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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It's been eight years, but we're up to chapter 3!

Look, we'll finish "Blood and Thunder" sometime. Maybe. Today we're up to chapter 3, in 1993's The Warlock Chronicles #6, "Aftermath!" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Kris Renkewitz, inks by Pat Redding.

We open with Moondragon using the Mind Gem and her own telepathic powers, to try and unlock the memories of the amnesiac Maxam. It's less than successful, although she suspects his mental defenses and his powers were given to him. While Pip is willing to trust Maxam, since he helped out against the Goddess; Gamora is not. She had a vision from the Time Gem, of Maxam standing over Adam Warlock's body. She's willing to kill Maxam rather than take the chance, but Adam is willing to wait and see what happens; which she calls "a grotesque fascination with the man, almost like a death wish!" She may be not wrong...

Shortly thereafter, Maxam and Moondragon watch Drax the Destroyer...blow a mean sax. She recaps a bit of his history (which would be completely alien to his movie fans!) as he used to be her father...before she accidentally killed him, and he was resurrected with brain damage. Moondragon sounds like she's trying to rehearse a conversation she doesn't want to have, and knows isn't going to go well. After a slightly less uncomfortable conversation with Adam, Maxam talks to Pip, who decides to take him to a bar in New York City. A country bar.

Warlock checks out his Orb of Eternity, and sees Thor, and notices something wasn't right. (Namely, the imaginary Valkyrie with him.) Eternity appears to him, and Adam suspects Eternity wants something from him; but Adam wants something as well: he was trying to put superhumans in his debt, so he could call in the favor later. The usually emotionless, often dour Adam seems remarkably smirky about this.

On Monster Island, Gamora is increasingly fed up with everyone just doing whatever, but notices the depressed Drax, who wasn't invited to go with Pip and Maxam. At the country bar, the requisite fight breaks out, and Maxam is surprised at the locals' bigotry: either it wasn't a thing wherever or whenever he was from, or he just didn't remember. Although, it is hinted that he does remember anti-paranormal racism, and may be somewhat uncomfortable with the thought that he could be a mutant. No time for that now though: Adam calls Pip to transport him, into space, where Thor was about to kill the Silver Surfer! (EDIT: In 2010 when we looked at the next chapter, we wondered why Pip had a cowboy hat and western outfit!)

We'll get to the end of this crossover someday! "Blood and Thunder" is collected...but don't, like, go nuts or anything. It's not the worst Marvel crossover I've ever read, but keep in mind I've read some doozies...

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In 2001, Apocalypse Now Redux was released, with an additional 49 minutes of footage. That's like finding almost another half of a movie in there! Similarly, we just found a whole bunch of additional chapters to this one today, but I'm not as enthusiastic about that: from 1994, Thor #470, "Ruins" Written by Ron Marz, pencils by M.C. Wyman, inks by Mike DeCarlo.

In chapter nine of "Blood and Thunder," Thor and his formerly imaginary girlfriend Valkyrie have arrived at Asgard, which is currently pretty wrecked. Still, an enraged and insane Thor is intent on wrecking it up some more; and it's up to Warlock and the Infinity Watch, along with Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer, to stop him. It does not go especially well, as they're all beaten pretty badly, mostly because there were still four parts left to this thing? The hell...ugh, I'm going to have to go back and edit, since I thought this was a nine-part crossover, and it was actually thirteen! This isn't the last chapter, it would end with next month's Thor #471. Crap, I think I forgot it wasn't just Thor, Silver Surfer, and Warlock and the Infinity Watch, but also the Warlock Chronicles. I think I completely missed those, but it seems like it still read okay.

So I thought I had blogged this whole crossover, but I may have only blogged eight of thirteen? With a couple of issues leading up to it. Urrrrggg...anyway, Strange and Warlock try a combined "karmic-mystic attack" on Thor, which Warlock was worried he would find a counter for: yeah, the Power Gem, in about two seconds. Gamora has a better showing, but is downed when Valkyrie throws Moondragon at her. Although Sif and Beta Ray Bill are on their way, Pip has to act quickly, and grabs the Surfer and teleports them, Thor, and Valkyrie, to Thanos! We've seen that chapter, but I think I'm still missing a chapter between this and the end! Well, considering I started covering this crossover back in 2010, I guess maybe we'll get to all of them sometime.
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Ah, stupid completionist work ethic!

