Character Overview
The incredibly cool-looking character depicted above is the aggressive (but curiously underused) Leir, lord of lightning and god of the spear.
According to Comic Vine:
Except for his much greater size, Leir is in many ways a Celtic version of Thor. He possesses strength, durability and other physical abilities that rival those of Thor. His most notable power is the ability to produce long, lightning-like spears that he uses to hurl at his enemies. Backed by his vast superhuman strength, these spears can shatter nearly any substance and have at least similar destructive power as Thor throwing his hammer. It is unknown if Leir has other elemental/weather powers.When you do a little research on the mythological source material, you quickly find differences between the comic version and the real world traditions. First, there are several alternate spellings of the name (e.g., Leir, Lir, Ler, Llyr, et al.) More significantly, however, there seems to be some serious differences in domain of authority. As near as I've been able to tell, Leir was typically considered a sea god by the ancient Celts/Irish.
Comic Vine explains this by proclaiming Leir a "former god of the sea," who sired "several gods and eventually turned his duties of god of the sea over to one of them..." So...what, is this supposed to be like a semi-retirement?! If so, I'd be curious to Leir would do this.
His depiction in the comics doesn't look much like a retirement. He's so "out front" and aggressive, in fact, I initially assumed he was leader of the Celtic gods. In reality, he's something nearer to a war-leader--skilled as a fighter and strategist, but too impetuous and hot-tempered for the diplomatic aspects of leadership.
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| The Mighty Thor #386 (DEC 1987) |
The story begins rather mundanely, as Thor has his beard shaved. This is part of a reset from Hela-induced vulnerabilities that had lead to having a host of facial scars (hence, the beard) and brittle bones (hence the adoption of battle armor--which Thor will chuck by the end of this issue).
Goldilocks is about to head back to earth, when the Warriors Three convince him to go on one last excursion. In the process, they come across (well...technically, I suppose Thor comes across) a giant, black sphinx-looking monster terrorizing the Asgardian countryside.
No sooner does Thor engage the creature, before it retreats through a dimensional rift. Though the Warriors Three protest that Thor should allow them to accompany him into this unknown realm, the Avenger explains they must remain behind to defend Asgard in the event Thor fails to defeat the monster.
Thus, the Odinson is all by his lonesome when he emerges in the land of Avalon, home of the Tuatha de Danaan (i.e., Celtic gods), long-time enemies of Asgard.
Given that background, Thor receives the "welcome" you would expect...and that from Avalon's fiercest defender:
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| Among other things, this issue provides evidence that from the very beginning, Leir was using his groan-worthy introduction. |
Naturally, Thor tries to explain this is all a misunderstanding...and of course Leir ain't havin' none of it and they thrown down. Eventually, of course, the Sphinxster shows up again. Leir realizes Thor's telling the truth, and the two set aside their differences to fight it.
Though they put up a great fight, the beast is not finally put down by Thor, Leir, and Hogun (who had previously passed through the portal into Avalon to aid Thor) contribution to the story. Instead, the beast retreats back through the portal to Asgard. Thor and Hogun give chase, only to find that this monstrous threat has been easily dispatched by Volstagg and Fandral.
As it turns out, this one-off story ends up being very fortuitous for it allows a sort of "peace" to be established between Asgard and Avalon.
Other sources on Thor #386
- @ManFirestorm has a great tweet thread on this issue.
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