Thor #317: Review

Mar 1982

Doug Moench, Gene Day

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Story Name:

Chaos At Canaveral

Review & Comments

Rating:

Thor #317 Review by Peter Silvestro (March 31, 2020)

Review: A nice wrap up to the three-part story with a female hero who acquits herself very well, a fanatical villain wreaking havoc with his hate-ray, and a genuinely suspenseful “Thor separated from his hammer” trope. Still not much of a point to the involvement of Man-Thing except to literally place other characters in position for the plot so he makes a nice contrivance rather than a catalyst. Diane LaMarr was a pretty nice character and she should have been brought back in one of Marvel’s sci-fi titles but, sadly, this is the end of the line for her.

Comments: Part three of three parts. Only appearance of Diane LaMarr; the first American woman in space was Sally Ride in June 1983, a year and a half after this issue was published. Man-Beast returns in WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH #3-6. The final blurb teases the Zaniac story for the next issue but it isn’t until #319. Chic Stone, Brett Breeding, Pablo Marcos, and Joe Rubinstein shared penciling and inking duties.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #317 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Their battle against Bi-Beast and Man-Beast over (or so they think), Iron Man takes Thor to see the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral and the Thunder God is impressed. Thor turns back into Dr. Donald Blake and Shellhead arranges for him to take the tour accompanied by Diane LaMarr….

Out in the swamps, Man-Thing rescues Man-Beast from the quicksand and deposits him near the space center. When M-B awakens he is surprised that he has made it to his destination and forces his way inside, firing blasts of his hate-ray at everyone he sees and setting them to fight one another….

At lunch, Diane tells Don that because of budget cuts she is being dropped from the astronaut trainee program; Don can sympathize as he explains he lost his clinic position the same way. They go out to watch the launch of a satellite but Man-Beast is discovered on the base; Diane rushes off to help and Don changes into Thor. Moving past the humans locked in combat, Thor spies Man-Thing but determines that this is not the monster causing chaos. Man-Beast intends to board the rocket and head to Counter-Earth to destroy it (unaware that the planet has been moved from its former position in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #61-63, as we are informed in a footnote). While Man-Thing leads Thor after the monster, Diane dons a space suit and pursues said monster to the rocket. She then goes up in the elevator trying to stop Man-Beast but Thor sees him now and flies to the top of the gantry and battles MB; Man-Beast shoves Thor out of the rocket as the door closes sealing Man-Beast and Diane (and Mjolnir) inside. The rocket launches and Thor leaps onto the side of the rocket and pulls his way up to the entrance as his sixty-second countdown begins. To stop the monster, Diane blows the hatch, sending Mjolnir, Man-Beast, and herself out into space—but her lifeline snaps and she drifts out into the void. Thor regains Mjolnir just in time and beats Man-Beast sending him into space. He hurls his hammer and Diane is able to grasp it and be pulled back to safety. Returning to the Cape, Diane and Thor explain what happened and Diane is told she will be kept in the training program….

And Man-Thing wanders off into the swamp….

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