So, this week we’ve covered Jane
Foster aka Mighty Thor, as well as two of Thor’s classic enemies, Amora the
Enchantress and Skurge the Executioner. All of which are solid characters and
would be welcome additions to the MCU. Or at least the two ladies would be, as Skurge
has already bowed out, so to speak. The last character I want to talk about is
a newer addition to Thor’s canon. And I’m talking new-new, not like Jane Fos-Thor
where it’s an existing character getting an extreme remodel, but a brand-spanking
new character that only just Menaced Thor in 2013. He’s Gorr the God Butcher, and
he’s here to kill. Let’s get to it.
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| Sword of Shadows vs. Hammer of Storms |
Gorr began life as a simple man on
an unnamed world in the outer reaches of the galaxy. His planet kind of sucked,
as it was a burnt-out old husk, filled with strife, famine, natural disasters
and horrible predators to give Krogans nightmares. Nice Mass Effect reference
for you. Such a land has a habit of creating rather pious peoples, and Gorr’s were
no different. A huge part of day to day life in Gorr’s village was devoted
toward prayers of protection, for food and so on. You can probably understand
Gorr starting to question his faith, though, after his mother was torn to shreds
by predators, his pregnant wife fell into a chasm created during a quake, and
his surviving son died of starvation… yeah that’s a rough week in anyone’s
book. When Gorr started to question his faith, his people drove him out with
sticks and stones.
While wandering in exile, Gorr came
across a disturbing sight, a battle between actual, factual Gods. One of them was
shortly thereafter revealed to be called Knull, Lord of the Abyss and the God
of the Symbiotes. Yeah, this is the guy that created Venom’s species. Just
saying. Seeing two Gods fight until they were both mortally wounded filled Gorr
with a homicidal rage the likes of which he’d never felt before. He was
outraged to learn that Gods were in fact real, they just didn’t give a damn
about those worshipping them and calling for their aid. His hatred caused Knull’s
dropped weapon, All-Black the Necroblade, to react. The sword of living night merged
with Gorr and infused him with its power. He killed one god and severely
wounded Knull before flying into space, vowing to kill every God in the Universe.
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| Safe to say that Thor left an... impression on Gorr. |
He traveled across the cosmos,
killing for untold eons before arriving on Earth around 1000 CE. He killed
three Gods on Earth before rousing the ire of a Young, Angry Asgardian Prince
named Thor Odinson. The two battle, sword to axe. This is before he had Mjolnir
and was carrying around an enchanted axe named Jarnbjorn. The first battle
ended with Thor summoning a lightning strike to distract Gorr and escape. Being
a glutton for punishment, Thor hunted down Gorr again and resumed fighting
shortly after getting his breath back. Gorr ended up trapping the young Odinson
in a cave and spent a week torturing him. He was eventually saved by a small
band of his worshippers. Gorr kills them left and right, but the distraction is
enough for Thor to break free, grab Jarnbjorn and chop off one of Gorr’s arms.
He gathered his surviving followers and left, assuming Gorr would bleed out.
Gorr survived, however, and decided to rework his strategy.
Realizing the Universe is a big
place, with countless worlds, species, and Gods to kill, some of whom might
fight back like a certain Thunderer, Gorr decided to dispense with his one at a
time strategy. He set up shop on a forgotten world and used All-Black the
Necroblade to start creating an army of monstrous constructs he dubbed his Black
Berserkers. They would handle menial tasks like killing Gods one to one while Gorr
began work on his masterstroke. He kidnapped an alien God called Shadrak and
forced him to grant the knowledge of bombs. Yeah, there’s a species out there
that worships a God of Bombs. How odd. Gorr began building a bomb that would
destroy all Gods, Past, Present and Future.
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| I mean... he has a point. |
To build his device, he traveled to
a place called Omnipotence City, a meeting place for Gods and Demi-Gods. This
name is something of a misnomer, as Gorr was able to sneak into a library and discover
the location of a planet called Chronux, a hidden world where Gods of Time
gather to monitor time’s flow. Gorr arrives, murders all of the Gods present
and pours their blood into the well of Time. He uses the blood and well to
travel to the moment of creation, and rip the heart out of an elder God to power
his new device. I wonder if he said “Hey” to Galactus as the devourer off worlds
popped out of the big bang? Gorr returns to the present and is almost
immediately smacked in the face by Mjolnir. Thor is kind of pissed about the shenanigans
that Gorr has been up to. They struggle a bit before Gorr jumps into the time
stream again, this time aiming for the future. Thor dives in after. Oddly, he appears
hundreds of years after Gorr. In his absence, Asgard had been destroyed, nearly
all Gods are either dead or enslaved by Gorr, and a future version of Thor,
whom had been named All-Father, was being tortured by Gorr. Thor frees the
All-Father, and the two Thunderers attack Gorr’s homeworld to try and stop a
universal Ragnarok.
