Thor #372
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThor #372 is the issue where the Time Variance Authority — the multiverse-policing bureaucracy that would become central to the Disney+ Loki series and the film Deadpool & Wolverine — was first named, explained, and formally introduced to Marvel readers, making it one of the most consequential single issues of Walt Simonson's celebrated Thor run. The issue also resolves a harrowing arc in which Jane Foster is murdered by the Zaniac parasite, only for Thor to use the enchantment within Mjolnir to recharge Justice Peace's time-travel vehicle and avert the killing, a tight self-contained time-loop that demonstrated Simonson's facility with science-fiction plotting within a superhero frame. Beyond the headline debut, the issue deepens Volstagg's characterization in a lasting way: the two orphaned boys left behind by the tragedy are brought to Asgard and formally adopted into Volstagg's household, a subplot that would pay dividends across the rest of Simonson's run. Taken together, the issue plants seeds — a time-policing agency, a Judge Dredd-flavored lawman, a villain rooted in Jack the Ripper mythology, and a warrior turning father — that continued to bear fruit in Marvel Comics and eventually in the MCU decades later.
In "Without Justice, There Is No Peace!", Thor races against time to protect Jane Foster and prevent Zaniac from destroying the future, while grappling with the mysterious motives of Justice Peace. Meanwhile, Volstagg takes in two orphaned boys, adding a quiet moment of humanity amid the escalating crisis. Written by Walter Simonson and illustrated by Sal Buscema, with colors by Max Scheele and letters by John Workman, the issue’s cover by Sal Buscema captures the tension of a world hanging in the balance.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Thor #372 falls inside the final phase of Walt Simonson's landmark 1983–1987 tenure on the title; Simonson had stepped back from pencilling duties with issue #367, after which Sal Buscema took over art, but Simonson continued scripting through issue #382. The issue was edited by Ralph Macchio and Craig Anderson, with Jim Shooter serving as editor-in-chief. Simonson has confirmed that he conceived the TVA as a corporate satire of Marvel itself, which was becoming more bureaucratic at the time, and that the organization's staff were visually modelled as clones of writer-editor Mark Gruenwald — who was also Simonson's editor on Thor — as an in-joke that Gruenwald himself approved and even posed for reference photos to support. Simonson also drew the TVA's initials from the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally owned utility company associated with his birthplace of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First named and explained appearance of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), the multiverse-regulating organization that later became central to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Loki (2021–2023) Disney+ series and the film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).
- Written by Walt Simonson with pencils by Sal Buscema, inks credited pseudonymously to 'Albret Blevinson' (Bret Blevins and Al Williamson), colors by Christie Scheele, and letters by John Workman; cover date October 1986, released July 1986.
- First appearance of Justice Peace, a TVA agent and deliberate pastiche of 2000 AD's Judge Dredd, who rides a time-travel motorcycle called 'Hopsickle' and whose origin story is revealed in this issue.
- The Zaniac — a demonic parasitic swarm retconned as the same entity behind the Jack the Ripper murders — is destroyed by Thor and Justice Peace through limited time travel, diverging the murder of Jane Foster into an alternate timeline.
- Two orphaned Midgardian boys, Mick and Kevin (sons of Zaniac-victim Ruby Mortensen), are brought to Asgard by Thor and formally adopted by Volstagg and his wife Gudrun, expanding Volstagg's role from comic relief to surrogate father.
- Simonson designed the TVA staff as visual clones of Marvel writer-editor Mark Gruenwald, with Gruenwald's blessing, as a satirical comment on Marvel's growing corporate culture; Gruenwald posed for reference photographs used in the art.
- The issue also contains a Hela epilogue in which the goddess of death, still nursing grievances from Thor's raid on her realm in issues #360–362, begins preparing a curse against him — laying the groundwork for the brittle-bones storyline that follows.
- Reprinted as part of the Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Vol. 4 trade paperback and included in the Thor by Walter Simonson Omnibus (which collects Thor #337–355, #357–369, #371–382).
- The second episode of the Disney+ Loki series features the number '372' prominently in the background of the TVA archives, widely interpreted as a direct Easter egg referencing this issue's key debut.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Der mächtige Thor #3 (1989), Superaventuras Marvel #107 (1991), Thor: La Maldición de Hela #1 (2000), Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson #4 (2007), Thor : L'intégrale #1986-1987 (2010), Thor by Walter Simonson Omnibus #[nn] (2011), Thor by Walter Simonson #4 (2014), Thor #18
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