I think the word "completionist" has become more for videogamers, who might try to complete every side quest and goal of a game. It used to be for comic book readers that had to have every issue or appearance for their collections. Or blog every damn issue of a not-very-good crossover because they had already blogged most of it. Like today's book! From 1993, Thor #469, "Absolute Power" Written by Ron Marz, pencils by M.C. Wyman, inks by Mike DeCarlo.

Man, it's been seven years since I blogged the end of "Blood and Thunder," the nine-part crossover between Thor, Warlock and the Infinity Watch, and Silver Surfer. (EDIT: Ugh, I had it right in that Surfer link, but it was a thirteen-part crossover, not nine!) Thor may have gone insane: he's not only full of berzerker rage, but there's also an imaginary Valkyrie only he can see. Thor had just thrown down with the Surfer and Warlock; and Pip the Troll had hightailed it back to get the Infinity Watch, who are in no particular hurry to go just on Pip's say-so. At least, until Drax remembers his last meeting with Thor, a brutal fight at the tailend of Infinity Crusade. Drax wants a rematch.

The rest of the Watch doesn't leap straight into the fight, although maybe they should have: Moondragon scans Thor with the Mind Gem, and sees the Valkyrie goading him on. She tries to "exorcise" her from Thor's mind; and does, after a fashion: she now appears in the real world!

The Watch isn't done making things worse, either: Drax coughs up his Power Gem, which Thor takes! Onward to the destruction of Asgard! This isn't my favorite art of the crossover, and Thor looks a bit silly with the gem on his forehead at about the helmet line, but it's not awful. Of course, I picked up the other Thor chapter, so we'll get to that later.

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"Blood and Thunder," the end!

I'm in a bit of a bad mood, since I should be asleep now, but forgot to put my laundry in the drier, so now I have to stay up for a bit. All right then, what do we have to blog quickly? Ooh, Thor #471, the concluding chapter of Blood and Thunder, the nine-part crossover between Thor, Warlock and the Infinity Watch, the Warlock Chronicles, and Silver Surfer. (EDIT: I feel like I've had to go back and correct this fourteen times, but Blood and Thunder was a thirteen-part crossover!) And I forgot I was going to cover another of the Silver Surfer chapters, so now I have to go do that; so I'm getting madder and madder to cover this issue.

"Thor Must Die!" proclaims Odin on the first page, cementing his rep as Marvel's worst dad. Thor is currently trapped in a clear block (courtesy of Thanos, who isn't credited with it here) but is also really crazy. His imaginary girlfriend the Valkyrie (still not the one we usually know...) came to life for a bit, and Odin hasn't been able to cure Thor's insanity. So, the next logical step is to kill him.

The observing Dr. Strange and Adam Warlock suggest maybe Odin could try maybe one other thing first. Adam's forte was the soul, not the mind; but he suggests Thor's sanity is locked away, and Odin's approach should be more like a key, less like a sledgehammer.

Odin enters Thor's mind, to find his son's mental landscape is a giant mountain, with Thor's self-image chained to it. Thor laments his weakness in being unable to break his bonds; but Odin reassures him: he can't break those chains, because they were forged by Odin. Metaphorically...I think. Odin admits tampering with Thor's mind, on more than one occasion; as well as letting others "usurp" Thor's power. I don't know if Odin is referring to Dr. Donald Blake there or not; since I'm still not clear on whether Thor and Blake were two separate personas. Maybe sometimes? Depends on when you ask?

After Odin breaks the chains, Thor wants to get out before she shows up. Odin explains that she's just a figment of his imagination, and can't hurt him. Which sounds good, before the Valkyrie shows up. Pissed. That, and in her brief life, she got a taste for it, and wants it back. She's also a bit of a manifestation of Odin's mucking about and Thor's fighting back against it; and Odin is unwilling to unleash the fury and completely destroy his son's mind.


Thor is unwilling to let even the Allfather fight his battles for him, but the Valkyrie points out fighting her could be like lobotomizing himself. Odin asks his son to hold, but Thor smites the Valkyrie out of existence, returning to normal. Thor makes his apologies to Dr. Strange, Sif, and the other gathered heroes; taking a moment to return the Power Gem to Drax the Destroyer. Drax, at the time, was a simple-minded behemoth; and Adam Warlock quickly takes the gem himself for safekeeping. Thor also thanks Thanos, before telling him to get his ass out of Asgard.