Upon arriving on Gorr’s world, they
see how busy he’d been. In the hundreds of years between when Thor was last in
the time stream, Gorr had captured and killed countless Gods. Their blood being
used to power his doomsday weapon and fueled Gorr’s power. Some were kept alive
and used as slave labor for his bomb. One such God was Teenage Thor, pulled out
of time to finish the bombs construction. This is a Marvel comic, by the way,
don’t waste time questioning how Time Travel works. Oddly, Gorr’s long dead
wife and son appear to be there with him. How odd. TT tries to lead a revolt
against Gorr, but the powerful God Butcher ends up thwarting his plan and blasting
TT into space. Thankfully, this is about when Current Thor (CT) and All-Father
Thor (AT) had arrived. The three Gods of Thunder attack, the combined might of
the Younger Thors and AT’s Thorforce (same as the cosmic power Odin used, I guess
whomever is the All-Father gets to add their name before the Force) proves to
be a match for the God Butcher. Gorr has his minions slaughter the slave Gods
to boost his power. He’s able to blast AT into space, bury CT in the ground and
nabs TT to use as the final sacrifice for the bomb.
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| He's as much a Reaper as a Butcher. |
Gorr’s wife, overcome with joy at
her husband’s nearly completed quest, exults him calling him her God. This
drives Gorr into a rage, he kills her and angrily shouts he is no one’s God.
Disgusted by his father’s actions, realizing he’d become worse than the thing
he hated so much, his son decides to stop him. He helps CT dig his way out from
the planet, just as AT streaks back into the atmosphere from deep space. But
they’re too late. TT is okay, as he decided to bite out one of Gorr’s eyes
rather then go meekly. Gorr tossed him aside in fury, grabbed and sacrificed
someone else to set the bomb off. AT blasts Gorr with the full ThorForce to
distract him while his younger self tries to stop the bomb. At first, he seems
too slow. But, as every God across time and space starts to die, they see a
vison of Thor struggling to hold the power of the bomb back. They start praying
to him, every God that is, was or will be. Thor’s power skyrockets, he’s able
to contain the blast and strip Gorr of his powers. Gorr’s son vanishes in a blob
of darkness just after denouncing his father. Turns out, both he and Gorr’s
wife were just constructs created by All-Black by Gorr. And Gorr’s Son was the
manifestation of what good remained in the foul creature. Gorr met his end as
he almost did so long ago, at the hand of a Young Thunderer’s Jarnbjorn.
Gorr was once a simple farmer, but
was transformed into a vessel of destruction upon stealing All-Black the Necrosword.
Having been made by the God-King of the Symbiotes, Knull, using his power and
the head of Celestial he’d butchered, it has many of the same abilities as
those creatures. Namely, it’s made of a living dark ooze that can shapeshift
into whatever the user needs. Wings, tendrils, weapons, and the essence for his
Black Berserkers. He seems to mainly use it to create the Sword itself and an
inky black cloak. It’s another weapon like Skurge’s Bloodaxe that can cripple
or kill a god without much additional effort. It seems to have also made Gorr
superhumanly strong, durable, and nigh immortal. Or maybe his super awful
planet just forced his species to develop disturbing levels of adaptations to survive.
Who knows?
As of yet, Gorr has not been introduced
in any media outside of Marvel comics. As I believe I’ve said before, it’s rare
to see anything newer than ten years old to appear outside the comics. That
plus the somewhat brutal nature of Gorr, his mission to murder deities, and the
sheer slaughter he creates to reach that goal of a cosmos without Gods probably
makes all of Marvel Studios and Disney Executives cringe with discomfort. “Oh,
the money!” they think, “but oh, the protesting parents!” they groan. That all
being said, I think that Gorr would make for an interesting addition in the
MCU. Have him hunt down Thor, the last son of Odin as part of his vendetta
against all Gods, and attack New Asgard on Earth. That way, when Thor gets his
ass kicked and needs back up, Jane Foster can be right there to pick up a Hammer
and lend a hand, same with Valkyrie. Let a new Thor sub in for TT and the
current King of Asgard sub in for AT. Though it’s a shame we wouldn’t see a BrunnhildeForce
since I think you need a world tree to do that, and Valkyrie probably hasn’t planted
one yet. Just saying. He’d definitely be a brutal opponent for Thor to face and
the end result of the fight would probably lead to a very damaged hero, and
that’s if he wins. Oh, and I should probably mention that secret that Fury whispered
in Thor’s ear, that terrible secret that shook the Thunder God to the core and
stripped him of his worthiness to wield Mjolnir… it was “Gorr was Right.” Not
sure if Fury’s position, or something else that gave this revelation extra
weight, but believing that a hateful monster that spouted “God’s don’t help
mortals” was right shook Thor in a way that took him almost five years to shake
off. If the thought of that kind of story doesn’t make you want to vote in
favor of Gorr being added to the MCU, I don’t know what will.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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