In "To Quote a Phrase," I spotlight memorable quotes from comic books.

Today, I spotlight an epic series of declarations from Odin, Thor and Loki that perfectly encapsulated what each of the three stood for at the time that the comic book came out.

Walter Simonson began his epic run on Thor with Thor #337. The issue began with a mysterious cosmic being in the act of SOMEthing...

It then becomes clear that the cosmic being is forging a gigantic sword and the sound that it makes when forging the sword sounds like, well, you know, DOOM!

Over the next few issues, Thor continues to have his various adventures while slowly but surely, the entity continues its forging until it finally completes the sword and in Thor #346, we see that it is Surtur and he is ready to invade and destroy both Midgard (Earth) but also Asgard...

The battle goes to Earth in Thor #349, but the heroes of Asgard and Earth manage to push Surtur to Asgard, but things go poorly there and it seems like Surtur might finally succeed in his goal of destroying Asgard, as both Thor and Odin are knocked out of commission. Then, in a shocker, Loki shows up and delays Surtur...

He can't stop the beast, but he gives Odin and Thor time to recover...

The three of them then charge at Surtur together, father and his two sons fighting on the same side for once. Each of the three gods shouts out a declaration to note what they are fighting for. Odin shouts out, "For Asgard!" Thor shouts, "For Midgard!" and Loki? He shouts out "For Myself!"

In just six simple words, Simonson perfectly encapsulated what drives all three of these gods, and he does so by also giving the story a nice piece of levity in the midst of the drama.

In the end, Odin finds a way to stop Surtur, but it also involves himself sacrificing his life to end Surtur's....

Man, Simonson's run on Thor sure was great.

Okay, folks, if you care to suggest cool comic book quotes that you'd like to see spotlighted here, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com. There's a decent enough chance that if you think the quote in question is super cool than I, too, will find it super cool and feature it here. Not a 100% chance, though, of course. Let's say roughly a 60% chance.