In which Thor tries to find the meaning of life in a Creamsicle.
Thor’s internal monologue is sublime:
“I have feasted on the nectars of wild fruit in the land of the Norns.
I have dined in the exalted halls of the godly realms.
This day I am offered a Creamsicle.”
Jim Shooter and Jim Galton from a promo photo for the St Francis comic book,
Francis Brother of the Universe, circa 1980. Via
Jim Shooter marvel (via)
‘Thor seeks meaning in a Creamsicle’ is a great panel from the 1987 graphic novel The Mighty Thor: I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy, by Jim Shooter and Christopher Priest.
The book’s title is adapted from a line in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Masque of Pandora (1875).
EPIMETHEUS: Whom the Gods love they honor with such guests.
PROMETHEUS: Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.
An earlier take is found in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, albeit in Latin form – ‘Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.’
As for Thor and his treat:
The plot itself is delightfully simple and fiendishly clever: Thor is an immortal of Asgard with all the responsibilities of a warrior prince and champion of justice. Moreover, he can transform at will into mere mortal iteration Don Blake – a crippled surgeon who revels in the minutiae of humanity, regularly and literally holding people’s lives in his hands…
After Blake loses a patient on the operating table he suffers a debilitating crisis of conscience and begins to question his own Divine right and manner of existence.
This site has a fulsome book review:
It takes place when Thor still has his Don Blake alter-ego, and the story makes a special point to affirm Thor’s human side… Blake is depressed because he had a patient die on the operating table. He’s also having problems with Sif, who is not enjoying her stay on Midgard or the fact that her beloved has a human form. Blake winds up picking up a woman in a bar.
The story has Thor thinking very depressed thoughts about how he doesn’t fit in with the Gods or the humans.
But wait a moment! Maybe a ice-cream can explain everything and brighten his mood?
Even a Creamsicle has its limits.
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