Contains Spoilers for Immortal Thor #15!Thorhas faced down many other gods in his time, but one Avengers villain might just trump them all, at least according to her. This God of Darkness has a long resume of killing Gods, but in Marvel’s multiverse, good always triumphs over evil, so there’s only so much she can ever do.
InThe Immortal Thor#15 by Al Ewing, Jan Bazaldua, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Sabino, Nyx, Olympian Goddess of Darkness, brags that in her new realm,even an overcharged Thor is no match for her.
InImmortal Thor#14 by the same team, Hercules offered Nyx dominion over an empty dimension filled with darkness where a corrupted Zeus had previously been banished inGuardians of the Galaxy#12 by Ewing and Juann Cabal. InImmortal Thor#15, Hercules then begs Nyx tocleanse that same corruption from Thor. The goddess refuses, bragging thateven a twisted Thor is no match for her now that she has a full universeto call her own.
The Goddess Nyx Is Confident She Could Beat Thor
And She’s Probably Right
Nyx was the first of the Olympians. However, the emergence of the other Olympians, first among them Zeus, valued light, and everything it represented, as did their followers, whose myths metaphysically twisted Nyx into a villain. Asthe antagonist of the Avengers miniseriesAvengers: No Road Homeby Ewing, Mark Waid, Jim Zub, Paca Medina, Sean Izaakse, Carlo Barberi and more,Nyx and her children murdered all the other Olympians besides Hercules with little effort, though flashbacks in the series also establish that the Olympians had bested them before, trapping her in a similar empty realm.
Nyx might have the advantage against him in a pure battle of strength, but the Gods’ power comes from story and words.
Avengers: No Road Homeproved thatagainst a singular god, Nyx would come out on top, but Thor is no normal god. Thor’s use of the All-Power throughoutImmortal Thorhas seen him defeat greater foes than himself - by outthinking them. Nyx might have the advantage against him in a pure battle of strength, but the Gods’ power comes from story and words. If Thor could come up with a clever trick, then Nyx could be bound once again. Not that the two get a chance to test this hypothesis, as Thor and Hercules leave Nyx to her realm peacefully.
Nyx’s Powers and Weaknesses Are Intertwined with Her Godly Nature
What Does This Mean for Thor?
The best thing about Nyx is how her powerset interacts with a metaphysical understanding of the Marvel Universe. InNo Road Home,she’s defeated by Vision when he channels the single greatest source of lightin all of Marvel: heroism. This is the level that the Gods operate on. Who cares if Nyxcould beat up Thor? In a multiverse literally built on heroes beating villains, light will always metaphysically triumph over darkness in the end. Nyx’s earlier defeat also perfectly shows the metaphysical difference between Superheroes and Gods at Marvel.
Some Gods, like Thor and Hercules, are also superheroes, but Gods are concepts and ideas made into literal beings. The Greek, Norse and other classical cultures created their gods in part to explain the natural world and to assign life to nature. It just happens that in the Marvel Multiverse, those stories actually shaped the Gods, and vice versa. What Ewing understands is that godly fights are literal battles of ideas. Nyx might be able to bestThor, but as long as there is hope, darkness will never win over light for too long.
The Immortal Thor#15is available now from Marvel Comics.
Thor
Associated with the mythical realm of Asgard, Thor is a Marvel Comics hero who channels the power of thunder to slay their foes. Though the name is chiefly tied to Thor Odinson, several other characters also take on the role of God of Thunder, including Odinson’s love interest, Jane Foster. Odin is portrayed as a physically imposing hero with incredible strength and typically wields the dwarven forged hammer, Mjolnir.
