Right now, the Asgardian succession dispute Joey had gotten dragged into felt completely meaningless.
No matter how much Loki and Thor fought and schemed, neither of them could truly threaten Odin's position as the reigning All-Father.
And why was that?
Because the Destroyer Armor standing before them had originally been one of Odin's own suits of armor, forged long ago for a far greater purpose: to fight the Celestials—beings that were essentially creator gods, entities on the level of world-makers and cosmic titans.
Compared to that, everything these two brothers were doing now was little more than childish squabbling that Odin himself had quietly allowed.
It was all simply part of a lesson designed to make Thor grow up.
When Joey's fist collided with the Destroyer's, the impact resembled a massive thermobaric explosion detonating high above New York.
The resulting shockwave instantly pulverized the upper spires and framework of iconic skyscrapers, including the Chrysler Building, One World Trade Center, and the Empire State Building.
Flexing his slightly numb right hand, Joey watched as the Destroyer's warped and twisted right arm slowly repaired itself from the damage sustained in the collision.
At that moment, Joey found himself grateful that New York lacked the kind of absurd architecture found in Metropolis—buildings decorated with gigantic steel spheres weighing dozens of tons perched atop skyscrapers.
If there had been anything like that nearby, the aftermath of that punch alone would have kept him busy for hours.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the Destroyer's faceplate suddenly split open, revealing what lay inside.
There was nothing but an inferno of magical molten energy capable of reducing all things to ash.
At that very moment, it was being controlled remotely by Loki, who had stolen Gungnir from Odin and was directing the armor through its mystical connection to the spear.
The command he had issued was simple:
"Kill Thor."
Far away in Asgard, Loki observed the battlefield through the magical link between Gungnir and the Destroyer Armor.
The moment the armored giant exchanged a punch with the red-caped figure standing beside his brother, Loki realized he was dealing with an opponent who would not be easy to overcome.
"Focus on the primary target!"
The Destroyer instantly obeyed.
Every plate of armor across its body rotated simultaneously, reorienting itself with frightening speed.
A torrent of molten energy erupted from its faceplate and shot directly toward Thor, who was still standing atop the damaged building.
"You dare?"
The instant Joey sensed the shift in its intentions, he launched himself forward and drove a punch directly into the Destroyer's head.
The tremendous impact shattered half of the helmet.
But even that wasn't fast enough.
The energy beam had already fired.
All Joey managed to do was knock its aim slightly off course.
The redirected blast sliced diagonally through the Empire State Building, beginning near the top and carving downward toward its middle levels.
The structural framework instantly failed.
The upper half of the building began sliding toward the streets below.
And falling alongside it was Thor himself.
Having only recently crashed from the spire onto the rooftop, Thor now desperately clung to the edge of the building with everything he had, trying not to plunge to his death.
That near-death experience sobered him instantly.
Every trace of alcohol vanished from his system.
With his blond hair flying wildly, Thor roared at the Destroyer.
"Loki! Is that really you?!"
At that moment, Joey's old warning had finally proven true.
The Destroyer was Odin's personal armor.
Aside from Odin himself, only someone wielding Gungnir could command it.
And as far as Thor knew, there was only one person capable of taking Gungnir from Odin.
Loki.
"You're actually willing to kill your own brother for the throne?!"
A thousand years earlier, during one of their great wars, Joey had casually revealed that their personal timelines moved in opposite directions.
Just as now, their first meeting from Thor's perspective had occurred when Joey already knew nearly everything about him.
At first, Thor had been fascinated.
He'd constantly tried to learn details about his future from the mysterious warrior who would one day become his comrade.
And Joey had actually been surprisingly generous with information.
He told Thor that he would repeatedly anger Odin.
He told him that one day he would inexplicably decide to lick the Casket of Ancient Winters.
He even told him that, at a certain point in the future, Thor could find him in New York City—specifically at 725 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, down to the exact room number—if he ever needed help.
Every one of those predictions had come true.
Every single one.
Except one.
One thing Thor simply refused to believe.
That Loki would someday betray him in pursuit of the throne of Asgard.
From that day onward, Thor never again willingly asked Joey about his future.
Odin had once warned him:
Knowing the future was not a blessing.
The moment you could see the threads woven by the Norns, you also became bound by them.
Meanwhile, seated upon the throne of Asgard and exercising authority in Odin's absence while the All-Father lay unconscious, Loki no longer cared whether Thor could hear him or not.
His voice erupted in pure rage.
"You're not my brother!"
Because Loki had finally uncovered the truth of his birth.
Years earlier, when Thor had nearly frozen himself to death licking the Casket of Ancient Winters, Loki had later touched it himself.
And in doing so, he had confirmed everything.
Unlike Thor, he suffered no harm whatsoever.
Instead, his true form had emerged.
The form of a Frost Giant.
He was not Odin's son.
He was the son of Laufey, King of the Frost Giants.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
Why Odin always favored the reckless, arrogant Thor.
