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(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
Thor and Amora take off to discover who has been trying to kill him while Detective Inspector Curzon demands the police lab give him a Thor detector, a device that can trace the radioactive emissions of Mjolnir because he thinks Thor has been killed and wants to locate his body….
Thor and Amora arrive at the underground passage where he was found unconscious after issue #1. Descending they discover a massive machine hooked up to Yggdrasil. They are met by an elderly man introducing himself as Price and with a note of pride in his voice, he offers them a tour of his Worldengine. Price gives a precis of his strange research interests and his fondness for cannibalism as a means of acquiring knowledge. He gets to his point: he had a strong desire to see the new race of humanity that the World-Ash would create after Ragnarök. But he would not survive Ragnarök so he had to devise a means of convincing the World-Ash that Ragnarök had passed. So he built this machine, operated by powerful workers who are cloned from the cells of Thor and Amora. The Asgardians consider destroying the Worldengine and going home but Price tells them that such an act would not stop what would happen. Indeed, the Enchantress’ spell to protect Thor only convinced the Tree that Thor was dead. So now, as they watch, bubbles drop like dew from the tree’s branches. The new humans, blue-skinned, golden eyed, with elongated skulls, living solely on the air they breathe, rise from the ground. But then they start dying; Amora explains that they were intended to absorb their food from the skin particles of the extinct humanity that should have been in the post Ragnarök atmosphere. Then the worldengine becomes very active, trying to correct its mistake by ending the world for real. Price is killed by his workers while Thor, without his divine power, seizes the engine’s wheel and struggles to turn it backward—and succeeds. Out at the tunnel’s entrance, Curzon arrives to ask Amora if anything unusual is going on. She disintegrates him….
Epilogue: Thor returns to the Ash Hotel and stands on the roof in the lightning for a flashy end to the story….
Review: The four-issue arc is wrapped up. To summarize: Issues #491-493: Thor gets sick, fights monsters, and beds the Enchantress. Also #492-493: Detective Curzon reads up on Norse myths while irritating everyone he meets. Issue #494: We get an entire sci-fi/fantasy story that grows up then breaks down with all of the mind-boggling magic this arc has to offer. Plus, Detective Curzon, who was in the story only to supply exposition, having fulfilled his purpose, is evaporated for no clear reason. Issue #495: A new writer takes over and points out what was wrong with Warren Ellis’s story before heading off in his own direction. Okay and offbeat four-issue arc was offbeat and okay but didn’t deserve all the attention it received. Come back next time.
Comments: The letters page includes one by Allison Weinstein, noted collector of Thor comic art.
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