The Mighty Thor #471 was Ron Marz's last issue on the book: Roy Thomas would take over the next month, and stay on as regular writer until (after old writer Tom DeFalco had a fill-in) Warren Ellis had his all-too-brief four issue stint. Before William Messner-Loebs could really get going, Thor would end with #502. (We saw that one last month, on "The End" week!) And Thor wouldn't even get a book in Heroes Reborn...which is a pro or a con, depending how you look at it. Not unlike Fantastic Four, for me Thor has always been a book that had some great runs; then long stretches of terribleness.

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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!

Context is for other comics, now is fighty time.

Since I've been running through the chapters of "Blood and Thunder" that I have, mostly the Silver Surfer ones, here's part ten: "Common Enemy" Written by Ron Marz, guest pencils by Andy Smith, inks by Tom Christopher.

Pip the Troll narrates this issue, having dropped the Silver Surfer, the really insane Thor, and his formerly imaginary girlfriend the Valkyrie in Thanos's stronghold. Pip is pretty together, considering, as he mentions, Thanos killed him once: Technically, I think Thanos just lobotomized him, back in the classic Jim Starlin Avengers Annual #7 or so. The Valkyrie is a figment of Thor's imagination, but somehow manifested in reality then took a physical form through Moondragon's mind gem. (She came to life. Good for her.)

Thanos's robots hold off Thor and Valkyrie long enough for Pip to explain the situation, and a disgruntled Thanos has little choice but to take on Thor while the Surfer holds off the Valkyrie. But Thor got the Power Gem away from Drax the Destroyer, and lays down a beating on the Titan. For his part, Thanos can take it, and dish it right back. (Without giving anything away, I think Thanos had an ace in the hole at that time...)

The Surfer manages to knock out the Valkyrie, in time to see Thanos walk away from the fight. An extraordinarily pissed-off Thor, calling Thanos a "recreant," is about to beat the finish off of the Surfer, before Thanos returns with a Cable-sized gun. (Actually, it's not that big...) The blast encases Thor in a crystal block, completely immobilized.


As the Surfer begrudgingly turns to thank Thanos, Thanos turns the gun on him; but sadly laments it's a single-shot weapon. Thanos tells the Surfer that while he may not be trying to get ultimate power anymore, he still shouldn't turn his back on him. Pip then arrives with the Infinity Watch and Dr. Strange, and Thanos repeats the earlier bit about killing Pip, namely, that he'd love to do it again. But, the field holding Thor won't last forever, and they need to figure out what to do with him before he gets loose and kills them all...

This is one of my favorite stretches for Thanos: he had done the ultimate evil thing, and more than once shot himself in the foot doing it. So, rather than keep doing what wasn't working, he moved on to something else...but he was still Thanos. And I love the sheer spite between Thanos and the Silver Surfer, set up by Starlin prior to Infinity Gauntlet. The Surfer was usually portrayed as level-headed and a bit emotionless, but he really doesn't like Thanos. At all.

The next chapter's write-up probably won't be until 2011, since next week should be something else!


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Adam's imaginary staff vs. Thor's imaginary girlfriend:

So far I've read them out of order, written about them out of order, possibly posted them out of order; and now I just recently picked up from the quarter box two chapters of Blood and ThunderI hadn't read before. Today, part four, "Clash" from Warlock and the Infinity Watch #23. Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Tom Grindberg, inks by Bob Almond and Harry Canelario.

Picking up from the last chapter, Thor and his imaginary girlfriend the Valkyrie (misspelled on the third page!) have just walloped the Silver Surfer; but Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll just showed up. They really could've used a footnote here: Warlock wants to help the insane Thor, even though Thor nearly beat him to death way back in Thor #166.

Warlock sends Pip to get the rest of his Infinity Watch, then asks Thor why his only remaining friend isn't even real. Adam can see the Valkyrie with his Soul Gem, but the gem doesn't affect her, since she's merely a "mental construct." Rrrrreally shouldn't call a guy's girl that, and Thor takes offense.

Possibly a little afraid, Warlock admits to himself that he's no longer the man he was the first time he fought Thor: he was more naive, more physical, and more shirtless back then. This Warlock fights with far more guile, staying ahead of Thor until the Surfer regains consciousness. For his part, the Surfer is a little suspicious of Adam, since he considers him a bit shifty, not an unfair assessment.


At one point in the fight, Thor takes away Adam's staff-walking stick thing, and tries to break it, to no effect. Is that new? Hadn't seen that before.

