WARNING: The following contains mild spoilers for Avengers #38 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
In the Avengers' recent "Age of Khonshu" storyline, Moon Knight bonded with the Phoenix in the hopes of becoming powerful enough to take on Mephisto, who threatens to take over the universe itself. However, at the end of the event, Moon Knight and the Phoenix Force separated. Now the all-powerful cosmic entity is on Earth, preparing for the start of the "Enter the Phoenix" storyline, which will see it seek out a new host among the planet's superheroes.
Avengers #38 is the calm before the storm. As the Phoenix starts to nest, Earth's Mightiest Heroes know what will come next: the search for a new host and, more than likely, a whole lot of death and destruction. While some may feel powerless against the Phoenix, the Mighty Thor reveals he may know how to defeat the cosmic entity -- and the price at which it may come.
Most of Avengers #38 reveals the secret history of Mephisto in the Marvel Universe. But a brief scene also works as a prologue for the title's next event. Thor and Blade are watching the Phoenix Force from afar on the island the cosmic entity has now made its home. They see that it is nesting, preparing for what will come next.
Knowing full well what the Phoenix Force will once again unleash on the world, Blade asks the obvious question: "Why haven't we killed it yet?'
Of course, the answer isn't so simple. The Phoenix is a primordial force of the universe, a cosmic entity as old as time itself. It's not something that can easily be killed -- least of all by humans. But it turns out Thor may know more about the Phoenix than anyone thought. In fact, the Asgardian God of Thunder and recently crowned King of Asgard tells Blade that, should it come down to it, he knows the Phoenix's weakness.
"All-Father Thor knows how to make it bleed," he says. "Even if it kills me. And chances are... it would."
It looks like Thor knows the one thing that could stop the Phoenix. But what is it and how did he get the information? Right now, all we have are guesses, but it's possible that this somehow ties back to his father Odin and the prehistoric Avengers. After all, it was previously teased that Odin and the first human Phoenix host were in love during their time as part of the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC, which could be the weakness Thor is referring to.
Then again, it's also possible the God of Thunder is speaking of new knowledge he recently gained. In the pages of Thor, the God of Thunder was finally given access to Asgard's Book of Kings, which contains the knowledge and history of past rulers of the Realm Eternal. Since the pages of this book chronicle adventures that date back to the dawn of time, it's possible one of the stories Thor has read reveals more information about the Phoenix, and how it could potentially be stopped.
While we don't yet know what the Pheonix's weakness is, all that matters is that Thor does. But at what cost? He says he could die in the process, which means it will likely be extremely dangerous to exploit this weakness. But if anyone has a chance of surviving, it's him. After all, he did just recently kill not one but two ancient forces of the universe in Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, and the Black Winter. What's one more?