Daredevil is there when Hogun the Grim is pulled from the
River and he does not detect a heartbeat. DD performs CPR and gets Hogun alive
again and the Asgardian hero is rushed to the hospital….
In Asgard, the flame tied to Hogun’s life force has
flickered out, causing great distress for Balder and Hogun’s compatriots
Fandral and Volstagg—and Thor is still missing….
In Hollywood, a movie about the Mighty Thor is being shot
and is suddenly in trouble: the real Thor has shaved his beard and abandoned
his armor so scenes will have to be reshot and special effects will need to be
redone. Producer Simon Anderson asks writer Maddie Arnstein to come up with a
new script that includes human interest. Maddie agrees though privately unsure
if she can do it so she decides to interview people who have met Thor. First is
Dr. Roger Graham who was part of the medical mission to the war-torn nation of
San Diablo and witnessed Thor’s intervention to keep the team safe, though he
doesn’t know how Jane Foster was rescued from the rebels….
Maddie then interviews several New York City police officers
most of whom have glowing stories of Thor’s exploits but one cop reveals a lower
opinion of the God of Thunder, citing the time he went on an angry rampage and
even his Avengers buddies couldn’t calm him down….
Maddie talks to a young married couple who were sitting on a
bench in the park when Thor, stricken by love, flew by rejoicing, giving the
boy the courage to propose to his gal….
A soda jerk tells Maddie about how Thor and Hercules had a
fight in that very shop over Jane Foster….
Returning to her hotel, Maddie is startled by Harris Hobbs,
a half-crazy ex-reporter who tells her how Thor gave him a tour of Asgard but
his camera was wrecked and Thor erased his memories of the place. Hobbs then
explains how he recovered his memoires and Loki transported him and his colleagues
Red Norvell and Joey Burnett in time for Ragnarök; Red became a new Thor and he
and Joey were killed. He ends by advising Maddie to drop the project; she won’t….
Maddie then goes to see Jane Foster (now married to
Keith Kincaid), whose name has been mentioned often enough for Maddie to figure out she
once had a relationship with Thor. Jane is angry over the deception and the
prying but Maddie convinces her to talk about the Thunder God. Jane relates how
she and Thor met, how often he rescued her from danger, and finally how they
decided that marriage between a god and a mortal could never work. Maddie
recognizes this as the seed of her screenplay, and assuring Jane that it would
be heavily fictionalized, heads back to Hollywood….
Maddie writes up the story of heroic police officer Kelly
Hernandez who meets Thor, adventures alongside him against various enemies and
soon they fall in love but decide that marriage between a god and a mortal
could never work. Success!
A week later, Simon calls her in to talk about the script.
It’s perfect but the studio is shying away from making a film about a real-life
person, so the project has changed: it will now be a cartoon show wherein Thor is
a talking dog. Maddie is overwhelmed….