text: During the "Fear Itself" storyline, Odin senses the return of his elder brother, Cul, the Serpent: God of Fear. After a brief monologue with Uatu the Watcher, Odin commands his people to return to the Asgardian plane against the protests of Thor, and Asgard rebuilds into a war engine with which he intends to raze Earth completely, to destroy the Serpent. Thor convinces Odin to send him back to Earth instead, and Iron Man travels to Asgard-space for an audience with Odin, wherein Iron Man asks Odin if he can use one of Asgard's workshops to make weapons, and Odin allows him to use the Workshops of Svartalfheim, to stop the Serpent before his shadow falls on the World Tree. Captain America and the Avengers bring an unconscious Thor to Broxton so that Odin can heal Thor. As he tends to his son, Odin confesses that he has always tried to prevent Thor's prophesied death by the Serpent, not to prevent Ragnarok, but because he loves his son and does not want to see him perish. Odin prepares Thor by giving him the armor and helmet that he himself wore the last time he cast out the Serpent and gives Thor the Odinsword, named Ragnarok (which was forged to end all things). While Thor kills the Serpent at the cost of his own life, Odin frees those affected by the Hammers of the Worthy, and returns to Asgard with the corpse of the Serpent sealing off Asgard from Hermod and a number of other Asgardians left on Earth.