In which Thor tries to find the meaning of life in a Creamsicle.

Thor’s internal monologue is sublime:

“I have feasted on the nectars of wild fruit in the land of the Norns. I have dined in the exalted halls of the godly realms. This day I am offered a Creamsicle.”

‘Thor seeks meaning in a Creamsicle’ is a great panel from the 1987 graphic novel The Mighty Thor: I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy, by Jim Shooter and Christopher Priest.

The book’s title is adapted from a line in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Masque of Pandora (1875).

EPIMETHEUS: Whom the Gods love they honor with such guests. PROMETHEUS: Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.

An earlier take is found in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, albeit in Latin form – ‘Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.’

As for Thor and his treat:

The plot itself is delightfully simple and fiendishly clever: Thor is an immortal of Asgard with all the responsibilities of a warrior prince and champion of justice. Moreover, he can transform at will into mere mortal iteration Don Blake – a crippled surgeon who revels in the minutiae of humanity, regularly and literally holding people’s lives in his hands… After Blake loses a patient on the operating table he suffers a debilitating crisis of conscience and begins to question his own Divine right and manner of existence.

This site has a fulsome book review:

It takes place when Thor still has his Don Blake alter-ego, and the story makes a special point to affirm Thor’s human side… Blake is depressed because he had a patient die on the operating table. He’s also having problems with Sif, who is not enjoying her stay on Midgard or the fact that her beloved has a human form. Blake winds up picking up a woman in a bar.

The story has Thor thinking very depressed thoughts about how he doesn’t fit in with the Gods or the humans.

But wait a moment! Maybe a ice-cream can explain everything and brighten his mood?

Even a Creamsicle has its limits.