Then, as part of the book's regular plotline, we get a few pages of big bad Count Abyss putting his evil plan against Warlock into motion. I have no idea what he's up to, or if he's been seen lately; and he kind of looks like he should be giving He-Man or the Thundercats the hassle.

While Adam knows he and the Surfer are no match physically for Thor, he gambles that a karmic blast from his Soul Gem could knock him out. No dice. Thor knocks the Surfer out, and Warlock is forced to take control of his board to get them out of there. The Surfer isn't really OK with that, but considering they would've died otherwise...Warlock, always practical, has their next course of action:

I don't think I have the next chapter, although we'll pick up another one later. Still, and I don't know if Blood and Thunder was ever collected, but the contrast between Andy Smith and Tom Grindberg's art, along with the artists for the other two books involved, could have been jarring.
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Not quite 23 pages of pummelling, but close:

Sometimes, the writers in a big crossover event are unwilling participants, dragged into a huge multi-book event while their own plotlines are derailed. (This happens to Peter David all the time.) And sometimes, the crossover writer and the book's writer are the same guy; and in this case, the foundation is laid for a future crossover. From Warlock and the Infinity Watch #21, "The God and the Brute" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Tom Grindberg, inks by Bob Almond.

Running up to the end of Infinity Crusade, the Hulk and Drax are part of the assault on the Goddess's Paradise Omega, when they run into Thor. Knocked away and unable to fly, the Hulk recaps the crossover while falling into the planet's atmosphere.

While currently severely brain-damaged, Drax the Destroyer was still pretty tough, and he also had the Infinity Gem for power. Moondragon, working as the Goddess's "temporal-head," tries to get Thor to leave the pointless battle, but Thor refuses. In fact, Thor also breaks the Goddess's control...but keeps fighting Drax. Moondragon reports to the Goddess, who isn't surprised; explaining that Thor's spirit is too strong to tame (which Moondragon is curious about...) but that Thor is also quite insane. Still, the Rapture is only minutes away...


Thor and Drax wail on each other most of the rest of the issue. Drax may have been simple, but he had a single-minded determination, possibly a throwback to his old Thanos-fighting days. And Thor isn't acting like himself, being smug, brutal, and just as determined as Drax. That fight may have continued to this day...if the sun hadn't gone nova...


I don't know what Grindberg has been doing lately; but I kind of like his Mignola-style work here. The already exaggerated physiques of Thor and Drax are turned up well past eleven here; which may or may not be to everyone's taste. This was a quarter-book find, along with some of the other Blood and Thunder chapters that we'll hit later; but since I had already read Infinity Crusade, it was like finding a bonus chapter or a DVD extra scene. And Warlock takes this issue off, not appearing at all.
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That issue in a thirteen-part crossover that's filler? This one.

Over the last little bit, I've been writing up the chapters of the "Blood and Thunder" crossover that I have. It ran through Thor, Silver Surfer, Warlock, the Warlock Chronicles, and Warlock and the Infinity Watch. I read the Surfer chapters back in 1993 when they came out, and here's one of them: Silver Surfer #87, "Strange Affairs" Written by Ron Marz, pencils by Andy Smith, inks by Tom Christopher.

With Thor insane, and Beta Ray Bill already down, Adam Warlock and the Silver Surfer go to get a consult: Dr. Strange. So most of the issue is them wandering around Strange's house, seeing weird crap and getting attacked by stuff before Strange realizes they were there. (The Surfer had been there many times in his Defenders days, but warns Adam that the house is dangerous, even to them.)


After more recap of the storyline, Strange uses a crystal ball (presumably, the Orb of Agamotto, I believe) to see Thor and the Valkyrie in space, probably headed towards Asgard. Strange can see the imaginary Valkyrie because of his magic, just as Warlock can see her with the Soul Gem. Except...the Surfer can see her too. Uh-oh.

After a brief interlude, with Sif taking care of the beat-down Beta Ray Bill; the Infinity Watch arrives at Strange's. They had a run-in with Thor that did not go well: Moondragon tried to use her Mind Gem to cure Thor, and instead somehow brought the Valkyrie to life. Thor beat Drax the Destroyer, and took his Power Gem, then took off to destroy Asgard with it.

