In Asgard, Odin watches as two small armies fight, pondering
how to decide which one has the just cause. Further complication: one side is
the army of Queen Jolena, Odin’s former lover….
Dr Donald Blake attends a Viking exhibit at a local museum
with Dr. Shawna Lynde. He pays no attention to a silver chalice but the chalice
pays attention to him….
The next day, Don is setting up his new practice in Chicago
with Shawna’s help. As he is interviewing a Nurse Stevens, she is suddenly encased
in ice which instantly cracks to reveal Fairgold, a mermaid with a flirty
demeanor. Don puts her in the whirlpool bath as Shawna brings in Don’s first
patient, Thorne Kirby. Suddenly, Shawna and Kirby are encased in ice, transforming
them into Kyrie, a bird-woman, and Grult, a bull-man (i.e. a Minotaur). And
then two movers similarly become Borna, a bear-man, and Slithgarn, a snake-man.
Borna and Grult start fighting and the racket brings the landlord up to complain
about the noise and Don has to make excuses. The five introduce themselves as
the Menagerie of Rimthursar who have just been freed from their centuries-long
imprisonment and wish to delight in real life once more—so they won’t tell Don
how to get rid of them. Kyrie leaps out of a window to force Don to become
Thor and save her (the God of Thunder apparently forgetting she’s part bird and
can fly); Thor changes back to Don. Deciding to have some fun, they drug Don and
take off, all except Fairgold, as the mermaid is confined to the whirlpool bath….
Out in the street Grult gets into a fight with a cabbie
which leaves several cars damaged and they enter a country-and-western themed
bar. Grult is invited to try the mechanical bull and he takes that as an insult
and destroys it, setting off a huge brawl among the customers. Back at the
apartment Don wakes up, thanks to Fairgold’s putting him the bathtub, and,
learning that the others have gone, becomes Thor and pursues them. Arriving during
the brawl, Thor rebukes the animal people and they realize they do not belong
in this world. Thor takes them all to the museum where they reveal their origin:
they were the menagerie of the mean god Rimthursar who decided to use them to
overthrow Odin; when they refused, their master slew them and imprisoned their
souls in the silver chalice, hurling it down to Midgard. The sight of Thor,
even in his Don Blake guise, was enough to free them and they took on human
hosts. Thor tries to return them to the chalice so he can return it to Asgard
but the attempt makes Borna go berserk and Thor must knock him out. Has the
chalice been sabotaged by another Asgardian god? And Thor knows it’s Loki….