Warlock Chronicles #7: Review

Jan 1994

Jim Starlin, Tom Raney

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Story Name:

After Math

Review & Comments

Rating:

Warlock Chronicles #7 Review by Rob Johnson (June 3, 2023)

This is part 7 of the Blood & Thunder crossover, following on from Silver Surfer #87.

Al Milgrom helped Keith Williams with the inking.

When Thor suffered from Warrior Madness before (in his #166 when he almost killed Him, the proto-Adam Warlock) his punishment *wasn't* eternal banishment but being sent into space to discover the origin of Galactus.

We'll learn the fate of the captives in Warlock & Infinity Watch #24. Beta Ray Bill and Sif will return in the following crossover issue Thor #470. But Balder and Odin have to wait for the penultimate issue W&IW#25.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Warlock Chronicles #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Story continued from SILVER SURFER (Vol. 3) #87.

Thor has gone paranoid and attacks his friends who try to help him. In Silver Surfer #87 Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock came to Dr Strange for help. But then the Infinity Watch joined them with the bad news that Thor's imaginary companion Dark Valkyrie is now real and physically dangerous, and the Thunder God now has Drax The Destroyer's Power Gem and he's headed to Asgard to destroy it, and then possibly the universe. They all left for Asgard courtesy of a spell from Stephen Strange ...

... which is why we now find them in the Asgardian countryside. They intend to inform Odin of his son's madness. But Sif and Beta Ray Bill are spying on them from afar via 1 of Sif's Norn Stones. They intend to *stop* Odin learning that Thor is suffering from what they believe is Warrior Madness (which sounds like an extreme version of the Viking berserker state) because the punishment for that is eternal banishment from Asgard. There's no known cure for the malady but Sif is determined to keep her love from that fate before she finds 1. Bill points out that they 2 won't be able to defeat so mighty an assemblage, but Sif has a cunning plan. She tells Bill to take down Surfer and Strange while she arranges a similar fate for Warlock and the rest of the Watch. Bill lets his love for her override his commonsense and rushes off to comply.

In the Royal Place Odin tells Balder that he senses something amiss in the land but can't pin it down. So he sends for his all-seeing crystal. We however can clearly see the Infinity Watch flying towards Asgard. Gamora and Pip The Troll have hitched a ride on Surfer's board while the rest fly under their own (or in Maxam's case jet-assisted) power. And BRB is watching them. Sif herself has used the Norn Stones to teleport her to the camp of some Rock Trolls led by King Geirrodur.

Bill swoops in and knocks Surfer from his board with his hammer Stormbreaker, and then hits him again. Sif gains audience with Geirrodur in his tent but then cuts his nose with her sword. When his guards try to capture her she 'ports outside where she taunts more Trolls and leads them on a merry chase. BRB meantime has been punching Dr Strange until Drax and Maxam intervene. SS and DrS seem unconscious and Bill is down, but as everyone else tries to catch their breath Sif 'ports to Bill's side followed by the whole Troll gang. Sif teleports herself and Bill away and the Trolls attack the Watch.

Pip can also teleport (with his Space Gem) and he nips in with an ineffectual punch, but then gets clipped by a Troll's club which accidentally also clobbers another Troll. Moondragon uses her (Mind Gem-enhanced) mental powers to control the minds of 2 Trolls but is knocked out by some more. Adam and Gamora fight on against overwhelming odds but are eventually brought down. Drax and Maxam fight back to back to defend Gamora's fallen body. But then the Trolls fall back to let a small Troll through with a slingshot. He delivers a globe which bursts releasing knockout gas which ends the fight.

When it's all over King Geirrodur turns up with a bandaged nose and orders all the captives bound with mystical bonds and taken away for ritual sacrifice. (We don't see Surfer and Strange among them but they *are* included.)

Story continued in WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH #24.

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