"The End" Week: Immortal Thor #25!

I wasn't reading this regularly, and seemingly missed the Roxxon-sponsored issues as well; but I did get several of this series from the dollar bins. It was probably always headed here, but there was at least one thing I liked about this issue...that probably won't be touched anywhere else, even though it should've been. From 2025, Immortal Thor #25, "The Twilight Kingdom" Written by Al Ewing, art by Janeth Bazaldúa Nava, Justin Greenwood, and Pasqual Ferry. Cover by Alex Ross.

The last few issues had the cover banner "Even an Immortal can Die," and sure enough, Thor is dead as Hel from the get-go here. While he had seemingly won his trials against Utgard-Loki, regular young Loki had stabbed him in the back: betrayal and murder...or sacrifice? While Sif and the Warriors Three are enraged, Utgard-Loki is merely confused: Loki advised him, "Would you know more, old trickster? More will be told." before disappearing. Skurge had been left on the Black Bridge by Thor, and had been told to stop Utgard-Loki and his forces at all costs: Skurge shatters the Black Bridge with his Bloodaxe, and falls into nothingness with a seemingly wry smile. The Black Bridge had been the opposite of the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost, and the two had been tied: the Bifrost shatters as well, and Asgard is seemingly separated from Midgard...retroactively, as we see a game show contestant struggle with but finally name all of the original Avengers: Iron Man, the Hulk, the Wasp, Ant-Man, and...Beta Ray Bill! (Yeah, give Bill some love! He's so cool.)

Sif, with sight like her brother Heimdall's, sees "a wave of forgetting...of rewriting the stories," and wonders if Bill remembers her. Asgard was now again only myth, and Thor entered into his death.

Thor finds himself, not in Valhalla or Hel, but in Vidblainn, the land of lost souls; with no Mjolnir and no storms. He is then visited by Har, Jafnhar, and Thridi: you know them, even if this was the first time we hear those names. They were Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, from X-Men/Alpha Flight #1! I don't know if they have direct analogs in traditional Norse myth; I feel like they were created as a narrative device for Loki to have someone to get power from and subsequently judge him. Here, they have some cryptic advice and warnings for Thor, as he walks the path of sacrifice, as Odin had before him, but that Thor would take a path not yet taken. (There's also a bit of foreshadowing for Thor's son Magni; who I think the Enchantress had pulled out of an alternate future, and was probably headed for a bad end.)

Next, Thor is visited by Don Blake, his one-time mortal identity...who was no longer. His eyes burned out by snake venom, Thor realizes Blake had been put through Loki's torment: Blake describes himself as having everything Loki no longer wanted. Thor feels bad for what Blake had been through, but he was dead now, so maybe time to let that go? Blake advises, he "could be so much deader," and tries to beat it out of him with Hellnir, a dark version of Mjolnir. Blake blinds Thor, which ironically opens his eyes: Thor had before, possibly more than once, sacrificed an eye for wisdom. He sees a way to "sacrifice himself to himself," and pick up a human soul neither he nor Blake now possessed. This leaves "Blake" now a soulless serpent-man, and Thor...gone.

Back on earth, the elfin boy "Lukki"--"Lucky?"--wakes up a man in an alley, seemingly after a mugging. Lukki returns a wallet and apartment key, but advises there was no ID, he would have to remember who he was himself. "Sigurd Jarlson." This would of course set up the next series, the Mortal Thor: somewhat tellingly, it only has that title on the covers, it's just "Thor" in the indica. And the first issue was Legacy #787, so I'd be surprised if he wasn't at least moderately more godly by #800. But what I wish, is that Marvel took a moment to acknowledge the continuity change and maybe retell a big Avengers issue, with Beta Ray Bill redrawn in for Thor! Avengers #166 would've been perfect for that. 

Also, darn it: I recently picked up but haven't yet read the Thor: Epic Collection Hel on Earth: it's later Roy Thomas issues, and not a highwater point for the character, but features maybe the start of Don Blake's "I want to be a real boy" heel-turn, from around Thor #475 in 1994. Wait: Thor, and Blake, debuted in Journey Into Mystery #83 in 1962. Walt Simonson phased out Blake in 1984's Thor #340, as the ability to change to a civilian identity was given to Beta Ray Bill. (Bill wouldn't turn into Blake, but would apparently lose that ability later.) I mention this because it looks like Blake's heel-turn has lasted longer than he did as a secret identity!

