SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for What If? Thor Was Raised By Frost Giants, from Ethan Sacks, Michele Bandini, Matt Milla and VC's Joe Sabino, in stores now.


For decades, Marvel's What If? comics have taken the publisher's key characters down different paths, subverting mainstream stories with unique twists. The latest mutliversal tale -- What If? Thor Was Raised By Frost Giants -- deals with the Odinson's upbringing, giving it a much darker background, as the name implies, than what we're accustomed to.

However, while raising the God of Thunder in the frigid Jotunheim realm doesn't convert him into an all-out villain, this alternate universe one-shot does fashion his most horrific and heartbreaking kill of all time: That of his own mother, Freyja.

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Now, this story takes some liberties with Freyja, in that she's not Thor's mother in the mainstream Marvel-616 universe. That honor goes to Gaea, whereas Freyja is mother to the likes of Tyr, Balder and Angela. In this story, though, Thor is indeed her son by blood, and the woman who puts her life on the line after Laufey, King of the Frost Giants, kills Odin and comes after the Royal Family. Wanting to torture Odin in the afterlife some more, he decides to take her prisoner and force Thor into a life as his son.

As the story progresses, Thor grows to enjoy Laufey's rule, outdoing his adopted father's blood son, Loki, and showing the Frost Giants that even though he's an outsider, he's ready to succeed Laufey. Meanwhile, the peace-seeking Loki has been stealing visits to Freyja, learning more magic and planning to secret her away to Midgard. When Thor inherits Laufey's Ice Crusher (the Giants' version of Mjolnir), they decide to march on Muspelheim, which gives Loki the time to free Freyja so she could conjure the Bifrost and teleport them to Midgard.

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Sadly, Laufey and Thor intercept them, although the king doesn't reveal Loki's prisoner is Freyja. After Loki kills his dad, Thor goes into berserker mode, unleashing an ice blast meant to kill Loki. Sadly, Freyja (who doesn't recognize Thor), now a mother-figure to Loki, jumps in front and bears the brunt of the magical blast. In Loki's hands, she disintegrates into ice cubes, only just learning her son was alive all this time. An enraged Thor tries to kill Loki for keeping Freyja's whereabouts mum, but he comes to his senses, and decides to honor her by allowing Loki to go to Midgard. That's what his mother would have wanted, after all.

Admittedly, it wouldn't have taken much for Loki to alert Thor his mother was alive and well. He could also have used her to sway Thor back from the dark influence of Laufey. Nonetheless, it's a heartbreaking moment because Thor kills his last remaining connection to his family, and Asgard on the whole. You also can't help but feel sorry for Loki, who's more inept than evil, and wanted a mother of his own after growing up without one. He's selfish about Freyja because he wants her for himself, and also feels Thor's bloodthirsty ways don't make him worthy of her affection anymore.

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It's worth nothing that we've seen Thor deal some crushing blows in the past -- to Jan Pym in Secret Invasion, to Sentry in Siege, and to Thanos himself -- but nothing quite as heart-crushing as this, even if it is an "imaginary" tale. It's a family tragedy that really leaves a painful aftertaste because it could have been prevented had people just conversed and listened to each other. Well, thankfully the 616-Thor has his Avengers and Asgardians around to keep him grounded and set him straight when he wanders off course. If he was as petulant as this version, then we'd have a lot of drama -- and innocent blood -- that'd need cleaning up.