2. The Surtur Saga
It’s honestly a bit of a shame that it took us this long to get to Thor. Besides the Guardians of the Galaxy, who else is set to take on some of the biggest galactic sagas but the alien god of thunder himself?
There’s quite a lot to pick from in the Thor canon, but you honestly can’t go wrong with a story from Walt Simonson. He picked up the series in 1983 and started his run off with the brilliant Beta Ray Bill storyline. That was only the beginning, however, and so Simonson eventually established himself as one of the best writers in the comics game.
Starting with some of his earliest issues, Simonson started to drop mysterious hints throughout the pages. Slowly but surely, those hints began to build until it was clear that Thor and, indeed, all of Asgard were facing one serious foe. Who was it? The massive fire demon, Surtur.
Readers first suspected that something was going on when the sound effect “doom” was heard multiple times over the course of many issues. Each time, another detail was revealed, until it became clear that the sound was Surtur forging his Twilight Sword. Hey, even demons have to give their swords names. It’s all part of the Thor canon.
Surtur — who also featured in the Thor: Ragnarok film — seemed like an absolutely unstoppable force. Even godlike Thor, along with Odin, Loki, and all the others, had to think twice. But, when a malevolent, ancient fire demon wants to bring about the end of your homeworld, you have to do something.