Why the obedient, intelligent Loki was constantly overlooked.
The pain of that realization still burned within him.
Consumed by bitterness, Loki tightened his control over the Destroyer Armor and prepared to launch another attack against his brother.
Then, through the Destroyer's shared vision, he witnessed something completely unbelievable.
"...I've had enough of this shit."
Driving a fist straight through the Destroyer's face and punching a hole clean through it, Joey immediately followed up with his other hand. Grabbing hold of the breach, he exerted force with both arms and tore the Destroyer apart from the middle.
Even Uru metal, stronger than Adamantium itself, could not withstand Kryptonian strength.
But that did not mean the battle was over.
This entire farce had always been Odin's test for Thor.
When Thor had smashed the Destroyer into scrap with his hammer in the original story, it was only because the magical armor—powerful enough to challenge Celestials—had never truly been fighting him seriously.
Against Joey, however, things were very different.
Everything was being done the hard way.
By now, Joey had realized that this was never supposed to be his battle.
If he wanted to overwhelm the Destroyer's regenerative magic through brute force alone, he would probably have to tear apart half of New York just as he once had during his battle against another Superman.
After ripping the armor apart, Joey hurled the two halves in opposite directions beyond Earth's atmosphere, buying himself time before the armor could regenerate.
Then he flew toward the collapsing skyscraper.
Positioning himself beneath it, he held up the tilting structure and prevented it from crashing down completely.
Normally, Starfire could have handled this.
But after Morlun had drained the energy from her Green Lantern ring, she no longer had the protection of a bio-field. Without it, there was no way she could safely support hundreds of tons of falling steel and concrete while keeping the building's structure intact.
Holding the skyscraper aloft with ease, Joey could already see the two scattered pieces of the Destroyer rapidly converging in the distance.
Once reassembled, it would become another disaster on the scale of the half-collapsed building he was currently supporting.
A catastrophe for every ordinary person in New York.
"Thor! Seventy-six seconds!"
Joey shouted toward Thor, who was clinging to a railing.
"Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-two people!"
"What does that mean?!"
Thor yelled back through the roaring winds.
"Numbers?"
"Listen, Thor. The Destroyer is about to regenerate."
Joey couldn't understand how Thor could still appear so carefree.
Legends described heroes as possessing noble character.
So he decided to force the lesson upon him.
"In seventy-one seconds, the Destroyer will attack again. Starfire won't be able to stop it either. And when that happens, I won't be able to keep holding this entire building up."
He glanced down toward the streets below.
"If this building falls, 2,732 people die."
"And every one of those deaths will be on your hand."
"What?! That's not—"
Thor instinctively tried to argue.
But the words died in his throat.
"...You're right."
It would be his responsibility.
It had all started because his coronation ceremony had been interrupted by Frost Giants.
Feeling humiliated, he had flown into a rage and led a strike force to Jotunheim to provoke a war.
The result?
His companions had nearly died after becoming trapped deep within enemy territory.
If Odin had not personally intervened, half of his closest friends might have perished.
Thinking back on it now, Thor finally realized how absurd he'd been.
After Odin saved everyone, Thor had still argued with him and even called him an old fool.
No wonder Odin had stripped him of his power.
No wonder he had banished him from Asgard.
No wonder he no longer possessed the worthiness to lift Mjolnir.
"The point was never the hammer!"
Joey snapped.
"You're the God of Thunder—not the God of Hammers!"
Even now, Thor was still obsessing over Mjolnir.
At this point, Joey wanted to fly all the way back to New Mexico, pick up the hammer himself, and smack Thor across the head with it.
"I already told you this before! Think, Thor!"
This was never about Mjolnir.
It was about Odin's test.
A capable warrior was not automatically a capable king.
Odin had once conquered the Nine Realms with Gungnir in hand, leaving mountains of corpses in his wake.
He wasn't opposed to war.
He was opposed to stupidity.
War should be fought for the benefit of a nation.
Not for personal pride.
Just as Joey had once told him:
"A ruler must not wage war out of anger. A general must not fight because of rage. Move when it serves your interests; stop when it does not."
"I remember now..."
Without alcohol clouding his mind, Thor finally dug through centuries of memories and found the source.
His eyes widened.
"That day we were drinking together. Diana and Sif were sparring nearby. You told me that."
"I remember you said another line too. Something like... War is the affair of the state...?"
The memory was ancient.
So ancient that Thor had once dismissed it as nothing more than idle conversation at a feast in Valhalla's golden halls.
Only now did he finally understand the lesson Odin had been trying to teach him all along.
"Forget it."
Watching Thor stumble over the rest of the quote and fail to remember it, Joey simply smiled while continuing to support the entire skyscraper above him.
"It doesn't matter anymore."
Whether Thor remembered the quote no longer mattered.
What mattered was that the Destroyer had already begun reassembling itself.
And from somewhere far beyond the horizon, Joey could hear the unmistakable sound of thunder rolling across the heavens.