Nobody buys a comic book called “Thor” to read about a civilian named Jake Olsen’s legal and female troubles. So, thankfully, that storyline ends in these issues—and, by the time this arc ends, Thor is separated from the mortal Jake Olsen for good.
It turns out Loki is behind a lot of the Thor/Olsen troubles.
Note that Jake is going into a liquor store selling “Zeck Vodka.” Odd. I love Mike Zeck, but he is not generally associated with Thor.
There’s also a cloned Thanos called Thanosi. Thanosi is employing…
Mangog!
It all comes to a head in Thor Annual 2000, where Thor gives up the ways of Midgard—including Jake Olsen (who dies)—and Odin punishes Loki for his role in all this by trapping him in the body of Jake’s brother, who goes to prison for felony murder.
This is all messy, and there’s different artists for each of the books, which doesn’t help. But the upshot is that we have a Thor free of any mortal coil, and that’s a good thing. It’s also nice to see Odin punishing Loki by putting him in a mortal body, instead of punishing Thor that way—especially since Thor really doesn’t deserve it.
The backup story to annual 2000 is a beautiful story about a Recorder robot who watches Mangog and fake Thanos destroy a planet. The Recorder advises Thor that he will need to take down Thanosi or this will happen again. Jurgens writes it and Ladronn draws it, and it leads right into Thor #22.
Ladronn should draw all Thor books. He’s terrific.
Very interesting use of an Annual—it concludes a storyline from the main series and begins another.