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Along with waiting super-impatiently for the new Nightcrawler figure--like, so impatiently. Imagine waiting in line at the DMV while on your third day quitting smoking and on hold with your mortgage lender, that's how cranky I am. Come to think of it, I have to go do two of those three things...But, I also ordered the Beta Ray Bill and Guardian figures. The Guardian looks like quite an upgrade from the old one, which I don't have; Bill maybe a little less so--the old one was great. I may have to get the new Spider-Woman as well, then I'd have most of today's book! From 2007, Omega Flight #1-5, "Alpha to Omega" Written by Michael Avon Oeming, art by Scott Kolins, colors by Brian Reber.

Hmm, technically, in this series Spider-Woman was using the name Arachne; and we saw her get roped into this previously in Ms. Marvel. This was set during "the Initiative," when all good little super-heroes had to be registered under Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony Stark. The plot comes from an unintended consequence of registration: unregistered super-humans were fleeing into Canada and causing trouble, including the Wrecking Crew. And the Canadian government decided they needed a new response team, since Alpha Flight was mostly currently dead: Sasquatch and Talisman may have been the only survivors at the time. While Sasquatch is guilted into taking the reins of a new team, it's too soon for Talisman...until Sasquatch gets beaten and captured by the Wrecking Crew.

Arachne and USAgent are loaners from America, since Canada thought this was largely America's fault. The current "Guardian" wasn't Canadian either, he was Michael Pointer, a mutant that had absorbed a ton of energy after the Scarlet Witch's "No More Mutants" and had been controlled and used to kill Alpha Flight. Or at least some of AF; looking at Pointer's wiki entry Snowbird had survived as well. Still, he had killed Talisman's dad Shaman, so she's not especially keen to work with him. As the Wrecking Crew unleash some demons, another hero arrives, although he wouldn't really join the team; most of them didn't even seem to learn his name: Beta Ray Bill! The demons were the same that attacked his people years ago, so he's ready to stomp the hell out of them.

So I mentioned the other day getting a whole bunch of comics from Entertainmart: I thought I grabbed this, but I got it when I went back to get long boxes. Mildly surprising, since I'll usually jump right away to get an entire limited series in one go, especially for cheaper than the cost of a single issue! This was a fun little series, but by the time it's all set up, it's over; and not much if any of it was followed up again. Pointer may have spent a bit as Guardian or Vindicator, but that might be it. A shame, since there was potential: issue after issue of USAgent complaining about Canadian life while being slowly won over by it. Arachne's daughter loving and excelling at Canadian school. The Canadian government struggling to convince heroes to join a super-hero program with a higher mortality rate than the Suicide Squad. And so on...(A Yukon Jack is mentioned, with Sasquatch noting time-travel had done his head in; but until looking him up I thought that was a joke!)

Another thought: given the glamour shot of 'Daisy' fighting USAgent, I wonder if this had gone to series, if she might not have eventually become a team member: Alpha Flight had a solid tradition of turning minor villains into heroes.
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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.
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God Eater, God Slayer, God Butcher; there's kind of a theme.

Demogorge the God-Eater had a better design, and Gorr the God Butcher has a better name, but today we've got Desak, Destroyer of Gods! Or God Slayer. Either or. From 2001, Thor 2001, "When Fall the Gods!" Written by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Tom Grummett, inks by Al Vey, Karl Kesel, and Scott Hanna.

This issue guest-stars Hercules and Beta Ray Bill, largely so Desak can be built up as a big deal, but Herc's also there since on Olympus, Zeus has a mysterious visitor. It's the mysterious watcher, the Silent One, who I would've thought was just a placeholder for Uatu; but actually was a character older than I am, from Thor #184! And he may not have appeared since, but he was not unlike DC's Pariah, only showing up at times of utter catastrophe. The Silent One shows the guys a destroyed Olympus in the future, and then the origin of Desak, who had been a devout man whose gods failed him, and was given power to get revenge by a mysterious apparition. Desak starts taking out gods, many of whom aren't as benevolent as the Marvel pantheon we're used to.

Off the top of my head, I want to say Jurgen's stint on Thor tried to introduce some new villains, but I'm not sure how many went on to the regular rotation. Desak might've hassled Thor for a few months, but I think that was about it.
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This seems a fairly typical day for Bill:

Over the weekend, I had the chance to hit a Hastings sale and a comic shop the next town over; so I was able to replenish my stock of comics for blogging. Like this issue! From 2009, Secret Invasion Aftermath: Beta Ray Bill--the Green of Eden #1, written by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Dan Brereton, inks by Stefano Gaudiano, Mark Pennington, and Scott Hanna.

