Comic Browser: #126 - Whom the Gods Would Destroy! #127 - The Hammer and the Holocaust! #128 - The Power of Pluto! #129 - The Verdict of Zeus! #130 - Thunder In the Netherworld! #131 - They Strike From Space! #132 - Rigel: Where Gods May Fear to Tread! #133 - Behold... The Living Planet! #134 - The People-Breeders! #135 - The Maddening Menace of the Super-Beast! #136 - To Become An Immortal! #137 - The Thunder God and the Troll! #138 - From Asgard to Earth... The Flames of Battle! #139 - To Die Like A God! #140 - The Growing Man! #141 - The Wrath of Replicus #142 - The Scourge of the Super-Skrull! #143 - --And, Soon Shall Come: the Enchanters! #144 - This Battleground Earth! #145 - Abandoned On Earth! #146 - -- If the Thunder Be Gone! #147 - The Wrath of Odin! #148 - Let There Be... 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If This Be... Ragnarok! #201 - Resurrection! #202 - --And None Dare Stand 'Gainst Ego-Prime! #203 - They Walk Like Gods! #204 - Exiled on Earth! #205 - A World Gone Mad! #206 - Rebirth! #207 - Firesword! #208 - The Fourth-Dimensional Man! #209 - Warriors in the Night! #210 - The Hammer and the Hellfire! #211 - The End of the Battle! #212 - Journey to the Golden Star! #213 - The Demon Brigade!! #214 - Into the Dark Nebula! #215 - The God in the Jewel #216 - Where Chaos Rules! #217 - All Swords Against Them! #218 - Where Pass the Black Stars, There Also Passes... Death! #219 - A Galaxy Consumed! #220 - Behold! The Land of Doom! #221 - Hercules Enraged! #222 - Before the Gates of Hell! #223 - Hellfire Across the World! #224 - No One Can Stop...The Destroyer! #225 - The Coming of the Firelord! #226 - The Battle Beyond! #227 - In Search of...Ego! #228 - Ego: Beginning and End! #229 - "Where Darkness Dwells, Dwell I!" #230 - The Sky Above...The Pits Below! #231 - A Spectre From the Past! #232 - Lo, The Raging Battle! #233 - Midgard Aflame! #234 - O, Bitter Victory! #235 - Who Lurks Beyond the Labyrinth! #236 - One Life to Give! #237 - Ulik Unchained #238 - Night of the Troll! #239 - Time Quake! #240 - When the Gods Make War! #241 - The Death-ship Sails the Stars! #242 - When the Servitor Commands! #243 - Turmoil in the Time Stream! #244 - This is the Way the World Ends! #245 - The Temple at the End of Time! #246 - The Fury of Firelord! #247 - The Flame and the Hammer! #248 - There Shall Come...Revolution! #249 - The Throne and the Fury! #250 - If Asgard Should Perish...! #251 - To Hela and Back #252 - A Dragon at the Gates! #253 - Chaos in the Kingdom of the Trolls #254 - The Answer at Last! #255 - Lo, The Quest Begins! #256 - Lurker in the Dark! #257 - Death, Thou Shalt Die! #258 - If the Stars Be Made of Stone! #259 - Escape into Oblivion! #260 - The Vicious and the Valiant #261 - The Wall Around the World! #262 - Even an Immortal Can Die! #263 - Holocaust and Homecoming! #264 - Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me! #265 - When Falls the God of Thunder...! #266 - ...So Falls the Realm Eternal! #267 - Once More, To Midgard! #268 - Death, Thy Name is Brother! #269 - A Walk on the Wild Side! #270 - Minute of Madness -- Dark Day of Doom! #271 - ...Like a Diamond in the Sky! #272 - The Day the Thunder Failed! #273 - Somewhere -- Over the Rainbow Bridge! #274 - The Eye -- and the Arrow! #275 - A Balance is Struck! #276 - Mine...This Hammer! #277 - Time of the Trolls! #278 - At Long Last--Ragnarok?! #279 - A Hammer in Hades! #280 - Crisis on Twin Earths! #281 - This Hammer Lost! #282 - Rites of Passage #283 - Suddenly--The Celestials! #284 - The City of the Space Gods! #285 - Deviants and Doormen! #286 - Mayhem under Manhattan! #287 - Assault on Olympia! #288 - Fury of the Forgotten Hero! #289 - Look Homeward, Asgardian! #290 - Ring Around the Red Bull! #291 - When Gods Have Joined Together! #292 - If an Eye Offend Thee...! #293 - The Twilight of SOME Gods! #294 - New Asgards for Old! #295 - The Price--and the Pride! #296 - From Valhalla--A Valkyrie! #297 - The Sword of Siegfried! #298 - Dragon's Blood! #299 - Passions and Potions #300 - Twilight of the Gods! #301 - For the Life of Asgard! #302 - The Shape of Things To Kill! #303 - The Miracle of Storms #304 - Reckless! #305 - Hark, the Herald Angel Lives! #306 - Fury of the Firelord! #307 - Wings In the Night! #308 - The Snow Giant #309 - Beware the Bombardiers! #310 - The Maelstrom to Mephisto #311 - Grief More Than a God May Bear #312 - The Judgment of Tyr #313 - Serpent From the Heavens #314 - Acts of Destruction #315 - The Thunder God and the Bi-Beast #316 - Of Beasts and Things... #317 - Chaos At Canaveral #318 - A Kingdom Lost #319 - The Zaniac Craves Blood! #320 - Blake's Menagerie #321 - Magick's Menace #322 - The Wrath and the Power! #323 - ...Comes a Dark Stranger! #324 - Gravitation #325 - A Deal With Darkoth #326 - The Scarab Strikes #327 - The Serpent of Midgard Conclusion: This Battleground Earth #328 - Violence In Video #329 - Stranded #330 - The Coming of the Crusader! #331 - Holy War #332 - Blood of a Goddess! #333 - Like a Bat Out of Heaven! #334 - Runequest #335 - Runequest's End! #336 - Of Gods and Men #337 - Doom! #338 - A Fool and His Hammer... #339 - Something Old, Something New... #340 - Though Hel Should Bar the Way! #341 - The Past Is a Bucket of Ashes #342 - The Last Viking! #343 - If I Should Die Before I Wake...! #344 - Whatever Happened To Balder the Brave? #345 - That Was No Lady #346 - The Wild Hunt! #347 - Into the Realm of Faerie! #348 - The Dark and the Light #349 - Debts of Honor! #350 - Ragnarok and Roll! #351 - Ragnarok and Roll, Too! #352 - Ragnarok and Ruin! #353 - Doom II #354 - Pickin' Up the Pieces #355 - The Icy Hearts (or My Dinners With Thor) #356 - The Power and the Pride #357 - A New Deal From An Old Deck, or, The Credit Card Soldiers #358 - When Dalliance Was In Flower, or, Take the Cash and Let the Credit Go #359 - The Grand Alliance! Or Life With Loki #360 - Into the Valley of Death! #361 - The Quick and the Dead! #362 - Like a Bat Out of Hel! #363 - This Kursed Earth…! #364 - Thor Croaks! #365 - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, or, It’s Not Easy Being Green #366 - Sir! #367 - The Harvest of the Seasons #368 - The Eye of the Beholder #369 - For Whom the Belles Troll... #370 - Easy Money #371 - Peace On Earth #372 - Without Justice, There Is No Peace! #373 - The Gift of Death #374 - Fires of the Night #375 - Shadows of the Past #376 - Heroes Always Win--Don't They? #377 - This Hollowed Armor #378 - When Loki Stood Alone #379 - There Were Giants In Those Days (Or, A Discourse Between Heroes and Villains) #380 - Mjolnir's Song #381 - Ye Olde Shelle Game! #382 - Journey Into Mystery #383 - This Secret Love--! #384 - Who Shall Be Worthy? #385 - Be Thou God, Or Monster! #386 - When Warriors Clash #387 - Judgment Day #388 - Alone Against the Celestials #389 - When The Thunder Fails #390 - The Hero and the Hammer #391 - The Madness of Mongoose #392 - Quicksand Kills #393 - The Blaze of Battle! #394 - "...And How Shall Mortals Know Ye?" #395 - Enter the Earth Force! #396 - Into the Realm of Death #397 - When the Gods Make War #398 - The Prisoners of the Black Pyramid #399 - When Asgard Dies #400 - Lest the Heavens Perish! #401 - The Wager #402 - Even An Asgardian Can Die!! #403 - When the Executioner Calls!! #404 - Something Is Killing The Great Gods of Asgard #405 - Odin Must Die #406 - War With Wundagore! #407 - Menace of the Living Universe #408 - "The Fateful Decision!" #409 - Doom Is Only Sixty Seconds Away #410 - "Two Dooms to Destroy Me!" #411 - The Gentleman's Name Is Juggernaut! #412 - Introducing the New Warriors #413 - Within Me Dwells A Monster! #414 - Beyond Courage Must I Strive #415 - When Gods Wear Mortal Flesh! #416 - The Hero and the Horror #417 - Only Death Can Save Thee #418 - Fear Kills #419 - The Summons [The Black Galaxy Saga] #420 - If Death Be My Destiny! (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
A pair of petty crooks rob a bank using advanced military weaponry; Thor arrives on the scene and destroys their armored wagon and knocks them out in seconds. Thor has another of his recurring dizzy spells then takes off for his new life as Eric Masterson (see last issue). He gets his son ready to be picked up for school by Susan Austin and tries to get the notoriously easy-going Hercules moving to get to their jobs….
