How That Eye-Popping Thor: Ragnarok Scene Connects to the Comic Books

Now that Thor: Ragnarok is finally in theaters, we can officially gush about the latest developments in the life of our favorite Nordic Avenger. The third standalone Thor film surely packs a punch — Cate Blanchett gives us the cheesy, iconic villainess we deserve, and we get a hilarious Hemsworth brother cameo and A-list cameo to boot.

And even though there's plenty of fun to be had in the film, perhaps even more intriguing are the plot points that will definitely affect the future of the Marvel Comics Universe. Yes, there are some implications about how this connects to Avengers: Infinity War and what happens to Asgard's Tesseract, but there's something much more pressing that's right before our, er, eyes.

If you've seen the film, you probably know what we're referring to: during the final showdown between Thor and Hela, the evil Goddess of Death gouges out the eye of her brother. This brutal move actually backfires on Hela: instead of weakening Thor, it help him access his powers in a way he couldn't before. Thor channels all this pain and anger to literally become the God of Thunder, complete with coursing electricity zigzagging down from the heavens. It's cool enough to see this transformation but even cooler when you find out how it connects to the comic books.

In a comic series called Avengers Disassembled, we witness the basic plot to Thor: Ragnarok. Please note that there is a lot more to the story, but here are the key plot points. In Thor's portion of the series, we witness the entire destruction of the Asgardian race (Thor included). One cool Easter egg is that his hammer, Mjölnir, gets destroyed at the beginning of this series . . . by Loki! Thor, desperate to gain more power and to stop the Ragnarok, finds the Well of Wisdom. In order to ascend to a new plane of power, Thor must make a sacrifice. So he rips out both of his eyes and plunges them into the water.

In this same issue, the hero becomes Rune King Thor, a kind of omniscient and all-powerful version of the character. Thor learns in these issues to channel his power without the help of his hammer. And, just like the film, Thor does eventually allow Ragnarok (basically the Norse apocalypse) to happen. Except, in this version of the comics, Thor more or less dies.

It's clear the film has put an optimistic twist on the story, but the fabric of the character arc remains the same. In the film, Thor does indeed lose his hammer, his glorious locks of hair, and just one of his eyes. But through all this sacrifice, he's able to supercharge himself, so to speak.

What's more, this new Thor, who seems to be a lot like the Rune King Thor, is the warrior who will head into Avengers: Infinity War. Chris Hemsworth even confirmed that this is the version of Thor we'll see. "Yeah. we carry it into the film with the eye patch you see in this film," he said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. Guess we better strap in, because the next Avengers film promises to be the most eye-opening one yet.