Thor #302: Review

Dec 1980

?, Chic Stone

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Story Name:

The Shape of Things To Kill!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Thor #302 Review by Peter Silvestro (November 5, 2019)

Review: The Eternals Saga began in issue #283 with Thor thinking he was wasting his powers foiling a bank robbery. So now that the epic is over, Thor can go back to a normal life—foiling a bank robbery. And one committed by an unlikely villain: a guy who can create geometric shapes out of thin air (“the power of mathematics UNLEASHED!”). This goofy fellow who would better be at home in a 1960s Batman comic here tangles with a Norse god, clearly outmatched, especially as he doesn’t believe Thor is the genuine article. And the writers clearly recognize the absurdity of the premise so the second half of the story is done with a tongue-in-cheek manner which not only overcomes the gloomy Loki and Balder bits but the entire Eternals Saga that preceded it. Sometime comics writers just gotta have fun. And kudos to the artists for taking the time to do that incredibly detailed two-page spread at the beginning.

Comments: Sole appearance of Locus the Geometric Man, who has no connection to the Mutant Liberation Front member of the same name. Loki’s wife Sigyn was introduced in issues #275-278. Issue includes a retrospect on the Eternals Saga from writers Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Title is a pun on “The shape of things to come.” Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio share scripting duties; Al Milgrom contributed to the pencils and inks.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #302 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The nine-day feast continuing from last issue shows Thor accepting a challenge from Tyr that he cannot lift a massive table with dozens of Asgardians seated atop it. Thor can and does and claims his bag of gold from the cheerful war-god. At Odin’s side Frigga asks why Loki is so miserable and he snarls because he has been shackled to his wife Sigyn whose concern sickens him. Frigga asks why Balder is also glum and it’s because he has been dead and everything feels strange. He angrily refuses an offer to go adventuring with the Warriors Three; Thor speaks to him later and Balder reveals that having seen the dead suffering in Valhalla he can no longer be a warrior, even his hair has turned white. Thor offers some comfort and leaves, encountering Sif on the way. Now that Asgard is at peace, they talk of marriage but Thor is concerned that even though she shares a spirit with Jane Foster, she will object to Thor’s plans to return to Midgard….

The next day he tells her of his plans and she is surprised; the Warriors Three are shocked when he declines to join them against the Storm-Giants. Thor tries to explain the satisfaction he gets from healing people as Donald Blake but they don’t quite get it. He promises to return for Sif once he has reestablished his life as Don Blake on Earth. For his recent heroism, Odin grants him leave to come and go as he sees fit so the Thunder God takes himself off to New York City….

Transforming himself back into Dr Donald Blake, he stops by a bank to withdraw some funds, finding that Tony Stark makes for an excellent reference. Suddenly a huge pink cone smashes its way through the wall and everyone is suddenly trapped by a fence of parallel lines. It’s Aaron Verne, now calling himself Locus the Geometric Man, recently fired for daydreaming on the job, and he has now acquired the ability to make geometric shapes become real by concentration and he’s going to rob the bank. He snatches up some cash into a pink rectangle for a briefcase and departs; Don transforms into Thor and pursues him outside where the police are waiting. Locus clobbers Thor with a giant pink cylinder and tries to escape as another cylinder carries him up to the rooftops and a parabola becomes a bulletproof shield. Thor hurls his hammer and topples the villain from his perch. Locus responds with a sky full of deadly spheres but learns that a) when Thor hits the spheres, he (Locus) can feel pain and b) Thor is no mere costumed hero with a gimmick and his hammer is a pretty potent weapon. He encloses Thor and Mjolnir in separate polyhedrons but the hero’s concentration in summoning his hammer makes it pass through the walls of the shapes and reach his hand. The strain of concentrating on his shapes puts a lot of pressure on Locus so he drops everything to take a woman hostage in a sphere, demanding Thor hand over his hammer or he will kill her. Thor, warning the baddie that he’s messing with forces he can’t understand, puts Mjolnir down on the ground and Locus uses a cylinder to raise the hammer up to him but when he grasps the hammer its weight pulls him down to the ground—violently. Thor catches the hostage and departs, returning moments later as Don Blake to tend to the man’s injuries….

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