As the title implies, this was set just after Secret Invasion and just before the next Bill series, Godhunter. Bill saves the space station of some friendly robots, then meets a religious group in need of help. They were trying to set up a new faith, after their civilization and old religion failed, and Bill realizes they are actually Skrulls. Moreover, they had actually seen Bill in action before, fighting the Skrull invasion force; and they had thought maybe he would be a good new god to worship. Especially since Bill didn't have any people to take care of: the Korbinites had settled a new homeworld, only to be eaten by Galactus.

Meanwhile, Skrull hard-liners are still after the would-be Bill-worshipers, and attack with an irregular Super-Skrull, a cobbled-together copy of the Warriors Three-in-one. Bill defeats him, but refuses to kill him, and the Bill-worshipers take the Super in as their own, saying Bill may not be their god, but their god works through him. Somewhat confused, and heartsick, Bill heads back to earth in search of peace.

It occurs to me I'm not really sure what Bill's current status is. This isn't a bad issue, although Brereton's pencils are usually a little stronger than this one; and I can't say if that was on him, the multiple inkers, or the colors.
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I'm a little dismayed how long this one took me:

Although I had been reading the series in 2010, I missed The Thanos Imperative #4. I had just been grabbing the series of the rack instead of preordering it, and that issue sold out when I wasn't looking. About a year and a half later, I found a copy of #4 on a markdown display at a Hastings. Great. Then it took me another six months or so to find the other five issues. And a couple of days to take the time to read the whole series...

While the "big guns" of Beta Ray Bill, the Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, Gladiator, Nova, and Quasar tear up the invaders from the Cancerverse; things are still looking dire. In said Cancerverse, Drax the Destroyer lost it and murdered Thanos, who may have been their one chance to stop the invasion.

As usual, Death doesn't take for Thanos: recreated in an invulnerable, unkillable form, Thanos returns and he isn't thrilled about it. Realizing he may now never die, and his "love" Death betrayed him, Thanos goes more berserk than normal. Unstable from the lifeforce of the Cancerverse, Drax tries to kill Thanos again, and is blown apart. Star-Lord and the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy are trapped between the Cancerverse's Revengers and Thanos...

From The Thanos Imperative #4, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, art by Miguel Sepulveda. I've been wondering if Marvel didn't shaft Abnett and Lanning a bit: they work on the Marvel space books for years, then as soon as a Guardians of the Galaxy movie is announced, Brian Bendis gets it? I could be wrong and maybe D&A were done with their Marvel work, but I wonder...

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Here's something for the ladies. The Korbinite ladies, I guess.

From Silver Surfer #121, "Execution Day" Written by George Perez, pencils by Scot Eaton, inks by Don Hudson. This was the conclusion of a ten, eleven part "Uni-Lord" saga written by Perez; involving the Surfer being split into several pieces and distributed between a batch of aliens. Not great. The Surfer gets himself together, and back to our reality, but also is zapped by a mysterious light...

He's found by his pals Beta Ray Bill and Quasar; the three had been called the Star Masters. I'm not sure by who. Bill had also been redesigned a bit, since in Warren Ellis's brief run on Thor, the World Tree Yggdrasil removed Thor's power from him. It looked like he was going to killed off, but Bill would return with the above costume and modified Stormbreaker hammer. Bill and Thor both had some terrible costumes there for a while.

Re-reading the last couple of years worth of Silver Surfer this afternoon, mostly written by J.M. DeMatteis, with a good stretch of art by Ron Garney. Mostly pretty good. I am mildly curious why I had Big Black Kiss #2 in the same box as a bunch of Silver Surfer and Micronauts...

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Build your own papercraft Iron Throne!

I enjoyed HBO's Game of Thrones, even though I have yet to read any of George R. R. Martin's books. (Well, not those, anyway; I read the Wild Cards books way back when.) And the other day, for some reason thrones came up at work, and I was thinking of the Iron Throne. If you've seen any promo pictures from the show, you've probably seen it:

No spoilers, especially since I'm going off memory here and haven't actually read it: before the start of the series, a king unified the land by conquering the hell out of it. As the old barons and nobles surrendered to him, the king took their swords, and had them melted into his throne. Which is kickass, if not particularly practical or comfortable--in-story, characters have mentioned getting cut just sitting on the damn thing; which is a pretty good metaphor: fighting your way to the throne is hard enough, but you can't rest easy when keeping it is a pain in the ass to boot. Still, the Iron Throne does send a message; even if I figure it's like using your vanquished foe's skull for a goblet: symbolic, but not entirely functional.

