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Thor #386: Review

Dec 1987
Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz

Story Name:

When Warriors Clash

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Thor #386 Review by (October 20, 2020)

Review: Love that opening with the menacing troll threatening Thor only to be revealed on page two to be…a barber!  Another tale of clashing pantheons cast in the form of the standard “hero meets hero” trope wherein they fight, then team up against the real baddie (though this last bit is cut short). The battle scene is pretty spectacular with their similar skill sets and Leir proves to be a pretty decent fellow, making for a pretty decent issue.

Comments: First appearance of Leir, Lord of Lightning; he returns in issues #398-400.  Seth first faced Thor in issues #240-241; he will show up again several times leading to issue #400. The Rainbow Bridge was destroyed in issue #351.






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #386 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The Warriors Three persuade Thor to have his beard shaved off by Targo the Troll and it turns out that Thor’s facial scars have been healed. Thor wants to return to Midgard but the guys, hoping to have him around a bit longer, mention a monstrous beast terrorizing the Northern Counties of Asgard. And so they head out, looking for adventure….

Meanwhile, the Grand Vizier comes to Balder, ruler of Asgard with news of a great danger: he opens the Enchanto-Scan to show that, since the Rainbow Bridge was destroyed, the realm is threatened by all sorts of natural disasters. But the worst threat is dimensional rifts opening to other planes of reality. A black cat that has been watching them passes through such a rift to return to her original humanoid form for her master Seth, Serpent-God of Death, informing him the Asgardians are aware of the dimensional rifts. He is pleased and rewards her by turning her to dust…and peace….

Thor and his comrades follow a trail of destruction and find a winged black lion attacking a settlement. Thor challenges it and it leaps through a dimensional rift and vanishes. The dying farm woman asks Thor to avenge her and her family. Thor steps through the rift and finds himself in Avalon, home of the Celtic gods. He comes upon a similarly devastated farm and a band of peasants mistake him for a Viking marauder and intend to kill him for his crimes. Thor beats them up but finds himself facing Leir, the Celtic Lord of Lightning, who also assumes Thor to be responsible for the deaths on the farm. The ensuing fight between these two similarly powered deities is spectacular though Leir begins to wonder why Thor would stoop to murder….

In Asgard, the rift begins to close and Hogun leaps through to seek out Thor. He comes upon the two combatants just as Thor has persuaded Leir to listen to his explanation. Leir then thinks that it was a trick for Hogun to attack him from behind—but then the monster shows up and the two gods together fight it until it flees back through the rift to Asgard. With some hasty amends, Thor and Hogun dash after it to find that it has been slain by Fandral and Volstagg….

Back in Asgard, Thor makes his farewell to his friends, including Balder, then then heads over the Rainbow Bridge to Midgard—but the Grand Vizier arrives with a warning too late. The realms are not in synch with the broken bridge anymore and Thor is in trouble…

…and he certainly is, drifting in space, with no air….


Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Ron Frenz
Brett Breeding
Paul Becton
Ron Frenz (Cover Penciler)
Brett Breeding (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Balder
Balder

(Balder the Brave)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Warriors Three
Warriors Three

(Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg)

Plus: Leir (Lord of Lightning), Seth (Serpent God).

> Thor: Book info and issue index

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