• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2025
    • Marvel 2025: Where to Start?
    • DC 2025: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Reviews / Marvel Reviews / The Death of Odin – OR How Thor Becomes the Lord of Asgard

The Death of Odin – OR How Thor Becomes the Lord of Asgard

August 29, 2013 by Dave 2 Comments

Spoilers suck. I find it consistently amazing how important spoiler-free integrity can be to popular art.

Take TV for example. I don’t watch Game of Thrones in the moment. No HBO subscription, and honestly I haven’t found a show that makes for a quicker, better, binge-watch DVD bull rush. Dexter comes close. But Game of Thrones is an easy first.

As you’ll remember, the episode “The Red Wedding” got a ton of media attention, particularly on Twitter. Knowing that I wanted to watch Game of Thrones Season 3 later with these plot points still in tact, I craftily dodged these spoilers, like Tyrion juking sword blades on the battlefield. You let one hit you in the face and game over.

Even avoiding specific plot points, the media swirl surrounding “The Red Wedding” still colored my perception of the episode (mainly, it colored it red). It didn’t help that the episode was basically called “Important Characters Die at a Wedding.”

Death of Odin
Wait, RED Wedding? I though they said Bread! Oh this is horrible!

Something weird happened when I watched the episode, though. My expectations due to all the surrounding hype far surpassed the actual events of the episode. The initial reaction to “The Red Wedding” seemed to be that the developments were unbelievable, maybe even too much for TV.

 

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by My Marvelous Year club support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH’s My Marvelous Year on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

What I actually watched? Very plausible within the context of Game of Thrones. It made perfect sense! This is what got people so worked up?

It’s Called the Death of Odin… There’s Nothing I Could Do

I mention this because in general I’m very conscious about keeping Comic Book Herald as spoiler free as possible. Spoilers are as important to comics as they are to TV, and especially so if you’re catching up on what are now decades old stories. Avengers Disassembled spoilers are nearly a decade old at this point and don’t really apply to most of the comic reading world. They’ve moved on. But if you’re reading the event for the first time? Spoilers will crush the experience!

So, “The Death of Odin.” Feels a little spoiler-y? About that.

Uatu and Odin
Nobody hates spoilers like Uatu, the Watcher.

Here’s the thing: You’re likely reading this because you’re running through Thor: Avenger’s Disassembled, and regardless of your Marvel background, a few questions are going to jump out.

1) Wait… Thor is the King of Asgard? (Lord… they call him Lord…. it’s not super important you don’t say King, I’m just saying if you do it in front of a comic crowd, they might have you exiled.)

2) Where is Odin? I thought in the Thor movie Anthony Hopkins was all “I’m your Dad and BOOM! EARTH LESSON!”

Great questions, and ones I shared during my first run through Avengers Disassembled. 

The answers, as you’ve likely guessed, are all available in Thor issues #36 – #43, by Dan Jurgens and Joe Bennet. Otherwise known as…

“The Death of Odin.”

Like I said. Spoilers.

I get it; bad end for Odin. But is this worth reading?

The real question know basically becomes whether or not you should go back and read “The Death of Odin” before proceeding to Thor: Avenger’s Disassembled.

Personally, I’d throw this one in the “completests / Marvel Unlimited subscribers / Huge Thor fans” category. “The Death of Odin” is not essential reading. It’s reasonably compelling Thor, but hardly an instant classic.

Loki-Portal
There are some lines of Loki dialogue you just can’t take back.

There’s also about 110% too much Thor Girl (that was a thing… the early 2000’s were a different time) and entirely too much focus on Thor’s alter ego, Jake Olson. What’s that? Oh no, not Donald Blake. Wait, what? Oh no, not Eric Masterson either.

The biggest knock, though, is that for a storyline of this magnitude – the Death of Odin the Allfather! – there’s a serious lack of compelling stakes.

Sure, Surtur the Fire Demon, one of Odin’s longest rivals, shows up and begins wreaking havoc. But seemingly just… because. There’s not a whole heck of a lot of planning from the big Red.

Of course, Odin has something happen that drains some of his power (classic Odin), and Thor has recently been trashed by The Destroyer (classic Thor). So Odin summons all his best warriors, which makes for some fun cameos if you’re a fan of Thor lore, particularly the Stan Lee / Jack Kirby & Walt Simonson days.

Inevitably, though, as the title of this trade paperback suggests, things don’t end particularly well for Odin. After all those years of giving Thor lessons to one day prepare him for the throne, we finally have the big moment.

To my mind this is where Thor gets particularly interesting, with the sudden twist that he is now Lord of Asgard. It’s a whole new set of rules for the original MC Hammer.

As for Odin? His farewell is nicely done, and Marvel’s odd “Nuff Said” promotion from the time (every comic featured no lines of dialogue… I know, how could that idea fail?) actually works in perfectly with this sequence of events. A lot like it did for Batman & Robin after the recent death of … can I say it? … no.

Again, if you really love your Marvel Comics, I’d grab this one on the cheap. If not, now you know why Thor is where he is during the events of Avengers Disassembled.

Have More Avengers Disassembled Questions?

If you have any particular Avengers Disassembled tie-in questions, give me a shout here and I’ll do my best to get up a post about it!

Filed Under: Marvel Reviews Tagged With: Thor

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

CBH Newsletter!

About Dave

Dave is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Comic Book Herald, and also the Boss of assigning himself fancy titles. He's a long-time comic book fan, and can be seen most evenings in Batman pajama pants. Contact Dave @comicbookherald on Twitter or via email at dave@comicbookherald.com.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chatter97 says

    July 7, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    I see this is from two years ago but I just started reading through your lists, Thanos and Marvel Knights. I think Jergens suffers as a writer. Look at his writing of Thanos. Thanos is now a two dimensional bad guy that gains power through brute force. WTF! When we last saw the mad titan he plotted and schemed and usually had a very complex reason for his actions. This set of Thor books seemed like he was used as nothing more than a foil for a very poorly thought out story.

    The death of Odin suffers from the same problem. Its written on the surface without much deep substance. I don’t care for Thor, but the idea of Oden no longer there as a crutch for Thor was so novel but the climax and ending resolution was so flat I really do not care what happens after. Mayb Jurgens gets better as a writer as he wrote this comic for six years, but to me he really missed the development of the story and wanted the outcome immediately. If you want an example of how to do development right, look at Snyder’s run in the last issues of Detective Comics before the New 52.

    Reply
    • Dave says

      July 10, 2015 at 5:12 pm

      I tend to agree. This Thor run never works for me. Meanwhile, Walter Simonson’s is absolutely fantastic, so if you’re in need of some Thor, look no further 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The My Marvelous Year Podcast!

Apple PodcastsRSS

CBH Newsletter!

My Ultimate Year podcast and reading club

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb May 12, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000) May 8, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man May 5, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025 May 1, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review! April 27, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 8: Daredevil: Shadowland April 21, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 7: Wolverine, Second Coming, & Uncanny X-Force April 14, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 1 (2000) April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover C: Marvel Rivals Resurrects the X-Men’s Krakoa, Trivia & Jiggle Physics! April 7, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of March 2025 April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 6: Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Three March 31, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 5: Realm of Kings & Thanos Imperative March 24, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover B: Daredevil Born Again (Again) TV Series Review! March 17, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 4: Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time & Dave’s Favorite Black Widow Story March 10, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of February 2025 March 4, 2025

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000)
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review!

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in