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(The Black Galaxy Saga Part 2) #421 - ... And If Gods Are Men... [The Black Galaxy Saga] #422 - …Then What Are Gods? [The Black Galaxy Saga Part 4] #423 - The Day of Their Return [The Black Galaxy Saga] #424 - Let There Be Life [The Black Galaxy Saga] #425 - The Flame, The Frost and the Fury! #426 - Aftermath #427 - The Homecoming! or How Do You Spend the Night After You've Saved the Universe? #428 - If This Be Juggernaut! #429 - This World Is Mine! #430 - The God, the Ghost, and the Guilty! #431 - Requiem for the Wrecker! #432 - At Death Do We Part #433 - Whosoever Holds This Hammer #434 - ...If He Be Worthy! #435 - The Power of Thor #436 - Savage Reunion #437 - Clash With Quasar #438 - Yesterday Must Die! [The Thor War, Part 1 of 4] #439 - When Hammers Clash [The Thor War, Part 2 of 4] #440 - All The Rivers Run! [The Thor War, Part 3 of 4] #441 - My Brother's Burden [The Thor War, Part 4 of 4] #442 - The Day of His Return! #443 - The Mephisto Waltz #444 - How the Groonk Stole Christmas! #445 - The War and the Warrior #446 - Now Strikes the Starforce #447 - Strange Alliances #448 - Secret Agendas!! #449 - Riot On Riker's Island! #450 - When Gods Make War #451 - Beware the Bloodaxe #452 - With This Axe, I Thee Kill! #453 - When Mephisto Commands...! #454 - The Warriors Three Die At Dawn #455 - Odin Unleashed--! #456 - The Choice and the Challenge! #457 - Final Gauntlet! #458 - To The Victor...! #459 - What Price Victory? #460 - Fragments #461 - Friends and Lovers #462 - Payments #463 - Devotions #464 - Blessed Obedience #465 - Holy Sacrifice #466 - Odin's Tale #467 - Descent #468 - Distant Thunder [Blood and Thunder Part One] #469 - Absolute Power [Blood and Thunder Part Five] #470 - Ruins [Blood and Thunder Part Nine] #471 - Fathers and Sons [Blood and Thunder The End] #472 - If Twilight Falls #473 - New Gods For Old #474 - When Mountains Walked #475 - Survival of the Fiercest #476 - Whom The Destroyer Would Destroy... #477 - Three Who Ride The Thunder #478 - Come The Lightning! #479 - This Mortal Coil #480 - Blitzkrieg In the Balkans #481 - The Living Stone, I Presume? #482 - Long Day's Journey Into Mystery Chapter One #483 - Armor and the Man-God I Sing... #484 - The God In The War Machine #485 - Things Ain't What They Used To Be #486 - The Coming of Kurse! #487 - Hel On Earth #488 - To Hela and Back #489 - Hel and High Water #490 - Against the Dying of the Light! #491 - Worldengine Part One of Four: Nailed Up #492 - Worldengine Part Two of Four: Run Through #493 - Worldengine Part Three of Four: Run Down #494 - Worldengine Part Four: Finished Off #495 - In Mortal Guise #496 - Doin' the Zodiac Rag #497 - Thor Must Die #498 - Life Preservation #499 - Ludwig's Children #500 - Sunlight and Shadows #501 - Out of the Blue #502 - Putting on the Bear Shirt
In Asgard, Loki overhears an old storyteller singing the praises of Thor to a group of children but when the old man boasts of Thor’s constant victories over Loki, the God of Evil gets mad and conceives a new plan against his hated brother. First he goes to Karnilla the Norn Queen and borrows five Norn stones from her; he next goes to the barren wastes of Nastrond to meet with the King (identity withheld from the reader until later), imprisoned by Thor and offers revenge, which the captive eagerly assents to. Loki flies them both to the Pacific Ocean and prepares the trap….
At home, Dr. Donald Blake hears news reports of a tidal wave threatening Easter Island and he changes to Thor and flies out to see if he can help. When he arrives, he is told that the population is being taken to safety by helicopter but they are worried about what the tsunami will do to the town. Thor builds a breakwater out of rock and dirt, bracing it with his own body when the wave hits, so that the famous stone heads are uprooted but the barrier holds. Then Thor passes the Norn stones placed there by Loki and they cause the statues to come to life and attack the Thunder God. Thor drives them away from the Norn stones and the statues return to stone and Thor neatly hammers them back into the ground up to their necks. Inquiring after the source of the wave, he is directed to a new island pushed up from below recently, so he flies over there and finds Loki who unveils Fafnir the Dragon, bent on vengeance. The two clash but Thor is the greater; he then tosses the Norn stones into he air and sends a lightning bolt through them, paralyzing Loki and Fafnir—and at this point Odin himself intervenes, sends Fafnir and Loki back where they came from for punishment and allows Thor to resume his business on Midgard….
Review: Okay story is marked by the odd art combination of Gil Kane and Pablo Marcos; the latter’s inking obscures Kane’s recognizable style, giving it a darker and grittier look, which stands out, especially the scenes of Thor fighting the tidal wave. The rest of the art isn’t so cool, with the statues firing eye beams at Thor that are invisible—penciler, inker, or colorist at fault? No idea but the sequence comes off a bit odd. The real stinker is the final three panels in the issue in which Don Blake, turning his head, resembles three different people—the last one not seeming quite human. Hey, everyone can have an off day. Oh and the stone heads on Easter Island look more like the Green Goblin than the real statues; no photo reference?
Comments: The curse on Nastrond goes back to THOR #134-135; Fafnir’s previous appearance was in issue #291, his next in #341-343, wherein he dies but that doesn’t slow him down. Issue includes a double page illustration of Gods and Goddesses of Asgard by Keith Pollard; the first portrait is of Heimdall and Hermod, the second of the Warriors Three—which is all gods, no goddesses.
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