So...much...wrongness.

That...that is more of Thor's...undercarriage, than I was expecting to see today.

Little secret? I hate Red Bull. Hate it, and I'm a man who enjoys his caffeine. OK, this comic doesn't feature that Red Bull, but El Toro Rojo. He's a Deviant, posing as an 'enmascardo,' or what would probably be better known as a luchadore; in order to get at the Eternal Vampiro...

You know, it may have made more sense if this issue was Thor fighting down a case of Red Bull. Why Vampiro is living the life of the luchadore is never really explained, but Thor gets sucked into this mess after getting bounced out of Asgard, by the Destroyer, powered by the spirit of Sif. And it's not really explained how Vampiro, who was a full-on Eternal with an arseload of powers; gets beatdown by El Toro Rojo, who appeared to have an invulnerable skull and horns.

And as was painfully typical for a Thor comic of the time (and several years after...) Thor loses his hammer for sixty seconds and turns back into Dr. Donald Blake, as he often does when the issue needs to last longer than an Hostess ad.

This is a bit of an interlude issue, since this storyline involving the Celestials, the Eternals and the Deviants, multiple pantheons of gods, and the Ring of the Nibelung; would go on for almost another year. (And we discussed the Eternals and the Deviants about a bazillion posts ago, and I'm still not a huge fan of either, even if they're posing as wrestlers.)

From The Mighty Thor #290, "Ring Around the Red Bull!" Written and edited by Roy Thomas, guest pencils by Arvell Jones, inks by Chic Stone.