Immortal Thor: Who are Marvel’s New Utgard Gods – And Where Did They Come From?

Immortal Thor just introduced two new gods older than Asgard itself, and they could change the landscape of the entire Marvel Universe.

In more than 70 years on the comic book page, Thor Odinson has gone up against some of the biggest, most powerful threats of all time. From reality hopping despots to power hungry costumed criminals, it seems as if there is no brand of villain that Thor hasn't come into conflict with. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he has taken on everything the Marvel Universe has to offer, and if he isn't careful, the Utgard gods might just be the last he ever sees.

As an army of Frost Giants march their way across the fields of Aesir in the pages of Immortal Thor #1 (by Al Ewing, Martín Cóccolo, Matthew Wilson, and VC's Joe Sabino), the titular hero makes aa fast entrance to put a stop to their attempted invasion. While Thor is ultimately successful, he can't help but take notice of something said by the Frost Giant leader, Skrymir, who claims he took the name of Utgard-Loki. Considering Utgard is the capitol of the Frost Giant's native Jotunheim, this isn't all that surprising on the surface, but digging deeper into the past reveals another Utgard, and the sudden arrival of its own brand of gods proves just how small even the current All-Father truly is.

What is Marvel's Utgard - And Why Is It So Important?

Better known as the Land-of-True-Things, Marvel's other Utgard exists outside the Ten Realms of the primary Marvel Universe, not to mention outside all other known corners of any version of reality whatsoever. When this realm was introduced in the pages of 1985's Alpha Flight #1 (by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith), it was where Loki went to beseech the higher pantheon known as Those Who Sit Above in Shadow for their aid. Things didn't go particularly well in that regard for Loki, nor have they for anyone else who has made the trek to Utgard, save for Thor himself when he made the journey to seemingly end the lives of its ominous rulers.

Unsurprisingly, Thor wasn't necessarily successful in killing a pantheon of beings who existed outside his own perception of reality. Worse still, the lessons he could have learned during his time in Utgard have instead been relegated to an obscure victory that rarely gets mentioned even when it could very well have relevance to other ongoing events. This is precisely the case with what Thor is facing now, as he has only a surface level understanding of what exactly Utgard is at its core, let alone the kind of power wielded by the gods who have just been unleashed from its depths to challenge him on Earth.

How the Emergence of the Utgard Gods Changes Ancient Marvel History

Not long after dealing with the Frost Giants in Aesir, Thor is faced with another on Midgard that dwarfs anything he could have possibly imagined. When Thor's attempt to brush aside a storm battering New York City, he instead sends lightning crashing violently into the Statue of Liberty. Or rather, that is what it seems at first, though the truth is far more disturbing. Standing among the storm is a titan of an Elder God known as Toranos, aka the Utgard-Thor, God of the Super Storm. Whereas Those Who Sit Above in Shadows were effectively myths given life by Asgardians, Toranos is instead one of the original Elder Gods who, along with his brother Utgard-Loki, was sealed away for millennia for the best of reasons.

The history of the Elder Gods is certainly complex, but it was well mapped out up until now. Previously it was understood that Gaea, Chthon, and Atum (or Amon Ra) were the only three Elder Gods who remained after the latter culled their corrupted offspring as the Demogorge. At least, that was until the revelation that Gaea had in fact imprisoned Utgard-Thor and Utgard-Loki within that far away realm long ago rather than see them brought to their end by Atum's more monstrous form. While this worked for thousands years as a way of safeguarding the universe from two raging all powerful beings, Gaea has clearly decided for whatever reason that now is the time to release her brethren from their confinement for the express purpose of challenging her Asgardian son and, by proxy, the world he calls home.

What Utgard-Thor and Utgard-Loki Mean for the Marvel Universe

As shocking as it is that these Utgard gods exist in the first place, that Gaea has willingly unleashed them upon an unsuspecting universe for any reason is genuinely horrifying. Considering the kind of power that she and Chthon command as Elder Gods, it is hard to imagine how Thor will ever be able to stand against them on his own. That isn't to say anything of the possible motives Gaea would have for orchestrating all of this, which almost assuredly holds secrets that will further unravel the history of the Marvel Universe in ways that rock it to its very core. Worst of all, even if Thor is joined by his fellow heroes in pushing back against these new threats, there is no guarantee that any of them would prove effective, especially when they have little to no understanding of the situation at hand.

Though the Avengers and their allies have battled against Elder Gods and emerged victorious in the past, none of those battles were permanent, nor did they come without great losses on both sides of the fight. The only real success that anyone Marvel superhero has had in taking on an Elder God was the Scarlet Witch, who was forced to literally merge the Darkhold into her own physical body to bury the threat of Chthon, and even that victory has already come undone in secret. If nothing else, this all proves just how outmatched Thor is when stacked up against the Utgard gods who have him in their sights. Then again, the God of Thunder has never been one to back down from a fight, no matter how unfair it might be nor how much smaller he is than his competition.