Avengers: Endgame: The fate of Asgard is a nod to comics

Avengers: End of the game has many leading signs from the long history of Marvel Comics, some more obvious than others. And one of them is the story of Asgard and its inhabitants, started in Thor and now in a completely different place from this "season finale" of the Marvel film universe.

We will not give too much ahead of the spoiler warning, but Asgard End of Game fate is quite similar to a time of Thor's stories – or Thoriesas the experts call them – in particular.

[[[[Ed. Note: This message will contain spoilers for Avengers: End of the game.]

In 2017 Thor RagnarokAsgard was destroyed and Thor decided to take to heart the words of the All-Father: Asgard was not a place, it was a people. But also, Odin noted: Norway is beautiful.

"Remember this place," he said to Thor and Loki with his last breath, "Home."

And in Avengers: End of the gamewe see the results of Odin's apathy for the fjords: the Asgardian refugees and the gladiators of Sakaaran settled in a Norwegian community called New Asgard. We do not see much, but it looks like a small fishing town tidy, with good internet access and lots of beer.

J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel / Marvel

New Asgard has its place in Marvel Comics

The Asgardians have already settled on Earth before, in Marvel Comics (and no, we are not talking about Antiquity). As part of the 2004 "Avengers: Disassembled" event, which saw Earth's most powerful heroes crumble and fail, Thor (then Asgard's ruler due to Odin's death in battle) was to face the prophesied end of Asgard: Ragnarok.

However, Ragnarok is part of an endless cycle of death and rebirth, and Thor learned that his banishment to Earth by Odin to learn humility had created a loophole. Confronting the Nornes (the Nordic equivalent of Greek destinies) and the enigmatics sitting above Shadow (the "gods above the gods"), Thor completely broke the Asgardian cycle, meaning that his people were now truly free . This does not stop Ragnarok from playing, and Thor stayed in hibernation for several years, presumed dead by his fellow superheroes.

Awakened in 2007 (and in a new comic book by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Olivier Coipel), Thor learned that his human form, Dr. Donald Blake – who had previously been disappeared by Odin once Thor learned the lesson of his banishment – had come back to life after Odin's death. Convincing Thor to take Mjolnir back and adhere to their common identity, Blake also revealed that he had learned that all the other Asgardians had been reincarnated as earthlings and needed to wake up.

Having used all his power to rebuild Asgard as a giant floating fortress outside the small town of Broxton, Oklahoma; That's exactly what Thor did, restoring every true Asgardian, with the exception of Sif, since Loki had stolen her true form and trapped her in the body of a patient terminal cancer patient assigned to Jane Foster (she is a nurse in the comic strip).

J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel / Marvel

Thor was also angry with Iron Man about the events of Marvel's first civil war, which occurred while he was asleep. Irritated that Iron Man made it a murderous clone to help the supporters of the recording, Thor told Tony (who was director of SHIELD at the time) that Asgard would deal severely with all The foreigners. To help the government save face, Iron Man suggested that Asgard be treated as a foreign embassy and thus gain diplomatic immunity.

Thor consented. After regaining Odin's spirit in a limbo kingdom, he tried to persuade his father to come back to life but he was told that it was his turn to lead Asgard now. And it would … until Jane Foster took the hammer in 2014. Jane in turn, because Thor was even more hectic for Asgard and the Asgardians, culminating at the big crossover this summer Marvel, Kingdoms War.

At the end of End of Gameit would seem that the Asgardians are on Earth to stay – while Thor once again renounced his kingship, giving it to Valkyrie – to become what he was always at heart, a wandering adventurer.

And I think that I speak for everyone when I say: Hi, King Valkyrie.

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Tom Speelman is the former manga / anime critic of the award-winning Eisner Award comic. He has edited and edited several books for Seven Seas Entertainment and other clients and can be found on Twitter. @tomtificat, where he usually shouts about comics.