(I also have no idea how medieval blacksmiths would've made that thing; although I do like the notion of a somewhat crazed king dumping a mountain of swords on them and screaming at them to make him a goddamn throne, right now.)

So, I had a hankering to build an Iron Throne. From years of collecting action figures, I had a big honking pile of swords. But, I didn't have enough for this, and even if I had, I wouldn't necessarily want to bend them up and glue them. So, we're working with the cheaper medium of paper! We're not going for an exact replica, more of a homage. Or a swipe, either or.

First, you'll need a printer, glue and a gluestick, tape, comic backing boards, scissors, an x-acto knife, and probably a black sharpie. For my throne, I gathered up all the action figure swords I had handy, and experimented a little: the swords that were mostly flat worked better for this, and I scanned or copied several...I probably should've counted how many. Oops. Below is one of the scans I used; I just saved it to a flash drive, took it over to Kinkos (about a block from my house) and got a couple color copies, and a lot of black-and-whites. (Partly because the whole thing is going to be on the gray side anyway, and partly because I had no idea what I was doing.)

Using one of the backing boards, make a base. The front is vaguely trapezoidal, and as you can tell by the crappy template there, was drawn in about two minutes with a pencil and a Borders gift card with five cents on it. Slap one together and tape it up. (Or, if you go to a craft store, you could doubtless get a hunk of styrofoam or something in a shape you like, then go from there.)

Now, the swords. Here's a scan of some of the ones I used: I know there's Conan and the Devourer of Souls' swords, two from Ultimate Nightcrawler, and I think Loki's and Taskmaster's; all from Toy Biz. The Black Knight's Ebony Blade from Hasbro is in there, one from DCUC's Deathstroke, 200X Masters of the Universe He-Man and Teela's swords, and MOTUC's Vikor as well. And...one from an old Witchblade toy, Excalibur from that Merlin figure I got a while back; and some more I don't really recall. Mostly flat ones work best for this, OK?

You're going to want most of them printed on just plain paper, but you'll want some either printed on card stock or glued to a backing board before you start. (You probably want the color ones on card stock.) Then, get cutting! And cutting. And cutting. Be careful with the crossguard, since it's really easy to bend them right off. How many do you need? Um...gee, I really should've been counting when I started this, but a lot.

Starting with the ones on plain paper, start gluing the swords to the base in layers. A lot of the swords in the Iron Throne are bent or melted then hammered into position, and I think the whole thing is just swords on top of more swords, so that's the effect you're going for. You will want a few of the swords on card stock for the sides: think of them as making the armrests. Really uncomfortable armrests. There are a couple swords in there that I glued to the backing board, then glued another cutout on the other side, so I could use it on the sides and it would look OK from front or back.

For the back, take a backing board, and if you used the template size, you want to cut out a piece about three gift cards high. The bottom third is going to be mostly behind the main section, but you'll want to overlap the swords on there.
On the backside, use a bunch of the black-and-white ones for the blades pointing up that remind me of lines from a child's drawing of the sun. The HBO version has well over a dozen on the back, but you can cram in as many as you think looks right, or can fit. Keep slapping them on, until you like the look of it. If any white areas don't look right to you, use the sharpie to black 'em out.
A couple of notes: Again, the flatter swords work best. You can see He-Man's sword in there, and it was a bear to try and cut out; but Skeletor's sword might not work at all. (I'm thinking the 200x version, there.) If you had a modicum of Photoshop skills and wanted to do this, it would probably be pretty easy to set up multiple versions of the swords you want to use on the same printout. A throne made out of He-Man's sword, or Lion-O's Sword of Omens, would look sharp. Ha. Ha.

Even though a lot of action figure swords are made out of plastic that should be in quotation marks, it would be mighty tough to actually get enough to build a plastic Iron Throne. For example, Ultimate Nightcrawler is an all right figure, comes with two swords, one double-bladed, both terrible; but even then you would need dozens. If you have the skills, you could take an impression of a sword you wanted to use, then cast it in wax. Keep in mind, we're already way out of my skill set here, but if you make a ton of wax swords, you could probably bend them enough to cobble them into shape. The other idea I had was to use metal snips, or some sort of sword-shaped cutter, to punch them out of tin or something...that seems like a good way to cut the hell of your fingers.

