Cate Blanchett is the Mysterious & Powerful Villainess HELA!

[scarlet-witch]

His belt buckle makes it look like he's holding a Hydra coffee mug.

 

[Dark Raven]

Well the Hydra symbol is a bit like the Starbucks symbol if you squint.

 

[Vartha]

Well the Hydra symbol is a bit like the Starbucks symbol if you squint.

....Hydra's LITTERALLY older than Starbucks...

 

[Dark Raven]

....Hydra's LITTERALLY older than Starbucks...

Only by maybe a year or two. You could easily mistake a Hydra shop for a coffee shop.

 

[MbJ]

For those wondering about that Unworthy Thor plot point someone suggested may foreshadow stuff for the movie.

Spoiler

The mysterious woman working with Thanos is indeed revealed to be Hela. So make of that what you will with all those Hela/Death rumors.

 

[Finarfiniel]

For those wondering about that Unworthy Thor plot point someone suggested may foreshadow stuff for the movie.

Spoiler

The mysterious woman working with Thanos is indeed revealed to be Hela. So make of that what you will with all those Hela/Death rumors.

Spoiler

I'm even more convinced that Hela will play the Death role in IW now. Thanos and Hela had never even met in the comics until this storyline, and now they all of a sudden have a romantic connection too? The timing is more than coincidental IMO. Here's what Jason Aarons had to say in an interview:

We get another surprise in this issue when the hooded figure is revealed to be Hela. What can you say about her relationship with Thanos and exactly it is she mean when she promises him “death”?

JA: We all know about Thanos' particular fixation on death so it makes sense that we would see this alliance forge with Thanos and Hela, who has long been the queen of the underworld in Norse mythology, but recently she's been dethroned and so she's lost control of her kingdom. This is her trying to get that back. As to where that goes, I definitely expect to see the two of them getting up to no good together in the coming months.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I wouldn't read too much into that for the movies.

That being said, I don't think I can unsee that last panel. Thanks a lot.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I wouldn't read too much into that for the movies.

That being said, I don't think I can unsee that last panel. Thanks a lot.

I think there's more than enough reason and history to read something into it, as MbJ has already proven in this excellent post in the IW thread.

[BLACKOUT]What, don't you like seeing sexy supervillains get it on? Although it does look like Thanos is trying to eat Hela's whole mouth which is weird. [/BLACKOUT]

 

[Mike Murdock]

Yeah, it's his lips that are weirding me out.

 

[HammerDown]

For those wondering about that Unworthy Thor plot point someone suggested may foreshadow stuff for the movie.

Spoiler

The mysterious woman working with Thanos is indeed revealed to be Hela. So make of that what you will with all those Hela/Death rumors.

I gotta say that "art" looks really bad. Hela looks like a dude on the first 3 images. The one with the full body looks horrible. And the Thanos kiss...

 

[jaqua99]

Ehhhh

 

[Finarfiniel]

I gotta say that "art" looks really bad. Hela looks like a dude on the first 3 images. The one with the full body looks horrible. And the Thanos kiss...

Yeah, it isn't great which is a shame considering the art for the rest of the issue is actually pretty good. I hope wherever Hela crops up next she's drawn closer to how she was in 'Angela: Queen of Hel' because she looked beautiful and badass (and not entirely unlike MCU Hela) there.

Spoiler

One thing I loved about Unworthy Thor #5 was how Hela is back to being 100% badass again, she knocked out Black Swan and killed Proxima Midnight with virtually no effort at all. It would have been weird if Thanos wasn't into that. t:

 

[Finarfiniel]

So, do you think Val Kilmer realises that when you post something on twitter, everyone can read it? He's been posting about Cate for like 24 hours, lol.

And then when someone replied that he was maybe a bit creepy obsessed:

Seriously though, everyone needs to follow his twitter because it's generally hilarious. I think Cate needs to get herself some bodyguards though... or her husband does at least.

 

[Wildcard]

Just when I thought Val Kilmer couldn't get creepier.

 

[Flemm]

- Skurge is Hela's muscle. A bit like Kurse was for Malekith. The rumor is that he's gonna have an "arc" to hist story.

A redemption arc, almost certainly, I would guess.

With Hela being the main villain, all of the elements are in place for some sort of adaptation of Skurge's last stand, which is the story he is most known for. It's perhaps the most memorable death in all of comics.

In the original stories, Skurge has this on-going romance/obsession with the Enchantress, but I wonder if that will be shifted to Hela here. It would foreshadow or echo Thanos' love affair with death in an interesting way, potentially.

Regarding whether or not Hela will embody death in some sort of broader sense for Infinity War... that's an interesting question.

I think it would perhaps be a little odd to have an actress like Cate Blanchett appear as a death goddess in the lead-up to Infinity War, then cast somebody else as Death herself immediately afterward.

Not impossible, but it might feel a bit awkward and redundant.

I guess they could have Hela turn out to be an avatar of Death, played by the same actress, but without the Thor-specific trappings in the Avengers films?

