Thor (1998 series) #12

Thor offers Colonel Preston Case, inhabiting the Destroyer, his freedom if he joins forces with Thor against the Dark Gods holding Asgard captive. Case declines the offer as he still holds a grudge and slugs Thor who responds with a blast of anti-force—which does not harm the Destroyer. But Thor assures Case he can be restored to normal by Odin so Case agrees to join the Go of Thunder….

At Memorial Hospital, Jane Foster and Hannah Fairmont are chatting in the cafeteria, Hannah looking forward to her wedding to Jake Olson. But Jane drops hints about Jake, worrying Hannah. Dr. Keith Kincaid enters, telling Jane there has been a development with her patient Preston Case she needs to see. Jane dashes out and finds Thor, Hercules, and the Destroyer in the comatose Case’s room. Case is grateful to Jane for keeping his human body alive. Herc suggests calling in the Avengers but Thor assures him this is an affair of honor among gods. But Jane takes Thor aside and tells him that she knows he is Jake Olson, advising him to reveal this to Hannah, as he failed to do with Jane when he was Don Blake. Thor says he will take her words to heart….

So the three heroes arrive in Asgard and begin fighting their way through the Dark Gods’ warriors. They reach the throne room where Thor again clashes with Perrikus, beating him brutally. Majeston Zelia waves her hands, tearing the ground open. Thor changes into Jake Olson and dashes through the sewers until he finds the Warriors Three, his friends Hogun Volstagg, and Fandral. Jake leaps upon a guard and injects him with sodium pentothal, seizes his sword and breaks the chains holding his friends prisoner. While the Warriors Three hold the guards at bay, Jake whips out a laptop and sends the signal to summon another ally to the fray, Replicus, reprogrammed by its owner to serve Thor (see issue #9). Just as Tokkots is about to slay the chained Balder, Replicus arrives and immolates the monster with its eyebeam. The robot frees Odin, Sif, and Balder. But Hercules and the Destroyer are overwhelmed and it looks like they will be defeated when Thor returns with all of the freed fighters of Asgard and Thor bashes Perrikus’ head in. Majeston Zelia calls to Adva for help and she sounds the call for Union: the ground rises into a massive living mountain composed of all of the Dark Gods save Zelia and Adva, firing deadly beams from its eyes with the power of all the Gods, destroying Replicus with a single blast. Thor attacks and is swatted away. Thor calls down the mightiest fiercest storm, focusing it though himself and blasting Zelia out of the sky. Odin seizes her and drains her of all the energy she had stolen from him, leaving her less than dust. Odin announces he has scattered the rest of the Dark Gods to the solar winds and he thanks Thor as the savior of Asgard. Everyone cheers…

…while Marnot looks on, with a sly smile….