You might be wondering why Negative Man, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman are in the pictures, instead of a He-Man or Conan or something. The ones I have aren't poseable enough to sit on it! Or they have stiff fur loincloths or capes. That's why in all the Bastards of the Universe strips, it's usually Beta Ray Bill on the throne (from the Mephisto Marvel Select figure) and even then his cape makes that a little tricky.

If you build your own throne, let me know how it turns out, or leave a comment with a link!



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Retro Toy Week: Beta Ray Bill!

I almost gave this chap away when I started doing Bastards of the Universe at Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation. Then, I cleaned him up a bit, set him down, and almost forgot him for this week. I'm glad I didn't: from Toy Biz's 1997 Silver Surfer line, Beta Ray Bill! Not familiar with Beta Ray Bill? Get familiar! Short answer, he's alien horse Thor. Longer answer: Walt Simonson introduced Bill in the first issue of his massively awesome run on Thor, issue #337. Thor investigates an alien ship approaching earth, and mixes it up with a weird cyborg onboard. After Thor reverts to Dr. Blake, Bill smacks the cane on a wall and being worthy, gets the power of Thor. Eventually, in one of the least dicked-up things we've ever seen him do, Odin has a hammer made especially for Bill: Stormbreaker. Beta Ray Bill is a regular guest in Thor, has had a couple limited series, and is currently in Annihilators with the Surfer, Quasar, and Marvel's other cosmic heavyweights. So, the figure: it was a somewhat massive figure when it came out--most figures mid-nineties were what, five inches or so? Best guess, Bill's in a six-inch scale, even if he's in a bit of a crouch; he'd be about the same height as a comparable Marvel Legends figure if he could stand up straight. See: And he's wide. Bill just feels like a good lump of toy. I usually don't display him with his removable cape, since the cape is also massive. I think there's more plastic in that cape than there is in a lot of figures on the racks today...

The articulation is sparse: cut wrists, shoulders, neck, waist, and hips. Not ultra-poseable, yes; but he is vac-metallized! And so is his hammer, Stormbreaker, which is also bigger than its Legends counterpart.

Beta Ray Bill was a bit persona non grata for a few years there, I think: some people have a problem with space horse Thor being part of the same core Marvel Universe as the Punisher, for example. Those people can get bent. Bill is awesome. And you could do worse than having this one on your shelf.
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Wait, a double-sized chapter...alright, whatever.

Previously, as Blood and Thunder thunders on, Thanos encased Thor in a 'time-stasis block.' The next step seems pretty straight-forward: take Thor to Odin, but it doesn't go that well. The Silver Surfer, Warlock and the Infinity Watch, and Dr. Strange arrive on the rainbow bridge Bifrost; but seeing them with Thanos, Odin jumps to the conclusion that they plan on using Thor as a hostage...for some reason, presumably to fill forty pages and justify a die-cut cover.

The forces of Asgard, including Balder and the Warriors Three, attack; and over the course of battle Dr. Strange, Moondragon, and Gamora are knocked out. (Moondragon and Strange in particular, since normally they probably could've stopped the fight cold.) Thanos pulls Maxam (a mysterious addition to the Watch) out of the fighting to take over monitoring Thor's prison; and he and the Surfer face off against Odin. The Surfer goes down early, but Thanos goes several rounds before Sif and Beta Ray Bill break it up. (Early on, Sif had been concerned that taking Thor to Odin might mean her beloved's death: Thor had the "warrior's madness," and may have had to be put down.)


Odin wonders how his son could've come to such a lowly state, and Warlock, Strange, and the Surfer put it squarely on Odin. Over the years, Odin altered and manipulated Thor's mind many times; but the good news is he might not have true warrior's madness and may be savable. Odin tries it, fails, and proclaims "Thor must die!" within three pages...


As happens time to time in superhero comics, some of the heroes are taken out way too easily this month, in order to keep the issue from being over in three panels; while others (Cough! Thanos!) are maybe a bit over-powered. (Although, Thanos may have had an ace in the hole here that wasn't mentioned...) All-seeing, all-knowing, all-father Odin...screws up like your average mortal, a couple of times as well.

Also, since I mentioned them last time: in the book's regular plotline, Lord Abyss and his somewhat-oblivious girl Lady Maya, plot against Warlock, with a cool-looking bottle of wine. Uh-huh...well, Abyss seems pretty impressed with it, anyway, but I don't know how that played out.

From Warlock and the Infinity Watch #25, "Raid on Asgard" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Angel Medina, inks by Bill Anderson. (Per GCD, the issue itself credits Bob Almond, the regular inker.) Read more!

