Warning: SPOILERS for Thor #5
Wolverine and Thor never got to meet in a movie, but the future King of Asgard just learned that when the Marvel Universe ends thousands of years in the future, it won't be Ragnarok that takes his life: it's the burning hot claws of the Wolverine.
For casual Marvel fans, it may be hard to believe that when all life dies across the universe of Marvel's Future, only a small group of Thor's descendants will survive on Earth, kept alive by his Asgardian magic. And even harder to believe that out of all the Marvel heroes and gods, it will be Wolverine who survives to be the last living human, possessing the powers of a god. But that's the story Jason Aaron has just delivered in the pages of Thor.
Proving once and for all that no movie can ever match the scale and spectacle of comics, the final battle between Thor and Wolverine is unlike any cosmic cataclysm you dreamed possible. Strap in.
- This Page: Thor & Wolverine Are The Last Living Heroes
- Page 2: Wolverine Transforms Into 'The Cosmic Berserker'
- Page 3: King Thor is Finally Killed By Wolverine
Thor Lives To See Marvel's Universe Finally Die
Jason Aaron's newly relaunched Thor comic has embraced the fantastic in incredible ways in the hero's modern life, as well, recently crowning Thor the King of Hel. But he showed his ambitions to go cosmic in a short story tacked onto the end of Thor #2, depicting an old King Thor "Untold Eons From Now." The one-eyed and greying Asgardian lived alongside his granddaughters and a small group of humans in Earth's last remaining village. Under his guidance, they eked out a cold, dark existence on a cold, dark planet.
RELATED: 15 Times Thor Beat Up Other Superheroes
Sitting by the deathbed of Jane Foster, reincarnated and kept alive by Thor's magic for centuries, he revealed to her how grim things had gotten: there was no afterlife, it had died along with all other power in the universe. This sullen setting was broken by the smashing of Mjolnir into the Earth, which Thor immediately placed to his ear to hear what report it had to give. And even quicker, Thor exploded off into space to see for himself.
Thor Learns He's Not Alone At The End of Time
The mission given to Mjolnir, it seems, was to fly out into the cosmos in search of some sign of life. It returned having found none - anywhere. No other civilizations, no other life beyond cosmic carrion, and no other energies or cosmic forces that might sugarcoat the truth. The inevitable heat death of the universe had seemingly come, despite Thor's efforts to keep the embers burning on Earth in hope that oblivion wasn't on its way. And traveling through space, Thor sees the entire universe gone cold and dark... or so he thinks.
The small line of fiery energy heading straight at Thor gives the reader more warning than the god of thunder, who is caught completely off-guard. Not only that something should still live in the universe, but that it could pack the power strong enough to send him spinning. And as the impossible truth materializes before his eyes, Thor's thought a moment before that he longed for something to hit, to fight, has come true in the most unexpected way imaginable. Not an enemy - a long forgotten friend.
Wolverine: Final Host of The Immortal Phoenix Force
First, we'll give fans the good news: Wolverine has survived until the end of time, still in search of beer to properly celebrate the occasion. The bad news is that he has also lived "untold eons" throughout the cosmos thanks to merging with the Phoenix Force.
As Thor worked to keep life alive on Earth, Logan has been traveling through space, mercifully extinguishing the dying life he finds. While the story shifts to flashback here to show the former Avengers in happier times, Logan hasn't found Thor to relive happy memories.
He's come to kill him.
Page 2 of 3: Wolverine & Thor Begin Their Cosmic Battle
Old King Thor Wields More Power Than Ever
As he soon explains to Thor, Logan also remembers being turned to ash when the forces of the universe's destruction came to obliterate Earth, as well. But having gathered together the ashes of the Earth and breathed life back into them, Thor should really know that bringing Wolverine back is no trouble at all for a force as all-powerful as the Phoenix (and rising from ashes is kind of what it's known for).
Whether it's the millennia that Thor has spent without anyone or anything to truly test his godly power, or just an Asgardian's tendency to rise to the occasion, Thor deflects Wolverine's attacks, and conjures more power than ever before to obliterate this new threat to himself, and the life Wolverine will now seek to kill. Spinning his mighty hammer Mjolnir doesn't just warp the frames of the comic telling the story, but reaches farther out into the cosmos than any reader probably thought possible.
