In Thor, the God of Thunder asked his half-brother Loki for a favor, setting up the one-time Avengers villain to be taken down by a regular human.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Thor #9 by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson and VC’s Joe Sabino, on sale now.
It isn’t easy to beat one of the Norse gods. While Thor can take down almost any hero or villain on Earth, his fellow Asgardian gods are nothing to laugh at either. This includes the former God of Mischief and the current God of Myths, Loki.
But in Thor #9, a human showed up in Asgard and soundly defeated Loki in one-on-one combat. To make matters more curious, that human was Donald Blake, the one-time human identity of Thor himself.
The conflict began when Thor decided to go into the Elder Sleep and speak to his ancestors about the Asgardians’ current magical problems. Mjolnir initially became too heavy, and anyone could lift it. The Asgardian magic was all going sideways, and Loki wanted to get to the bottom of this as much as Thor. The only way Thor could go to the Elder Sleep was if he switched places with Donald Blake again. When Thor asked Loki to help him hide Blake’s re-emergence from Sif, the God of Myths agreed to help babysit the human.
Neither of the Asgardian gods expected for Donald Blake to arrive and proclaim himself the Shadow of Thunder. When Thor reached the Elder Sleep, the previous kings averted their eyes, and he ended up falling into the world Odin created to house Blake. That world, once an idyllic peaceful community, was destroyed. The people created to be Blake’s neighbors and friends were all dead, as was the Great Serpent. Donald Blake had gone crazy and destroyed his world and killed everyone there.
However, Loki had no idea about any of this. Loki has never appreciated Donald Blake, considering the human form that Thor switched places with to be the least interesting part of the God of Thunder’s hero’s journey. Loki wasn’t interested in boring Blake coming back for him to babysit, but he likely preferred that version of the good doctor compared to what he ended up facing when Thor left Asgard with a slam of his hammer.
Thor referred to him as a surgeon made of living madness and fueled by a heart full of rage because his god abandoned him, and the Shadow of Thunder wanted revenge. Loki was surprised when he saw how crazy Blake looked and prepared his Asgardian magic to attack him. However, Blake was faster and ruthless. Blake attacked, saying it was good to see Loki again before throwing a knife into his neck. When Loki said he would not be threatened by a pretend Thor named Donald Blake, Blake broke Loki’s arm and knocked him down for the count.