King Thor #1 (2019)

In the ruins of Omnipotence City, the Goddesses of Thunder - Frigg, Ellisiv, and Atli Wodendottir - search the musty halls for clues that could help their grandfather, Thor Odinson. Passing the moldering corpses of long-dead alien gods, Atli complains that the ruins stink of death, adding that they shouldn't be there. Agreeing with her hot-tempered sister, Frigg tells Ellisiv that they should turn back, but Ellisiv refuses. As they enter what was once the Halls of All-Knowing, Atli complains that the decaying books will smell like a leper's latrine and Frigg reiterates that they need to go back to Asgard and help Thor prepare for his final battle. Scanning the decaying shelves, Ellisiv wonders how life is supposed to persist when even the gods cannot. A voice answers that it isn't, and the three goddesses turn to see an elderly four-eyed god with tendrils extending from his head. The elderly god states that life is supposed to fade away and die, before remarking that a very long time ago he was supposed to have died as well, asking the goddesses if he is indeed still alive. As Atli complains that all they found was a madman, Ellisiv asks him if he is the Lord High Librarian. He replies that he helped the original Lord High Librarian with his duties and took over for a few million years after the Lord High Librarian grew too old to do so himself. Introducing himself as Shadrak, the elderly deity remarks that he's forgotten what he was the god of. As Shadrak laments that time did what Gorr the God Butcher couldn't, Ellisiv protests that the gods of the universe can't all be gone. Shadrak states that he's well aware of the purpose of their visit, rallying allies for a last stand against All-Black the Necrosword - a primordial symbiote forged at the beginning of another universe by Knull, stolen by Gorr, wielded by the Thor of the past and their own grandfather, and passed down over the millennia from Galactus to Ego and finally their great-uncle Loki. Before Shadrak can finish, he is attacked by "necro-ravens" -- corvids made of living abyss, and Loki's permutation of Gorr's Black Berserkers. As Atli and Frigg fend the necro-ravens off, Ellisiv tells Shadrak that she's thoroughly researched the history of the Necrosword and its wielders, having fought against Gorr herself eons ago. Badly wounded, Shadrak tells her that she doesn't have the whole story because it hasn't ended -- pointing to a book titled the Saga of the God Butcher and saying that it hasn't finished writing itself. Amidst the flaming ruins of Asgard, All-Father Thor and Loki the Necrogod clash, Mjolnir against All-Black. As Thor furiously berates Loki for destroying Asgard, Loki mockingly sneers that Thor thought he could be contained in a pit of Muspelheim vipers, but that he ate them and escaped - devouring Ego the Necroworld on his way there. Announcing his intent to destroy everything - starting with Thor - Loki smashes Thor through Asgard. Crashlanding on a rotting world oozing napalm, Thor throws Mjolnir and tells it to wreathe itself in the flames of the nearest star. Slashing Thor, Loki sneers that Mjolnir won't be able to save him, tauntingly stating that his minions are killing Thor's grandaughters even as they speak. Enraged, Thor blasts Loki point-blank with the full power of the Thor-Force to no effect. All-Father Thor recalls that it had taken himself and two past incarnations to defeat Gorr, who had been a mere mortal before his acquisition of All-Black, and that they had barely succeeded; while Loki had been born of Frost Giants and raised by Asgardians. As Mjolnir returns wreathed in stellar plasma, Loki mockingly asks if Thor thinks a little fire will stop him. Replying that he knows it won't, Thor says that he hopes it at least hurts and slams the fire into a nearby pool of napalm. A massive chunk of the planet explodes, ejecting Thor and Loki into space; Thor recalling his lifelong enmity with his brother and dashed hopes that he would someday be redeemed, begrudgingly accepting that if he and his granddaughters are to live then his brother must die. In the Halls of All-Knowing, Atli and Frigg continue to fight against Loki's necro-ravens as Ellisiv senses Asgard's destruction. Frigg snaps that they need to return now, but Shadrak says they were too late even before they arrived. Frigg refuses to accept this, snapping that Shadrak is clearly insane - to which he agrees; but Ellisiv snaps that this isn't about Asgard, themselves, or even Thor, but about stopping Loki and saving what's left of the universe. Atli lashes out as several necro-ravens amalgamate into a massive corvid that tries to eat her, regrouping with her sisters and Shadrak. Pulling out a shard of the Bifrost, Ellisiv asks Shadrak where they should go, but Shadrak steps away and says that he's not going with them. Quipping that a librarian never leaves his books, Shadrak gives Ellisiv the Saga of the God Butcher and tells her to end it by going back to the beginning. Remarking that he's finally remembered what he's the god of, Shadrak conjures a bomb and bids the Goddesses of Thunder farewell. As they teleport using the shard of the Bifrost, Shadrak detonates his bomb and obliterates Omnipotence City. Across the cosmos, Thor senses the destruction of Omnipotence City, Loki gleefully remarking that this is the end of the gods and the lie that is eternal life. Disembowling Thor with All-Black, Loki boasts that he is the bringer of the fundamental truth that nothing lasts forever, except for him. Thor realizes that Loki is, for once, speaking the truth and that all his eons of struggle have been in vain, as nothing is left except for hatred and petty sibling jealousy. Grabbing Thor, Loki mockingly tells his brother that he killed Odin by whispering every single one of his sins into the old All-Father's ear. Livid, Thor snaps that Loki is lying and that he killed Odin, putting him out of his misery when he went senile and using all of Jotunheim as a funeral pyre. Grabbing Loki, Thor snaps that Freyja died of a broken heart from Loki's backslide into evil, cursing that she'd ever believed in and loved him. Telling Loki that he regrets having done the same, Thor wraps his own intestines around Mjolnir and Loki's throat, throwing the divine hammer into the Sun. Weeping as he realizes he's become the new God of Lies for morning his brother, Thor watches in sudden horror as living abyss consumes the star and Loki bursts out, gleefully quipping that he just murdered the Sun. Stabbing Thor with dozens of blades, Loki slams him into the surface of New Midgard and gloats that he's going to have fun slaughtering all of humanity all over again. Thor tries to recall Mjolnir from the dying Sun, but tendrils of living abyss constrain it. Unable to move, Thor prays to any gods that remain, asking them to avenge the universe. His eyes glowing yellow, Loki sneers that there will be nothing left to avenge and that he'll live so long in the empty abyss that he'll forget Thor ever existed. Loki is promptly impaled from behind by a blade of living abyss - a second figure bonded to the All-Black - as a voice scornfully berates them for squabbling while the last of the universe withers around them. To Thor's disbelief and horror, Gorr the God Butcher - back from the dead - looms over the God of Thunder and his brother, sneering that this is why he hates gods and wants to kill them all.