Comic Browser:

Thor #228

Oct 1974

Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler

Story Name:

Ego: Beginning and End!

Synopsis

Thor #228 synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Rating:

As Hercules and Firelord fight off the dirt-demons defending the brain of Ego the Living Planet, Thor strikes the brain with Mjolnir and is drawn into his mind…

…to relive the Living Planet’s origin from his point of view. Thor becomes Egros, chief scientist of a planet doomed when its sun is about to go nova. Egros has planned for the populace to go into suspended animation in underground sanctuary and wait until the burned planet has cooled and emerge to rebuild their civilization. Yet due to a miscalculation, the sun goes nova sooner than expected, all of the hibernating people die and Egros is fused with the world, creating a living planet who has suppressed his guilt for millennia only to go mad when Tana Nile removed a part of his surface….

Thor now understands the reason for Ego’s madness and he fires a storm into the brain. Galactus summons the three heroes back to his ship, informing them that while they kept the planet distracted, Galactus attached a massive propulsion unit to it, shooting Ego out across the galaxy, likely to never return. After a postmortem on Ego, with Galactus displaying some sympathy for the mad planet, Firelord requests that he be set free from his role as Herald. Galactus agrees but only if Firelord can supply a successor. Thor proposes the Destroyer which Galactus can animate with a bit of his own consciousness. (And in Asgard, Odin approves this choice as well as Thor’s wisdom in proposing it.) Galactus approves and he and the Destroyer vanish while the now freed Firelord flies off in another direction….

Review / Commentaries

Thor #228 Review by Peter Silvestro (May 30, 2023)

Review: More Kirbyesque madness in a sincere homage to the creator of both Galactus and Ego (not to mention Thor and Hercules). Apocalyptic stuff abounds and we finally learn the origin of Ego but it is all Egros’ fault for cutting everything too close to the end. If fifty seconds makes the difference between total success or complete failure you should have added a buffer or two. But this explains Ego’s madness, the guilt over having caused the destruction of his entire race, though there isn’t much of a remedy aside from shooting Ego out of the galaxy and, presumably, the MU (nah, everybody comes back sooner or later, even mad planets. See the Comments section below). And the issue includes a great full page pic of Galactus!

Comments: Part five of five parts. The origin of Ego the Living Planet is presented. Firelord is next seen in THOR #232 and various issues following. Destroyer is next seen as the Herald of Galactus in FANTASTIC FOUR #173-174; the armor is back in Asgard in THOR #264-266 with Loki explaining that he stole it back when Galactus wasn’t looking. And the FF encounter Ego in FANTASTIC FOUR #234-235. Arvell Jones and Keith Pollard credited with assisting on the pencils. The letters column includes one by a Charles Murphy, who may or may not be the guy from Murphy’s Multiverse.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Gerry Conway

Rich Buckler

Joe Sinnott

Stan Goldberg

John Buscema (Cover Penciler)
Vince Colletta (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: John Costanza.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Destroyer

Ego the Living Planet

Firelord

Galactus

Hercules
(Heracles)

Odin

Thor
(Odinson)

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