Police Lieutenant Marcus Stone is concerned about the amount of high-tech weaponry in the hands of minor crooks and wonders where it is coming from. He doesn’t know he is being watched by Doctor Doom who has delivered the weapons to the criminals as part of a plan to take his kingdom back from a usurper; phase one has succeeded: crooks have reached Thor. Now for phase 2 of his scheme….
Eric and Hercules (using the human name of Harry Cleese) arrive at the construction site where supervisor Jerry Saprisi tells him that the owners are concerned about Eric’s spotty attendance and are threatening to turn the project over to another architect, possibly Eric’s rival, the flirtatious Jackie Lukus….
Phase 2: Doom’s time-bot crashes into the police station and fires a ray at Lt. Stone’s assistant Vinnie Evans who vanishes and then returns seconds later, dazed and mumbling about dinosaurs. At the construction site, Eric hears about the fracas at the station house and transforms into Thor to head over there. He and Herc arrive just as the time-bot leaves the building with the two crooks in tow; Doctor Doom, watching from the Embassy, realizes Hercules is an unforeseen factor and heads over to involve himself personally. The robot withstands Herc’s punching and hurls the demigod through a window. Herc is shocked at a feeling he barely recognizes as fear, an effect programmed into the robot by Doom. Thor is zapped by the time-bot’s ray and transported back to prehistoric Earth for a few seconds and then returns as Doom has arrived. The villain has the time-bot rise to him on a nearby roof, leaving the two crooks to be recaptured by the cops. Thor and Herc try to continue the battle on the rooftop: the Thunder God hurls Mjolnir at the robot, which zaps it with his ray and it vanishes. Having achieved his goal of capturing Thor’s hammer, Doom and the robot depart for Latveria; after sixty seconds without the hammer, Thor transforms back into Eric Masterson and their only course of action is to follow Doom and recover Mjolnir….
“To Fight the Unbeatable Foe”Writer: Tom DeFalco. Pencils: Mike Mignola. Inks: Bob Wiacek. Colors: Bob Sharen. Letters: Richard Starkings.Synopsis: Thor fights the giant Uru monster Uroc who can absorb the blows from Mjolnir and fire them back at Thor and Grundor. Grundor gives a hasty recap of Uroc’s origin: he was the weaponsmith for a prior troll king who demanded the ultimate weapon. Uroc made a giant of Uru then used sorcery to transfer his consciousness into it to take revenge against the trolls. Thor soon realizes that Mjolnir cannot harm his foe directly; Uroc uses his power of magnetism to draw Mjolnir to his hand—and then his hand falls to the ground and he cannot raise it since he is not worthy to lift the hammer. Uroc releases the hammer, Thor and Grundor flee and Thor smashes the bridge over the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow and Uroc tumbles in while Thor flies himself and Grundor to safety. Grundor sees this as the start of a beautiful friendship. Thor isn’t so sure….
Review: The mention of sixty seconds in the title and first few pages recalls the classic SPIRIT story “Ten Minutes” but the Thor tale has no thematic resonance, it’s purely utilitarian to remind us of what happens when Thor is without his hammer for sixty seconds. A rather pedestrian story for Dr. Doom to be in: I’m sure there would have been easier ways to get Thor’s hammer without handing out weaponry to minor crooks. We see on his viewscreen that he is monitoring Spider-Man, Captain America, and others and once he’s got Thor, he (and all of Marvel’s writers) forgets about the other heroes and weapons and Doom just moves on. Seems that this could have been minor event with heroes fighting armored criminals and all of them descending on Latveria to pick a bone with Doom. But then we’ve already got a minor event coming up: Acts of Vengeance, so maybe not. Meanwhile, Eric is still getting his Thor secret identity feet wet so it’s okay for him to freak out on the last page. The big question: what’s the point of the time-bot being able to send things into the prehistoric past for a few seconds? We’ll find out next issue (maybe)! And oh, yeah, Mike Mignola gives a cool new look to the second story with his rough Hellboy style and it suits the tale of a giant monster.
Comments: First story: Part one of two parts. Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco collaborated on the plot. Second story: Part two of two parts. Origin of Uroc, who returns periodically, next in issue #440. Final appearance of Grundor the Greater, despite his wish (cribbed from the ending of CASABLANCA).
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