While I suppose you couldn't just bring Dr. Strange into this story in two panels--well, I guess you could, but it doesn't seem fair to the character--this issue feels a lot like filler. A. Lot. There's a lot of recap, and five splash pages out of twenty-two story pages. And while I like Andy Smith's art, I hate Strange's hair in this one.
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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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Making eight Thor books seem like a good idea, and a bad idea:

The Marvel solicitations of a bit ago, for some month in the future, had a Norse ton of Thor books coming. Seriously, a pile: per Bleeding Cool, eight in November. The idea is, put the issues out then; and then collect them into trades for whenever it is the Thor movie comes out, hypothetically pulling in the dollars of imaginary non-comics readers. Has that ever worked? I mean, did those Iron Man trades bring any new readers into the comics fold? Hell if I know, I'm already obviously not looking anything up for this post...

Still, Marvel's plan makes sense, considering the alternative: reprinting old Thor comics. Now, Marvel probably wants to keep their Thor trade paperback onslaught on-message and relatively close to whatever continuity the movie sets up; and as a book Thor has been all over the place, hither and yon, over the course of its publication since 1966. (Thor was Journey into Mystery before then!) Sometimes Thor has been a relatively straightforward superhero book, sometimes it's had a strong science-fiction feel, and of course it's often gone into the mythological well, with mixed results.

And like most Marvel books, it's had periods of excellence, and it's had "New Eras of Greatness!" that were neither New, Great, or an Era. Like today's book! The Mighty Thor #460, "Fragments" Written by Jim Starlin and Ron Marz, pencils by Bruce Zick, inks by Steve Montano. Thor has finally returned from Mephisto's realm, has finally been separated from Eric Masterson (who has become Thunderstrike and spun off to his own book with creators Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, who finished their run on the book with #459) and is at long last free to marry the lady Sif. Yeah...about that...

Oh, it's not you, Sif, it's me...I'm not positive when exactly Sif went back to being Thor's main squeeze--sometime during Masterson's tenure as Thor, I guess. But that's part of the problem: Thor was trapped in Masterson's body, or the other way around, but Masterson was in the driver's seat. Thor could only watch Masterson "blunder" his way through his adventures, which he describes as "incessant frustration." So, Thor may have a legitimate issue to work through, but his treatment of Sif is shabby at best and borderline cowardice at worst.

And Thor seems remarkably...whiny, on his stroll through Asgard. He also complains that Sif doesn't understand him; but "what woman ever has?" On cue, Thor turns a corner and meets Valkyrie. Well, a Valkyrie, and not the one we know from the Defenders. (Who had best be finally getting her Marvel Legends action figure this year, by the way.) Thor doesn't recognize her, but this Valkyrie claims to be a recent addition to Odin's fabled shield maidens. She offers Thor a sympathetic ear, before disappearing; leaving Thor to get glasses.



Wait, "Eyes of Fenris" is a bar. A patron thanks Thor for saving the realm from Mephisto, and grumpily Thor explains that wasn't him, it was Masterson. A troll--a real one, not the internet variety, chilling in Asgard for some reason--tells Thor the bar is for warriors, not spectators, and then it's on. Thor is just starting to get into it, when Big Daddy Odin sticks his nose in.

Summoned before the All-Father, Thor confesses his problem: he is no longer sure who he is.

Odin admits that at least some of Thor's problems are his fault; and in fact later we would see how much that was so. But for now, Odin sends Thor on a "respite." Which sounds like "exile" to Thor, but Odin says he wants his son to rest, take a break from duty...and from Asgard. Call it a vacation then, Odin. He sets Thor up with a sailing ship for space, and sends him on his way.

Thor doesn't question his dad, since that would probably get him the belt. He thinks solitude will be just what he needs...when the Valkyrie appears at the bow of Thor's ship.

Starlin and Marz both know their cosmic epics, but this one did not click for me. The idea of Thor no longer knowing himself has merit, but was overdone, making Thor far too moody for my tastes. And I preferred back in Walt Simonson's run, where Sif moved on to seeing Beta Ray Bill, rather than continuing to be Thor's backup girlfriend like she'd been for most of the run of the book.

And the Valkyrie storyline ran for a while! Thor had maybe four Infinity Crusade crossover issues, quite probably because Starlin was writing that, but I think Marz was the solo writer before long. Valkyrie's story wouldn't even start to be wrapped up until #468, part one of Blood and Thunder, a crossover with Silver Surfer and Warlock and the Infinity Watch. And not a great one. Some other time for that...nah.
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