Issue(s): Thor #308
Cover Date: Jun 81
Title: "The snow giant"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Chic Stone, Al Milgrom, & Marie Severin - Inker
Bob Budiansky - Assistant Editor
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
With this issue, Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio are replaced by Doug Moench. Moench previously wrote #303, and Bill Mantlo will fill in next issue, but this is essentially the start of his run. Gruenwald and Macchio will still write the Tales of Asgard back-ups that appear in issues #311-314. And for the rest of this year, Moench will continue to use the premise established by them, with Donald Blake working out of the medical clinic while Thor operates on Earth.

Moench will use more godly threats against Thor, though, starting with this issue. In last issue's Tales of Asgard, Loki was granted a request to have his punishment reduced to a mere banishment from Asgard, and he wastes no time here immediately attacking Thor again. He's got a magic snow globe that allows him to create a huge blizzard in New York city.

And soon Karnilla shows up to convince Loki to join her in acquiring the Plague Cask, which is apparently full of little dolls that you can drop into the globe where they become real threats. They start with this little snow giant.

It turns out that Karnilla really wanted the Cask for her own purposes. Her plan, which seems far fetched, is to imprison Loki and wait until his period of banishment is ended, at which point Odin will transport her back to Asgard instead of Loki, and then she'll unleash the Plague Cask's army of demons. She knows she can't defeat Odin, but if the demons can take enough other gods hostage, "perhaps he will see matters my way". Taking hostages and hoping Odin won't kill you sounds like a desperate last ditch attempt at escaping when your main plan falls apart, not the plan you want to start with.

What Loki doesn't tell Karnilla is that Odin has probably forgotten about him by now anyway and probably would never have teleported him home to Asgard. There's a reason Loki has to act up all the time.

Karnilla seems to have pulled some Mindless Ones out of the Cask to capture Loki.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Thor fights the Snow Giant.

Odin originally defeated this giant and put him in the Cask, and Thor recalls the story of how Odin defeated it by driving it further and further south until it was weakened by the warmer climate. Thor therefore creates a big fire to melt it.

After the fight, Loki uses the globe to transport himself to Earth, and he tells Thor that Karnilla was behind it all, leaving out his own involvement. But he just asks Thor to return him to his place of banishment, which Thor sees no harm in agreeing to.

Loki arrives back at his castle and gets the jump on Karnilla, grabbing the Plague Cask. Karnilla flees.

On top of all this there's a focus on one of New York's snow plow operators and how the blizzard is driving him crazy and whether or not he can become a hero but it's not all that interesting.

This story is referenced in Code of Honor, and it's said in that story that the snowstorm is occurring in June. There's nothing in this story that indicates that. Newscasters and others describe it as a mysteriously prolonged and heavy blizzard, but there's no sign that it's occurring during a time of year that you wouldn't expect snow.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

A really solid issue. I enjoyed the scenes of the snow plow guy losing it. Thor works best when interacting with regular folk. Pollard's art really makes this issue for me though. An entertaining enough read, but nothing spectacular. Great cover though.

That Snow Giant looks almost exactly like Ymir.