8 Times Asgard Went To War

While appearing to be a departure from the build towards the looming War of the Realms, the Asgard/Shi' Ar War proved to have surprising connections to the beginning of Jason Aaron's run, while finding an interesting way to tie in the X-Men mythos with Thor's.

After some goading by Loki, the gods of the Shi'ar Empire, Sharra and K'ythri, send Gladiator and the Imperial Guard on a mission to Asgard to bring back the Mighty Thor Jane Foster so they can prove who the superior god is. Except there was a tiny flaw with their plan, and that was thinking they could get away with walking into a realm full of angry viking gods.

After recovering from the initial attack, Heimdall, the Warriors 3, and Thor all managed to put up a decent fight against the Shi'ar.

Even after Gladiator and the Imperial Guard managed to capture Jane, she proved her worth as a god by inspiring the other gods of Asgard to fly to Chandilar (the capital of the Shi'ar), and take the fight to them. Only... there was a tiny flaw with their plan in the form of a giant flaming space bird, aka the Phoenix Force.

Not ones to take a loss lightly, Sharra and K'ythri summoned the Phoenix Force in an attempt to destroy both Asgard and Thor. Here's where Quentin Quire comes in. A powerful mutant, Quentin struck a deal with the Phoenix Force and became its newest avatar shortly before Sharra and K'ythri got arrested.