Abducted by the Imperial Guard, Thor
stands before the gods of the Shi''ar, Sharra and K''ythri, the
Starmother and the Father of Light. She approaches them with
arrogance and discourtesy and they intend to show her what it means
to be a god. She launches into an angry and bitter tirade about the
dying woman Jane Foster held, who prayed to all the gods but was
heard by none. The Shi''ar gods don''t know what she is going on about
and inform her that she is there to answer their challenge. She
refuses but they tell her that if she does not answer the challenge,
Earth will be destroyed. Gladiator explains this to her but when he
uses the phrase “I''m sorry” K''ythri brutally beats him for
apologizing to Thor. This angers her enough to accept the challenge.
She blasts at them, they blast back knocking her for a loop. An odd
little fellow, Shadrak, god of daffodils and documentations,
explains that there is an established order to the challenges and
Trial by Combat doesn''t come until later....
In Asgardia at the Congress of Worlds,
Volstagg enters into an endless filibuster to force the hostile
Congress to vote to approve military action against the Shi''ar...
In the throne room, Sif, Fandral,
Hogun, and Hildegard approach the regent Cul to take action against
the Shi''ar; the Serpent refuses as this is Thor''s war not Asgard''s.
Sif call him a coward for failing to respond to the insult the
Imperial Guard gave to Asgard by their invasion, trying to shame him
into action....
The first event in the Challenge of the
Gods, Natural Disasters, takes them to Chandilar, the Shi''ar
throneworld where the gods call up a massive tidal wave to inundate
the city, killing millions to count how many mortals offer up
prayers, the challenge being to see which god can inspire the most
worshipers. Thor is horrified and instead flies into the sky and
calms the wave, drawing it away. The Shi''ar gods think Thor has
forfeited but instead Shadrak shows them the grateful multitudes
thanking and praising Thor....
Meanwhile, Shi''ar space patrols are
under attack by the fleet of Asgard....