Definitely something to keep an eye on.

 

[Wildcard]

At this point, I really don't see them introducing Death in IW. Their decision to utilize Hela and then Thanos and Hela hooking up in recent comics seems to support this. I do think it'd be too confusing, and they're better off only using one at this point and not both.

 

[Bren]

Not sure how it could be too confusing... To who? Comic book readers/fans or the GA (or both)?

 

[Finarfiniel]

A redemption arc, almost certainly, I would guess.

With Hela being the main villain, all of the elements are in place for some sort of adaptation of Skurge's last stand, which is the story he is most known for. It's perhaps the most memorable death in all of comics.

In the original stories, Skurge has this on-going romance/obsession with the Enchantress, but I wonder if that will be shifted to Hela here. It would foreshadow or echo Thanos' love affair with death in an interesting way, potentially.

Regarding whether or not Hela will embody death in some sort of broader sense for Infinity War... that's an interesting question.

I think it would perhaps be a little odd to have an actress like Cate Blanchett appear as a death goddess in the lead-up to Infinity War, then cast somebody else as Death herself immediately afterward.

Not impossible, but it might feel a bit awkward and redundant.

I guess they could have Hela turn out to be an avatar of Death, played by the same actress, but without the Thor-specific trappings in the Avengers films?

Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Agreed to all, I think it's pretty much a given at this stage that Skurge will be Hela's henchman and his big 'arc' will be that he will eventually turn against her and sacrifice himself to somehow save the heroes. Whether he will be crazy in love with Hela like comics Skurge is with Enchantress, I'm not sure... but it's a really entertaining dynamic in the comics so I kinda hope so, it gives Skurge's arc even more emotional weight.

Not sure how it could be too confusing... To who? Comic book readers/fans or the GA (or both)?

The GA, and I agree with Wildcard. Having two separate death themed women appear only two movies apart still feels completely redundant and confusing for the GA to me.

It also seems to me that having Hela be an 'avatar' of Death who is also her doppelganger is just making things needlessly complicated. If they want Cate Blanchett in IW, just make Thanos in love with Hela in this universe rather than Death. I know the purists perhaps won't like it, but it honestly makes so much more narrative sense for this universe.

 

[Iceman]

Yep. I have a lot of faith that with the people involved in this film they will hopefully do justice by the character of Hela, and by the always amazing Cate Blanchett. I find it encouraging that a lot of the early media push for this movie has involved and been focused on the villain which, as far as I'm aware, is fairly unusual for an MCU movie to date.

Haha, love it t:

 

[HammerDown]

I can also see the "Hela-Death/Thanos" connection being something that is featured in A-IW.
I can even imagine hints at it in Thor Ragnarok.

 

[Bren]

At this point, I really don't see them introducing Death in IW. Their decision to utilize Hela and then Thanos and Hela hooking up in recent comics seems to support this. I do think it'd be too confusing, and they're better off only using one at this point and not both.

The GA, and I agree with Wildcard. Having two separate death themed women appear only two movies apart still feels completely redundant and confusing for the GA to me.

Apologies, I read it ass-backwards and thought consolidating the two into one character would be confusing.

Making Hela and Death the same character in the MCU makes sense to me.

 

[MbJ]

At this point, I really don't see them introducing Death in IW. Their decision to utilize Hela and then Thanos and Hela hooking up in recent comics seems to support this. I do think it'd be too confusing, and they're better off only using one at this point and not both.

It would also fit with the talk about Ragnarok being an important lead-in to Infinity War.

 

[Wildcard]

It would also fit with the talk about Ragnarok being an important lead-in to Infinity War.

Precisely. That's another reason I think they haven't denounced Thanos being involved. For this to be a proper lead in, he almost has to be involved, even if it's something somewhat minute.

Apologies, I read it ass-backwards and thought consolidating the two into one character would be confusing.

Making Hela and Death the same character in the MCU makes sense to me.

It's cool, happens from time to time. But yeah, I was against the idea at first but it does make the most sense at this juncture. Can't wait to see how it all plays out.

 

[Flemm]

Precisely. That's another reason I think they haven't denounced Thanos being involved. For this to be a proper lead in, he almost has to be involved, even if it's something somewhat minute.

I think it will be more than minute. It makes sense for him to obtain his first infinity stone in this movie. The one in Asgard.

That's just a guess, but it would fit. He would be united with Hela, and that would lead directly into Infinity War.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I think it will be more than minute. It makes sense for him to obtain his first infinity stone in this movie. The one in Asgard.

That's just a guess, but it would fit. He would be united with Hela, and that would lead directly into Infinity War.

Yeah, I find it interesting that the last we know is that the Tesseract is still locked away in Odin's vault, so surely if Hela now has control of Asgard, that means she also has control of the Tesseract?

Also, Cate Blanchett has recently been spotted in the UK, London to be precise. Only an hour and a half's flight time away from Edinburgh where they are currently filming scenes for Infinity War. Just saying.