With no life left in the universe to worry about harming, Thor's hammer fuels a cyclone to eclipse entire galaxies, pulling not just his lightning, but entire worlds into its orbit - which transform into weapons, flung at Wolverine as comets of ice turned cannonballs.
There's nobody alive to witness what comes next, so Marvel fans can count themselves lucky to see Wolverine's ascension to 'The Cosmic Berserker.'
Wolverine Becomes The Cosmic Berserker
If All-Father Thor has the weight of Asgardian history, Norse mythology, and the last defender of life in the universe to fuel his attacks, Wolverine has what he's always turned to for his own strength: wild, crazed, and total rage. The comic has yet to reveal exactly why Wolverine wishes to snuff out the life returned to Earth, but don't really need to in the moment. Because friend or foe, Thor calls upon unseen levels of cosmic energy to kill him. So Wolverine fights fire with fire, cranking the Phoenix Force to greater power than ever before believable.
RELATED: Wolverine's New Superpower is Too Mature For Movies
The Phoenix Force has been glimpsed before, usually depicted as shimmering around Jean Grey a.k.a. Phoenix, like a massive flamebird of burning energy. The greater the danger, or the more cosmic the threat, the greater the Phoenix. With the rage of Wolverine behind it, and the power of Thor before it, the Phoenix spreads to encompass light-years in its wingspan.
It's a final showdown so massive and destructive, the universe would need to be empty to even make it possible. But as world are shattered and energies flare on a galactic level, the two men at the heart of it finally reach the killing blows. Thor calling his hammer through the Cosmic Berserker, Wolverine burying his claws in the All-Father... until one champion falls for good.
Page 3 of 3: King Thor is Killed By Wolverine (For Real)
Thor Kills The Phoenix-Wolverine
It's only when Wolverine makes it clear that creating life on Earth was a mistake, and he now intends to destroy what's left of Thor's family to set it right that Thor strikes a killing blow. Fighting to keep Wolverine's flaming claw from piercing his one remaining eye, Thor flicks his hand open, pulling Mjolnir into it - and straight through Logan's chest. Considering the energies charging it throughout the battle, Thor seems to believe that's enough to kill him. But it has been too long since the god of thunder witnessed Logan's tenacity and healing up close.
RELATED: Immortal Hulk Finally Dies At End of Marvel's Universe
Offering a small chuckle to Thor's fittingly Asgardian ending to "The Tragic Tale of The Wolverine," the former X-Man catches Thor by surprise with all of his concentrated power. Swearing to slice the beard off of old Thor's face - along with his arrogant head - Wolverine delivers his final blow.
Wolverine Finally Kills Thor (For Real)
With the All-Father Thor beaten and pinned, Wolverine has him more panicked and desperate than he has felt in millennia. Physically, by burying both of his claws into the old King's chest to confirm their fight is over. But mentally, by revealing that his promised destruction of Earth is actually a mercy. Although Thor may be one of the last heroes left living at the end of Marvel's Universe, rendered practically immortal by the Odin-Force and his Asgardian magic, and Wolverine may be the other, existing now on a cosmic plane... they're not alone.
It isn't another hero that has survived, and now threatens to ruin what little life Thor managed to restore to Earth - it's a villain. And so, tragically, it isn't anything resembling a "good" death that Thor ultimately meets. With a final "adios," Wolverine raises one of his Phoenix-charged claws, and plunges it into the All-father. Only the explosion of blue-white energy leaving Thor's body is visible in the final panel, but the message is clear.
Of course, things are only going to get more intense as Jason Aaron and Christian Ward continue this epic look at the final, mythic ending to Marvel's universe. According to the synopsis for Issue #6 coming later in October: "If you thought Old Man Phoenix was crazy, then wait’ll you see what we’ve done to Marvel’s greatest villain... A Doom more powerful than anything that has ever lived."
Old King Thor did his Earth friends and family proud, keeping hope alive until the final days of the Marvel Universe. And with help from Jean Grey's old friend Phoenix, Wolverine snuffed it out. Still, the battle is one the universe won't ever forget... or it wouldn't have, if anyone else was alive to see it.
Thor #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.