REVIEW: The Serpent Has Been Unleashed In 'The Mortal Thor' #3
- Sarah Angelo-Haight
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
This review contains spoilers for 'The Mortal Thor' #3.
The Serpent has been revealed. At the end of The Mortal Thor #2, the mastermind behind the racist thugs Sigrud Jarlson had violently dispatched was shown to be none other than Don Blake, Thor’s former human proxy. Many fans were disappointed by the implication that Blake, long a villainous figure within Thor’s mythos, was essentially a Nazi, but I found it fascinating because it pits two of Thor’s identities against one another (since Jarlson is the name of an alter-ego Thor used during the 1980s) - as well as against the identity of Thor himself. Once again, Thor’s greatest enemy appears to be himself.
In the third issue of the series, we see more about Blake’s operation. He has a cadre of soldiers dressed in green and black uniforms reminiscent of Hydra agents who not only follow his orders, but who call him “Father.” It’s exceptionally creepy, and it’s made even more so by Blake’s serpentine features, a fantastic design choice by artist Pasqual Ferry. Blake even refers to himself as “daddy” before ordering his minions to find and kill Sigurd as retribution for the beatdown Sigurd had delivered in the previous issue.
When we see Sigurd again, he’s dreaming of the deathscape where Thor and Blake had their final battle at the end of The Immortal Thor run, where Thor ultimately sacrificed himself and restarted the cosmic cycle of death and rebirth once more. There, he speaks with Thor, who claims Sigurd is not Thor, does not have anything of Thor’s except for one thing: the desire to “break the sky” to right the wrongs of the world. Sigurd wakes with more questions than answers and certainly adds to the confusion of how everything works in this new world. Is Sigurd Thor? Is he a proxy? A human reincarnation? Al Ewing certainly knows how to drag out a mystery in a way that doesn’t feel like the answers are internationally being kept from the readers for the sake of later shock value, but because the story is unfolding in such a way that the readers are learning what’s going on at the same time Sigurd is.
Since Sigurd’s last attempt at a job had failed due to his refusal to be a Roxxon scab, he (with some magical, mischievous, help from Lucky) ends up working up on the iron beam of a high-rise building, gaining a reputation as a hard-working, exceptionally strong, if not somewhat mysterious since he still has no memories of his past. There are plenty of little nods to his true identity, in particular the fact the hammer he wields is of the short-handled variety instead of the usual long-handled sledges that require the use of two hands. This is a nod to the mythology surrounding Mjolnir, and a fun little throwaway moment that still holds deeper meaning.
Unfortunately, his peaceful existence is once again interrupted by the Sons of the Serpent, who swarm the building, shooting Sigurd’s co-workers with tranquilizers - but it hardly matters if the projectile is non-lethal if it results in a fall dozens of stories to the ground, which is exactly what starts happening. This sequence is a rough read and gets even more brutal when Sigurd attaches his hammer to his wrist cuff via a bungee cord (a setup he developed in the previous issue to mimic the ability of Mjolnir to fly around at Thor’s command and then return to his hand). The art is dynamic here, and truly gory with the hammer turning men into ground meat.
I had wondered in the aftermath of the first issue if Sigurd’s violence would have any legal repercussions, and by the end of this issue, it’s looking like that might become the case when his neighbor Kris gets an unexpected phone call from Sigurd, who seems to be in police custody, judging by her promise to bring a lawyer with her when she comes to get him. Overhearing this conversation is Lucky, who is not happy with the turn of events. However, he doesn’t have time to come up with a new scheme because before he can even move, the imposing figure of All-Father Odin appears. He confirms Lucky to indeed be Loki, which wasn’t a huge surprise - but Odin’s involvement surprised me. He’s been largely absent in the narrative since he was removed from the rebuilt Mjolnir several years ago, and his appearance to interrogate Loki about the magic he used to create Sigurd’s employment papers raises yet even more questions. That next week’s issue seems to be the story of what’s happening on Asgard while Sigurd is having street-level adventures, those questions may be answered sooner rather than later.
The Mortal Thor continues to be exceptional in both the writing and the artwork. Al Ewing is building the tensions nicely, and the layers of symbolism in his work make it even more engaging, though knowledge of those symbols is not required to enjoy the story itself. The art is dynamic and the way Sigurd is portrayed as same-but-different from how we know Thor hammers home (pun intended) the idea that Sigurd may, indeed, be a separate identity from Thor, just as Blake has become. Of course, there is the looming threat of a showdown with the Serpent, but for now Sigurd’s problem is a very human one, one I’m looking forward to seeing play out: he needs to get bailed out of jail.
Rating: ★★★★★
About The Mortal Thor #3
Release Date: October 29, 2025
Written by: Al Ewing
Art by: Pasqual Ferry, Matt Hollingsworth
Page Count: 23
Synopsis: SNAKES IN THE GRASS! Roxxon Construction has a vigilante problem. But whoever this "Thor" is, they know he's only human... ...and the people they've hired to find him are much, much more. Somewhere in the city, a man with a hammer is being hunted...