It's only been like five months since the last chapter of this we looked at, but c'mon, we've been picking at this for like eight years now: from 1994, "Blood and Thunder" part seven, the Warlock Chronicles #7, "Guile" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Tom Raney, inks by Keith Williams and Al Milgrom. (I think I messed up the cover links on previous entries for Warlock Chronicles, and I don't think I've ever seen the limited's last issue.)
The titular "Guile" isn't the Street Fighter character, nor is it from a character you'd normally expect of it. Warlock and his Infinity Watch have joined up with Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer to portal into a secluded forest in Asgard, since they need to see Odin about his kid: Thor was currently insane, his imaginary girlfriend Valkyrie had come to life, and he had stolen the Power Gem (now Infinity Stone) from Drax. But Sif is dead-set against the heroes tattling on Thor: if Thor was found to have come down with the "warrior's madness," Odin would have no choice but to banish him from Asgard forever. (We'll ignore the fact that Thor and/or Loki had doubtless both been banished from Asgard "forever" multiple times...) Beta Ray Bill wonders how he got talked into this, but still helps for Sif's sake, and throws himself into battle, starting with sucker-punching the Surfer. That's only a stall, though: Sif's main plan is to set the local trolls against the Watch, and she starts things up by slicing the nose off of the troll king Geirrodur!
The furious trolls chase after Sif, who has a magical Norn stone as a cheat for this level: she had previously, and unexpectedly, used it to eavesdrop on the Watch; then uses it to disappear around here. The Watch is caught by surprise, and with Strange and the Surfer already downed by Bill, they are brought down one by one until only Drax and Maxam remain. They probably still could've beat the trolls, if a little one hadn't got them with a sling and a gas bomb. The noseless Geirrodur orders the captives mystically bound...and prepared for ritual sacrifice!
Huh, I'm missing the next chapter as well, but with this post we're down to three left for this crossover! And we've narrowed it down to the issues we need:
Need: Thor #468
Silver Surfer #86
Warlock Chronicles #6
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #23
Thor #469
Silver Surfer #87
Warlock Chronicles #7
Need: Warlock and the Infinity Watch #24
Thor #470
Silver Surfer #88
Need: Warlock Chronicles #8
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #25
Thor #471
Mind, I'm not exactly racing out the door for those.
Damn Sif, you hardcore girl! Definitely gives a whole new meaning to the old saying "Don't cut of your nose to spite your face."
ReplyDeleteI had a few of these issues myself at the time, but only just the Thor and Silver Surfer ones. I was either uninterested in the other chapters or didn't have access to them....I think.
Yeah, I only had the Surfer chapters when they came out, but over the years we're almost there.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there's a little bit of racism in Sif towards the trolls: I don't think she thinks of them as living, feeling beings. Or maybe that troll king really deserved to have his nose hacked off, I don't know.