Synopsis:
Thor and the passengers on the Starjammer arrive home in Asgard but something
is wrong: the warriors are marching and hailing Odin and Thor but are clearly
unaware of the arrival of the ship. They see in the city center Odin, Thor,
Heimdall, Sif, Hogun, and Fandral, doubles of those on the ship. The real Odin steps
ashore and challenges the impostors; fake Odin and Thor call them the
impostors—but real Thor notes that he carries Mjolnir while the phony wields a
sword. Battle breaks out with each hero taking on his double. Odin waves a hand
and freezes the soldiers in place, preventing them from interfering in the
fight….
Far
away, the Rigellians have abandoned their homeworld and the Grand Commissioner
is troubled in mind over whether to stay in honor or flee to safety. Then he is
told the Black Stars will reach Rigel within a fortnight….
Interlude:
Hildegarde’s sister Krista, frightened by the sounds of battle, flees the city
for the forest where she suddenly discovers a glowing stone on the ground. She
picks it up….
Back
in Asgard, Thor takes on fake Heimdall and Sif versus faux Hildegarde; Fandral discovers
Volstagg cowering in an alley and asks what is going on. Volstagg explains how Balder
recovered from his fit and they returned to Asgard to find the place full of
impostors. Balder challenged them, was beaten up and imprisoned while Volstagg
hid. So they set out to rescue their comrade from the dungeon fighting demon
hounds on the way….
Thor
fights fake Heimdall and knocks him off the Rainbow Bridge; the impostor panics
knowing the wizard’s spell will fail and he fades out before Thor can help him.
Thor carries Sif to safety and encounters Balder—who leads them into a trap,
magic walls springing up to enclose them. “Balder” reveals himself to be the
wizard Igron the Invincible who escaped from imprisonment in the trolls’ land
and came to Asgard which he found deserted so he created a phony set of gods
and took over. Real Balder arrives and thumps the wizard on the head and Thor’s
prison vanishes. Thor orders his friends to rescue Tana Nile and Silas Grant from
danger while he confronts false Odin, striking him down with Mjolnir and
watching him dissolve without the aid of Igron. The battle ends with Odin
defeating fake Thor and speaking a warning against believing in false gods….
Epilogue:
Odin gathers the heroes, including Tana Nile and Silas Grant, to inform them that
a menace approaches from space, which will first strike Rigel and then all the
worlds of men….
Characters
appearing who did not make it into the synopsis: Heimdall, Hogun, Hildegarde.
The Three-H Club?