Kelda Stormrider goes to Doctor Doom’s castle to confront Loki over the death of her beloved Bill Junior (seen in THOR GIANT-SIZE FINALE). As she faces Doom while standing on a thundercloud in a storm, he tells her Loki is gone and he taunts her about her foolish love for a mortal. She blasts him to pieces with lightning and discovers it was a Doombot. She follows the control wires down to Doom’s lab where she is seized by a huge armored figure. Doom casually explains his determination to learn the Asgardians’ secret of immortality—and has the machine rip her heart out….
In the Asgardian camp, Heimdall bows the Gjallarhorn summoning all the Aesir to battle; a head count reveals how many have disappeared into Doom’s laboratory. Balder names Tyr that leader of the army which will march against the tyrant. Thor has also not answered the call but Balder believes it may be because Don Blake occupies the mortal plane at this time. Nevertheless, they prepare to march on the castle….
In Broxton, Don Blake places a call to Reed Richards in New York whom he has contacted about the murderous robots which attacked him (again in THOR GIANT-SIZE FINALE). Pausing briefly to have Thing take care of some invading transdimensional aliens, Reed narrows the source down to a few possibilities; Don narrows it further—to Doctor Doom….
At Bill’s Viking funeral, Balder rouses the warriors to action. Loki appears among them, pleading ignorance of Doom’s intentions (and his own innocence). Balder slashes Loki’s face with a sword point and demands the truth. Loki humbly takes all blame on himself, while casually reminding them that any action taken against him could only be after a trial. Balder places Loki under guard and asks Heimdall if he can see Kelda; he can, in the castle, lying in a pool of blood. They march to the castle wall and confront Doom, demanding their missing citizens be returned to them. Doom complies—but the kidnapped Asgardians have been operated on, turning them into mindless cybernetic drones. They swarm over the walls and the warriors must bring themselves to fight their grotesquely transformed kinsmen or die. As Doom watches from the battlements, he hears a voice behind him pronouncing judgment on his evil. The tyrant turn to see Thor descending upon him, hammer ready to strike….