um because somebody with shares in

the water companies

um wanted a yacht it's

like I I would like a river that is not

full of

um I I would like to be able to kind of

to have that anyway that's what Thor's

about so

what can listeners look forward to in

the next upcoming issues of Thor mortal

Thor um you can look forward to things

getting more mythical one I we we have a

couple of issues of Thor versus the

minor Thor which kind of Segways

into the rocks on Thor which was

originally we were going to have an

extra sized issue of Thor where it's a

backup strip we did a

bit

then

um the just thing the the hups heard

about the bit and instead of saying

please don't do that bit they were like

let's give a whole let's have a whole

issue that does the

bit um and let's make up like a fake a

fake rocks on comic and let's put it out

and it'll it'll be hilarious and I was

like okay well now I have to make it

hilarious so I put my best foot forward

on that and I did a funny thing there's

a bit where it's sort

of the comic turns on itself for

existing um you know I started

to become very aware of like well if

they're giving you a whole comic it prob

be that's too um so you know yeah the it

it goes it it goes with some lwh hanging

fruit it goes at itself it's sort

of I don't know if it's if people read

it and go like this feels to me like an

issue of Ambush

BG I've done my job um it's it's a fun

thing we then uh um we we have a lot of

fun with the roxen Thor um and we

it's so that's basically takes us up to

issue

10 after that we get into a thing where

I started counting how many children

Odin

had and I was like oh why don't we get

them all in a room

together and then I thought well why

don't

we

um why don't we invent a new

one um who you know is taken from the

north mythology and i' probably if

people have been following Thor and kind

of following like this list you probably

know who it is but like um yeah a brand

new a brand new Odin Odin child will

will turn up um and go on an adventure

with all of the other Odin children

every single one even Vier um my my

biggest surprise during this and I very

nearly made a terrible mistake with

would have had all of the mythological

people mad at

meod the Swift messenger god um who is

the son of Odin I thought he'd been made

up for the modern Comics because they

needed a super speed ass guardian and

they thought Let's do let's do Hermes

but he no no he's in the ERS he's the

messenger of Odin he's entirely entirely

real entirely real Norse uh mythological

figure

[Music]

um just astonishing like

um astonishing bit of work there from

um know whoever it was uh just going

like let's steal Hermes

um I I don't know the internets you need

to be you need to be a proper historian

to really get in on

um really get in on that but like um

yeah basically her mod is there um and

it all kind of revolves around in issue

one where tier uh the God of War went

into that box and that page at the back

that was connected to and written by

Jonathan Hickman and connected to his

GDs

um I guess I guess Maxi series now um

they're stopping at eight I hope they

carry on later it's been a lot of fun um

it's it's you know I was like well how

does how can I make this work for me and

I did make it work for me

um so yeah at the time Jonathan was like

um oh I want to use bulat and I was like

I might need Boulder um because he's

like a big son of Odin

uh how about teer and yeah you know like

yeah yeah it works just as well for teer

and it does it works better for to but

like um it turns out um this is the

first real appearance of Boulder that

we've seen in the in the comings of1 so

I was wrong about that I didn't need

it but at the same time it does work

much better for me that it's tier in the

Box um in a lot of ways so we get to

have a lot of fun with that we get to uh

pick up on a couple of threads like

um couple of Cliffhangers we've seen

already we get to pick up on following

that um I think now we're getting into

stuff that uh has not been sisted

yet but I will say an old buddy of

Thor is

back uh an old an old team team

Supreme uh is back to answer a question

people have been asking about turning

wheels and people who y a lot about the

wheel having turned in my

work um so an old buddy of THS is going

to come and

uh you know just just party up the place

a little bit make you know bring turn

everybody's Crown upside

down uh and you know you can probably

guess who it is based on those

Clues uh and and and after that I really

can't anything because you know I've

already hinted that giant things are

coming in ideally issue 25 maybe sooner

or if you

know

um if we need to but like we'll

see so yeah that is that is what is

upcoming in Thor um so it's going it's

going quite sort of mythological both

kind of Marvel Cosmic and also also nor

Smith um if people are like I've had

enough of this commy talk from you um

then it's you know that is that is you

know we're going to we're going to in

and out of that um the Min tour isn't

going to be like Public Enemy Number One

of this book They're they're a bigger F

to fight well it sounds absolutely all

I'm loving what you're doing with

Immortal Thor um Mr Ying been absolute

pleasure sir thank you thanks so much

thank you so much sir have a great night

thank you for listening to another

episode The divers Stars podcast please

help me battle those algorithms by

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for the next episode when we are visited

by Chrissa

Grant

[Applause]

oh