Vowing to slay all the gods, Gorr the God Butcher follows through with his promise thanks to his bond with the All-Black, the first symbiote and most ancient evil.
The Nonbeliever
Raised by his mother and father on a planet without a name, young Gorr learns of the gods who they must pay homage to in order to keep the family safe. Gorr, possessing a crippled leg and an inquisitive demeanor, questions his mother about the gods—why he can’t see them and why they didn’t take care of his father when he fell ill with the sun fevers. His mother reassures him that his father lived a long life and that they’ll see him again, someday. Soon after, she dies saving him from a pair of dinosaur-like beasts.
Years later, he has sons and daughters with his partner Arra but she perishes, while pregnant, in an earthquake. Most of his children are taken by the same illness as his father. With only one son left, Agar, Gorr treks with him and his tribe away from their barren wasteland, seeking a more resourceful area of the planet. However, his son did not survive the journey. Gorr loses all faith in the gods; committing blasphemous acts, such as burying his son underground, a practice forbidden by his culture, and saying there are no gods to take care of them. His tribe stoned him so that the gods couldn’t hear his lies, saying he was of the black gods, and his crippled leg was a sign.
While walking alone through the deserts, a pair of armored beings hurtle across the sky and land in an explosion on the ground nearby. Gorr approaches these unknown beings to find the gilded one had stabbed the inky black opponent. When the gold god asks for help, Gorr refuses, viewing the beings as gods and thus blaming them for his suffering. Just then, an ooze-like substance shot up into Gorr’s hand from the blade of the black-armored god and formed into a spearhead, as if forged into volcanic glass. With it, he butchered the remaining god. With a mere thought, the spearhead turned once again into ooze, covering Gorr's body in armor with wings. As he flew away from his planet and into outer space, he wondered if there were more gods out there to find.
An Ancient Symbiote of Power
The first symbiote, All-Black, is an ancient amorphous weapon originating from the evil Knull. It left Knull when he became incapacitated, and bonded itself to Gorr, who becomes imbued with its superhuman powers, including flight as well as increased strength and durability. From Gorr’s thoughts, he can mold the shapeshifting symbiote to form armor around his body and produce weapons, which are limited only by his thoughts. One of the weapons, All-Black the Necrosword, extends from his arms and is made from living darkness. The symbiote also provides him with the ability to regenerate.
Familial Bonds
Gorr’s only allies are that of his family. After he loses them all, he begins spouting blasphemy against the gods, resulting in his tribe turning against him. When the All-Black symbiote bonds to him, he creates an army of black berserkers, dog-like creatures with immense strength. They do his bidding and kill gods for him, which fuels his powers. Using the symbiote, he also creates constructs of his deceased wife and son.
Gods are the One True Enemy
Gorr has had numerous encounters with Thor Odinson, aka Thor, over the centuries. One encounter in particular where he nearly lost his life teaches him that his dreams are still possible, that he has something to live for, which is to kill all the gods. He claims he has slain gods of jealousy, death, war, fear, chaos, poetry, and flowers.
A History of Slaying Gods
Gorr spent the next thousands of years torturing and butchering gods and creating an army of black berserkers. When Gorr attacked the god Chronux, he claimed the Pool of Forevers used it to travel through the timestream, arriving in various times. He went back to the start of the universe to slay one of the first elder gods and then far in the future to the desolate Earth-14412 where he enslaved all the gods, except for All-Father Thor, AKA King Thor, whom he tormented for 900 years. Gorr indentured the gods to construct a device to kill anyone of divinity known as the Godbomb.
While describing his ancient symbiote weapon to his prisoner Volstagg the Valiant, Lion of Asgard, one of many gods he enslaved and then imprisoned for stealing bread, Volstagg accused him of being a god himself, a most foul and despicable one. Gorr nailed him to a cross and as his young son, formed from the All-Black symbiote, came looking for him, asking for food, Gorr said that his son would not go hungry.
The Thor of the present, the Avenger from Earth-616, travelled to the end of time and joined the Thor of the future, King Thor, to defeat the God Butcher. Meanwhile, the young Thor of the Viking age escaped Gorr’s slavery. He attempted to kill the Godbomb using a piece of a star, but it blew him off the planet where he met up with his future selves. King Thor struck Gorr with his hammer sending him lightyears away, and for the first time, Gorr felt afraid. To gain more power, he ordered his army of dark minions to kill all the gods he enslaved, which fueled his power and allowed him to defeat the three Thors.
When Gorr activated the Godbomb, the symbiote construct of his wife called him out as a God. Angry at the accusation, he killed her. The construct of his son, Agar, then allied with Thor the Avenger, to bring down his father who he saw had become the very thing he fought over a millennia to destroy. Thor the Avenger, with Agar’s prayers and the remaining gods across time and space, absorbed the full might of the Godbomb and Gorr’s Necrosword. Using the blast’s power, Thor weakened Gorr as Agar called his father the God of Hypocrisy. The younger Thor finally slayed Gorr the God Butcher.
Gorr’s mark though was left permanently on Thor the Avenger—his philosophy of selfish gods only out for themselves stuck with Thor, which led to him to become unworthy of Mjolnir. Gorr’s consciousness also survived inside the All-Black. Gorr was later resurrected by Loki Laufeyson, aka Loki, the new host to All-Black. Gorr reclaimed the All-Black from him and impaled him in the back. He crucified Thor and Loki, and vowed to destroy Midgard and make Thor watch. He engulfed both brothers into the All-Black, but shortly thereafter, gods who Thor previously saved were awakened by the Goddess of Thunder. These gods liberated Thor and Loki, and together they finally defeated Gorr and the All-Black symbiote. Without the symbiote, Gorr became mortal and left without his memories. The Sky Lords of Indigarr took him in so that he could live his life in peace.
