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Thor #431

Apr 1991
Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe

Thor #431 cover

Story Name:

Requiem for the Wrecker!


Synopsis

Thor #431 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

The captive Wrecker is being slowly tortured by Loki, strapped to a painful device which is slowly leaching away his Asgardian power. Not that Loki isn’t enjoying the terrible spectacle as he is seeking revenge for the Wrecker’s having (inadvertently) stolen the power Loki wanted from the Norn Queen by a simple case of mistaken identity….

At home, Eric Masterson realizes his career as Thor has seriously hurt his normal life and he sits down at his drawing board to get back to work. Susan Austin, meanwhile, is getting some advice on how to attract Eric from her roommate Leena Moran (actually the Enchantress): through his son. Soon, “Susan” is picking Kevin Masterson up from school, citing a terrible accident at home, surprising teacher Ed Marrero….

Loki plucks Wrecker’s entire life from his memory, abused with his mother by a brutish and overly macho father, leading young Dirk to want to be “the hardest, toughest, meanest of all.” Loki laughs….

Jackie Lukus shows up at Eric’s home and opens the shades and there is a massive glow in the sky, which Eric recognizes as Asgardian magic. Then Marcy Masterson arrives, looking for Kevin, having heard that Eric was in an accident….

The fake Susan takes Kevin to Loki’s building where she resumes her form as Amora and Ulik snatches the kid….

Eric, Jackie, and Marcy go to Susan’s apartment and find her unconscious. While Marcy threatens Susan with legal action, Eric dashes out and changes into Thor….

Amora wants to know what is going to happen to the boy; Loki is using him as bait to lure Thor to his death. Amora reminds him of Odin’s Law against immortals killing other immortals on pain of banishment. Loki, having regained the power from the Wrecker, considers himself above Odin’s Law. Ulik reports that Thor is coming; Loki hands him some steel pounders (to go over his fists) to occupy Thor until Loki is finished with Wrecker. Thor has traced the glow of Asgardian magic to Loki’s building and battles Ulik on the roof, soon smashing through the walls into the offices. Loki turns up the heat on Wrecker so he can finish before Thor reaches them. Amora is so disgusted by Loki’s intentions that she teleports out of there; Loki has been working on Wrecker’s psyche until he forces his captive to admit he was always only a victim. This releases his power to flow into Loki—but Wrecker is still determined to beat Loki. Thor and Ulik continue the battle until Thor tosses the troll out of a high window. Loki then sends Wrecker into another dimension which the big guy sees as winning as he hasn’t died. Thor then finds Loki, dressed in battle armor and holding a bubble with Kevin in it, demanding Thor hand over Mjolnir or the boy dies….


 

Review / Commentaries


Thor #431 Review by (December 14, 2021)

Review: Loki at his nastiest, torturing Wrecker in an extended sequence a bit too potent for a comic book, even in the 1990s (at least this early in the 90s). But we also have Eric as Thor, a bit overshadowed in this issue as the non-Loki focus is on the kidnapping of Kevin, nevertheless heading for a major confrontation, the one we’ve been waiting for since the earliest days of Thor—and it’s all in the next issue. Be there! (Interesting bit: Thor hurls Mjolnir at Ulik and the troll grabs onto it as it returns to Thor—pulling him right into Thor’s outstretched fist.)

Comments: Part five of six parts. Wrecker received Asgardian power in his debut issue, THOR #148, he returns in FANTASTIC FOUR #355, which does not explain how he got out of the other dimension or regained his power; I don’t think it was ever explained. Rick Parker and Chris Eliopoulos collaborated on the lettering. The letters page includes one by future comics writer/martial artist Jan C. Childress and one by future illustrator James Palsrok.




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Herb Trimpe
Al Milgrom
Mike Rockwitz
Ron Frenz (Cover Penciler)
Al Milgrom (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Loki
Loki

(Loki Laufeyson)
Thor
Thor

(Eric Masterson)
Wrecker
Wrecker

(Dirk Garthwaite)
Plus: Ed Marrero, Jackie Lukus, Kevin Masterson, Marcy Masterson, Susan Austin.

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