Clash Of The Storm Gods!

Brief but fierce, Thor's clash with Zeus during the Olympian ruler's attack on the Avengers was riveting in both story and art, and remains one of my favorite meetings of the two--one of my few favorites, as it turns out, since the adversarial meetings between these two storm gods were quite rare, to my knowledge. Only once before did the two meet in battle, during the mythical ten-year siege of Troy by the Achaeans (or the Argives, as they're referred to in the Marvel story) which is set in motion when Paris, Prince of Troy, elopes with Helen, the queen of Sparta, and returns with her to his walled city--thus causing a coalition of Greeks to set sail for Troy in order to seek a mixture of justice and revenge for this affront.

It's a young Thor, still cocky and impulsive, who enters the picture when his half-brother, Loki, explores a dark fissure (on his own impulse) which Thor recognizes as the same type which once led him to Olympus and a first-time meeting with Hercules; and so Thor pursues Loki, but to no avail, as Thor's path displaces him in time and deposits him, bereft of memory, in what is today northwest Turkey and a small distance from ancient Troy, where he is befriended by the young man named Aeneas and escorted inside. Along the way, Aeneas, one of the allies of Troy during this conflict, tells Thor the entire tale of the war with the Greeks which, at this point, is nearly in its ninth year; and having seen Thor's strength, Aeneas notes that Thor would be a valued ally to the Trojans, though Thor declines the offer for the time being.

That is, until he witnesses the battle outside the city between Paris and Helen's husband, Menelaus--a match which results in the gravely wounded Paris being saved by the goddess Aphrodite, a sight which returns Thor's memories in full and has him following her on her return to Olympus. The Olympians have been closely observing the Trojan war, though Zeus has forbidden any interference on their part; still, as is evident, several in Zeus's court have covertly participated and taken sides in the conflict, with Aphrodite and Ares aiding Troy but Athena and Hera siding with the Greeks. And when Thor spots Athena's apparent efforts to have one of the Lycian allies slay Menelaus, Thor acts to deflect the deadly arrow--but in so doing, shatters the fragile truce between Troy and the Greeks, and causing all-out war to erupt on the battlefield, as Athena truly intended.

Yet it's the near-fatal injury to Aeneas in that carnage which causes Thor to pick his own side in the conflict--and the sight does not please one who still strives for the gods' neutrality.

And so, despite the continued interference of his own subjects in the battle, Zeus's tunnel vision zeroes in on the more overt influence at hand--a force which could swiftly reveal the gods' hand in this war beyond all doubt, despite the Thunder God's subterfuge, and which now demands his direct intervention.

As we've just heard, Zeus's apparent attempt to present himself as the "adult in the room" is something of a sham, given the bargain that he'd struck with Hera and Athena to see to the destruction of Troy in exchange for losses the other two would suffer at a later date. There is no high ground for him to take here; and Thor is correct in pointing out the hypocrisy of singling him out when the other Olympians' actions go unchecked, seemingly with Zeus's blessing.

But Zeus is easily as imperious as Odin--and he obviously has no intention of defending his own actions in this matter.   Thor. must. yield, period.

Each of these gods, we see, has indulged in sufficient posturing in order to at least pretend that they've made the greater effort at diplomacy here, eventually staking out their intentions as well as their respective might (to say nothing of their absolute refusal to back down)--and so there is little left but battle between them, the effects of which are seen far below Mount Ida by those on the field of battle as well as behind the walls of Troy.

As was the case in the Avengers battle, Zeus is a force to be reckoned with, even against another who wields the power of the storm and unquestioned physical might. In effect, Thor was correct in his assessment of the battle's duration, as months pass on the field of battle below and much occurs in the interim. Hector, the brother of Paris and one of Troy's most skilled warriors, is slain by Achilles--who later falls from a poisoned arrow shot by Paris, striking Achilles in his exposed heel. Yet the one whose actions toward Helen essentially began this war eventually falls from the attack of another archer, Philoctetes, whose arrows once belonged to Hercules.

Meanwhile, Thor is down but not out--but by now, his priorities have changed, to see Zeus and his pantheon as an eventual threat to Asgard, regardless of the reasons responsible for this clash's beginning. Yet Thor's words pave the way for Zeus to bring an end to their battle, though the Olympian is careful to avoid naming himself in any assurances he makes to Thor of his subjects withdrawing their influence from the war below.

As for Loki, whom you would think would be causing mischief a'plenty in the Argives/Trojan conflict along with the Olympians, he hasn't exactly been idle in this affair--as he reveals to Thor soon after they reunite outside of Troy before preparing to return to their own time, though not before stopping for one last look at the besieged city.

You'll notice that Zeus didn't appear to mind Loki's interference in the least.

BONUS!

Writer Roy Thomas's endnotes on this story. (Blotches and all!)

(Thomas's plans for a sequel of sorts to the Trojan War story--to take place in the following year's Thor annual and focusing on Aeneas and the founding of Rome--never materialized, presumably due to a dispute involving freelancers and pay which led to his departure from Marvel. Ironically, he would segue to DC, despite that company's president, Carmine Infantino, having played a part in that dispute.)

Thor Annual #8 Script: Roy Thomas Pencils: John Buscema Inks: Tony DeZuniga Letterer: Joe Rosen