Hot on the heels of his all too brief cameo in Loki episode five, Throg, the Frog of Thunder, will leap back into comic books this October in Thor #18, as revealed in a tweet from the official Thor Twitter account.
The simple tweet doesn't reveal much about the circumstances of Throg's return, but it does reveal the issue's cover by veteran Thor artist Olivier Coipel, which features a whimsical yet striking portrait of the Frog of Thunder in his natural habitat. Like Coipel, Thor #18 interior artist Pasqual Ferry is a former Thor creator who is returning as a guest contributor before regular Thor series artist Nic Klein returns in Thor #19, presumably in November.
"This October, only one hero can save us: Throg, Frog of Thunder!" reads the official Thor account's tweet. "Thor #18 by Donny Cates and Pasqual Ferry will be un-frog-gettable."
Oddly enough, Throg is actually the second 'Frog Thor' - the first being Thor himself, who was briefly turned into a frog by Loki. Throg started life as a human, himself, going by the name of Simon Walterson (a nod to Walt Simonson, who wrote and drew Thor's origins; transformation into a frog in Thor #364), a former football star who hires a witch to help him contact his dead family.
But when Walterson can't pay, the witch transforms him into a frog, and he goes off to live in Central Park among other amphibians where he was renamed Puddlegulp, leader of the frogs. When Thor became a frog, he helped Puddlegulp and his clan fight off an invasion by rats, after which Puddlegulp in turn helped Thor reclaim Mjolnir as well as his Asgardian form.
But when Thor left Puddlegulp and his clan to return to Asgard, a small shard of Mjolnir which had broken off the mystic Uru hammer was left behind. Puddlegulp found it, and lifting it, discovered that not only was he worthy of lifting Mjolnir (or at least a piece of it possessing the same enchantment), it turned him fully into Throg, the so-called Frog of Thunder.
Throg has since become a kitschy, cult-favorite Marvel character with brief appearances here and there, as well as an ongoing association with Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, a team of superhero animals with ties to non-animal heroes.
With Throg returning to Marvel Comics just shortly after a brief glimpse of the character as a Thor variant in the Loki show (played by Chris Hemsworth no less), could Throg's comic book return potentially bring the comic book debut of the Lokigator, the MCU's alligator Loki variant?
Fans can certainly hope.
Thor #18 is due out in October. Stay tuned to Newsarama for Marvel's full October 2021 solicitations coming later this month.
Walt Simonson, who turned Thor into a frog, is the creator of some of the best Thor stories ever.