Build Your Own Bastards!

Articulated Discussion is currently down for repairs (come back soon, TAO!) but the ever-gracious Poe Ghostal gave the Bastards of the Universe a new home at his Points of Articulation! Homeless Bastards no more! And thanks again, Poe!

To celebrate, head over there, and enter the "Build your own Bastards" contest! Leave a comment with your own Bastards lineup, and one lucky winner will walk away with a loose Marvel Legends Beta Ray Bill, a carded Toy Story 3 Twitch, a carded Conan the Adventurer, and a loose and saddleless Battlecat! I mentioned over there, Warlord fans, you're out of luck: getting either a vintage Remco, or newer DC Direct...or even the new JLU one, for that matter...didn't cost out.

But, I'm throwing in a quarter-book copy of Warlord #4, from the Bruce Jones/Bart Sears relaunch. Spoiler warning: it's terrible.

Sears had gone with a sketchier, less-polished style; that I didn't care for as much as his earlier Justice League Europe work; but he wasn't the main problem. The storyline was the real killer, here.

Kind of a neat costume, though, even with the magic/techy "Sword of Truth" and Travis without his usual beard.

Tomorrow: hopefully, some info on a possibly forthcoming Bastard! Maybe.

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(EDIT: Just noticed Beta Ray Bill has the wrong number of fingers in that panel.)

We mentioned "Blood and Thunder a while back; the nine-part crossover between Thor, Warlock and the Infinity Watch, the Warlock Chronicles, and Silver Surfer. (Another EDIT: It was a thirteen-part crossover! Probably could've been done in nine...) I too had forgotten there was a time when Marvel thought the market would support two Warlock books: I don't think they were bad necessarily, but still. Anyway, Silver Surfer happened to be the only one of the lot I was reading at the time, so I ended up with parts two and six, and it would be years before I randomly happened to pick up any of the other issues. So, today we're looking at "Friends and Foes" from Silver Surfer #86, written by Ron Marz, guest pencils by Andy Smith, inks by Bill Anderson.

Beta Ray Bill had told the Surfer than Thor had gone mad, but he doesn't really believe it until he finds Thor beating the stuffing out of Bill. Intervening, the Surfer and Bill knock Thor down for a moment, and Bill explains Thor must have "the Warrior's Madness." Or Asgardian Alzheimer's. Even though Thor's obviously crazy as hell, Bill doesn't want to let the cat out of the bag to Odin, since Thor would then be banished from Asgard. Which doesn't seem like the best care plan...maybe not the worst, either, though.


They watch Thor talk to his imaginary girlfriend, the Valkyrie. (In black, not the one we know from the Defenders and such.) She stands by her man, encouraging Thor to kill the betrayers, and he gets his second wind. Bill takes a shot meant for the Surfer and is knocked out, and the Surfer is forced to fight without his board, as he uses it to try and get Bill clear of the battle. Sif takes Bill to safety (and is inexplicably brown-haired here, as opposed to her usual black; and is wearing another terrible costume...) and the Surfer is able to fight back, but takes a smashing blow.

Before Thor can finish him, he is faced with Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll. Pip has a cowboy hat and western outfit, for some reason.


While it's basically a chapter in the story, it's not as bad as I had thought it was going to be; although the Surfer doesn't really get a lot to do. And it pales in comparison to to the classic Stan Lee and John Buscema Surfer/Thor battle in Silver Surfer #4. Well, tough not to, there. Drat, I had another Andy Smith/Silver Surfer issue I was going to look at, but haven't got back yet. It'll keep.
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Axe of Hordes, Dread Axe of Darkness, Slicey McCutyaone...

Got my Dread Axe of Darkness from Poe Ghostal and his Points of Acquisition! Then knocked this out on the fly: Bill and Conan are standing on my computer speakers there. (La-zy. Sorry, I worked overtime, and am watching Deadliest Warrior!) Last I checked, he was halfway to sold out, so hurry if you haven't already!

Just an evil looking axe: I absolutely picture it encouraging mayhem. The only downside to getting it? It inspired me to get out a lump of Super Sculpey I had for some reason, and try to carve out a sword, or ray guns, or a .44 Automag for the Warlord, or that Manhunter mask...and the only limit is my imagination my utter lack of sculpting tools and ability. Well, still kinda fun, and I do have a hankering to see I can cobble together a bootleg version of Stormbringer. Maybe next month, since I'm kind of all over the place for the next little bit.

Nice going, Poe, and thanks!

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