Thor #462: Review

May 1993

Ron Marz, Bruce Zick

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Thor #462 Review by Rob Johnson (May 13, 2023)

This is the last issue Jim Starlin writes with Ron Marz, but this time Ron gets top billing. Jim will now write the Infinity Crusade limited series along with 2 Warlock titles WL & Infinity Watch and the new WL Chronicles. Ron will continue to write the Thor issues #463-467 which will be tie-ins to IC, and #468-471 which will be part of the Blood And Thunder crossover with Silver Surfer and Jim's WL&IW and WLC. That will complete the saga of the Madness Of Thor.

The Valkyrie is actually an imaginary manifestation of Thor's current madness, which explains why no-one else sees her and she doesn't join in the fighting.

The Olympian subplot will be dragged out through the Infinity Crusade tie-ins. Pluto and Zeus will still be here next issue along with Sif and Thor (and his imaginary Valkyrie).

Odin will hang back until #466.

This is Charon's 1st Marvel Age app but he was seen in the Golden Age's Captain America Comics #74. Now he's here he'll crop up again in Thor Annual #19.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #462 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Ares, the Olympian God Of War, goes down to the River Styx and the boatman Charon ferries him across to the underworld Hades to answer a summons from its lord, his uncle Pluto. He knows that his father Zeus would not be pleased, but Pluto said it was urgent. His uncle tells him that Thor has gone mad. He has left Asgard and travels alone, and last issue he nearly killed his friend Beta Ray Bill. He suggests that now would be a good time for them to gain revenge for stopping his invasion of Earth (#163-164) and foiling their joint attempt to cause war between Olympus and Asgard (#221-223).

Thor is on a spacegoing Viking longship, alone apart from a Valkyrie. He's having 2nd thoughts about having beaten BRB nearly to death because he used to be a staunch companion, worthy enough to wield Mjolnir. But the Valkyrie reminds him that the alien warrior used the hammer to usurp his power (#337), and the Thunder God is quickly back to his paranoid mindset. He comments that she always knows what he needs to hear, and she tells him it's because they are the same soul. Which he presumably takes as a poetic phrasing as she kisses him (again). Then an equally-spacegoing Olympian barge rams their ship, and Pluto attacks with Ares.

Meanwhile in Asgard where Sif has returned since last issue she holds an image of Thor in an amber crystal and broods over what's happened. They were pledged to be wed in a few weeks but then he left Asgard without a word (#460). She followed him last issue and saw him brutally attack BRB, and now she believes he must be suffering Warrior Madness. But if Odin learns of this he would be honour-bound to banish his son from Asgard forever. Then the All-Father drops in unexpectedly and makes Sif drop the crystal in shock, shattering it. She assures him it was nothing and he tells her that he sent his son away so that peace and solitude could ease his troubled mind. But he wonders if Sif knows anything about Thor's problems. And she denies it.

Thor himself has launched into battle with his attackers and calls the Valkyrie to fight by his side. But there's no response and they don't know who he's talking to. Ares takes the fight to the Thunder God and gets the 1st blows in with his mace. But his opponent fights back and soon has the God Of War trapped under a fallen mast. Then it's Mjolnir vs Pluto's fiery axe as Thor boasts that he's no longer restrained by Asgardian ethics. Ares takes over the fight again and Pluto watches the savage Asgardian beat his nephew to a pulp. Thor is about to slay his foe but Pluto knocks him aside with his axe and 'teleports' himself and Ares away to safety. Thor calls them cowards and rages that all his enemies will pay with their lives.

The duo reappear in Olympus where Zeus is dallying with some maidens, assuring them that his wife Hera won't mind. Pluto holds the bloody semi-conscious body of Ares and tells Zeus that Thor attacked them without provocation. Zeus swears that Asgard and its Thunder God will pay for this. Which is just what Pluto wanted to hear.

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