Contains Spoilers for The Immortal Thor #20

Thor has just killed a foe that he never could have hoped to defeat before – but that’s not a good thing, and only shows that his next threat may be even too much for him. Facing down some of the first, and most vicious, gods ever, Thor is going to need all the help he can get, and even then, it may not be enough to prevent the inevitable.

In The Immortal Thor #20 – written by Al Ewing, with art by Jan Bazaldua – Thor kills Toranos, the first ever God of Thunder, but it’s far from a victory, even if Toranos was a former enemy.

Toranos was the antagonist of the first arc of Immortal Thor, written by Ewing with art by Martín Cóccolo, but was defeated when Thor made him "worthy," which granted Toranos empathy. Issue #20 reveals that Toranos returned to his fellow ‘Utgard-Gods’, who rejected Toranos’ ‘weakness’ and crucified him. It’s in this context that Thor kills Toranos, mercy killing the Elder God with a lightning bolt.

Thor Just Killed The Original God Of Thunder – Now He's Got More Angry Deities To Deal With

Immortal Thor #20 – Written By Al Ewing; Art By Jan Bazaldua; Color By Matt Hollingsworth; Lettering By Joe Sabino

When he first appeared, Toranos seemed like a nigh-unstoppable threat. Though Thor was able to defeat him through the ontological and semantic power of worthiness, he wouldn’t have been able to take the first Thunder God in a straight fight. This is a problem because Toranos is only one of the Utgard-Gods, the prototypical Elder Gods who have been unleashed thanks to Thor’s mother Gaea disappointment in humanity. If Thor has to go up against the Utgard-Loki or Utgard-Odin, then he’ll need more than this one worthiness trick to defeat them, especially since those Udgard-Gods could overpower even Toranos.

As Thor ends the issue, he is prepared to meet the Utgard-Gods, even as old foes like Skurge try to prevent the inevitable by taking Thor’s place.

This likely isn’t going to be the last death of a thunder god in this series either. Throughout the whole run and going back further, in fact, to writer Donny Cates’ Thor tenure – predominantly with artist Nic Klein – Thor’s defeat and death has been prophesied. As Thor says to Sif in Immortal Thor #20, he’s more than willing to meet his fate, but it doesn’t mean that these aren’t dark circumstances regardless. As Thor ends the issue, he is prepared to meet the Utgard-Gods, even as old foes like Skurge try to prevent the inevitable by taking Thor’s place.

What Thor's Mercy Killing Of Toranos Means For The Avenger Moving Forward

The Asgardian Learned A Heavy Lesson

In other circumstances, killing another God might also be the catalyst for Thor going bad. For instance, the later third of writer Dan Jurgens’ Thor run, collectively called The Reigning, saw Thor descend into authoritarianism, with the book pushing into a dark alternate future where Thor ruled Asgard and Earth. Luckily, present Thor isn’t in any danger of going down that same path. Thanks to his regretful future self, Thor has his Reigning memories, and didn’t pursue that same path. He also got a more direct reminder of those events in the form of his son Magni.

Magni, Thor’s son from The Reigning, recently returned thanks to the trickery of this world’s Enchantress, Magni’s mother in the future timeline. What Enchantress didn’t expect is that Magni is a hero who takes more after his mainstream father. Magni has arrived in a world where ‘our’ Thor is definitely showing similarities to his evil self. Thor once again rules Asgard and he’s now killing Elder Gods, but there’s a stark difference between the two incarnations of the Odinson. Thor is wiser than his evil counterpart ever was and has friends and family there to guide him when needs help.

Thor Is Just One Of Many Thunder Gods In The Marvel Universe Now

Is He The "Strongest"? Does It Even Matter?

The death of Toranos may have established Thor as the final Asgardian God of Thunder, but he’s far from the only Thunder God left in Marvel. In particular, Storm #7 – written by Murewa Ayodele with art by Luciano Vecchio – is set to debut ‘new’ thunder gods from different cultural pantheons from around the world. If Thor only had his Thunder God powers, then he’d likely be the exact equal of all of these other divine beings. However, Thor also has the All-Power of the Asgardians, which he inherited from Odin, giving him an edge in any straight match-up.

In fact, the uselessness of feats of strength alone has been a major throughline of Immortal Thor. When Thor fights Storm in Ewing and Cóccolo’s Immortal Thor #5, Thor comments that comparing the two superheroes is a futile task. He then goes on to prove exactly how little strength matters by defeating Toranos in that same issue with guile instead. It’s appropriate then that the moment that Thor actually kills the Elder God is instead a sombre one. All that Thor’s strength was good for was putting someone else out of their misery.

The Immortal Thor #20 is available now from Marvel Comics.