Morning Ramble 369: Inundated by Norse Mythology

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like mythology, but recently I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by Norse Mythology.

In SMITE, in Marvel Heroes Omega, on American Gods, in Marvel comics…all kinds of references to Thor or Odin or Ymir.  It’s interesting to think about the old days when everything was attributable to Superbeings.  Creation, fertility, thunder, pestilence, famine, rain, all were considered the realm of the gods.  And you better be on their good side.

In SMITE, I’ve not played much Thor or Ymir, but I did pick up Odin and gave him a whirl. He’s got some good CC with his abilities and AOE, but his Ultimate is a challenge that demands enemies trapped to stay and fight – it definitely means a team fight is gonna happen – no running away.

In Marvel Heroes, I just tried Thor for a few levels and he’s the first hero I’ve encountered where I actually feel the cooldown delay in some of his abilities.  His first AOE attack – Son of Odin calls down a lightning strike that hits everyone nearby, but it’s got a 12 second cooldown.  It really feels like it’s longer.  Perhaps it’s because his Hammer Strike ability is a melee skill and I don’t enjoy melee as much as ranged combat.  I’ll have to give him some more levels to see how I like him.

In the Marvel Comics, I’m continuing to read through the Avengers Disassembled event and have gone through a few issues of Michael Oeming’s Thor.  I’m enjoying it but there are certainly a lot of characters mentioned.  It seems like they opened up the old Dieties & Demigods handbook from D&D and listed off everyone from Norse Mythology.  Balfour, Loki, Vidal, Odin, Ymir, Sif, Volstagg – so many, and so many I don’t know anything about. I’m hoping this helps me understand Thor better afterwards, but I almost feel like I’m back in school having all these mythological names thrown at me.

The most interesting version of the Norse gods may be on American Gods where the whole idea is that if people keep the idea and thoughts of the old gods alive in the present day, then they continue to exist.  Thinking of that, perhaps all these references to mythology are a means to do just that – keep these gods alive even in a world ruled by science and technology.