A pair of petty crooks rob a bank using advanced military
weaponry; Thor arrives on the scene and destroys their armored wagon and knocks
them out in seconds. Thor has another of his recurring dizzy spells then takes
off for his new life as Eric Masterson (see last issue). He gets his son ready
to be picked up for school by Susan Austin and tries to get the notoriously
easy-going Hercules moving to get to their jobs….
Police Lieutenant Marcus Stone is concerned about the amount
of high-tech weaponry in the hands of minor crooks and wonders where it is
coming from. He doesn’t know he is being watched by Doctor Doom who has
delivered the weapons to the criminals as part of a plan to take his kingdom
back from a usurper; phase one has succeeded: crooks have reached Thor. Now for
phase 2 of his scheme….
Eric and Hercules (using the human name of Harry Cleese)
arrive at the construction site where supervisor Jerry Saprisi tells him that
the owners are concerned about Eric’s spotty attendance and are threatening to
turn the project over to another architect, possibly Eric’s rival, the flirtatious
Jackie Lukus….
Phase 2: Doom’s time-bot crashes into the police station and
fires a ray at Lt. Stone’s assistant Vinnie Evans who vanishes and then returns
seconds later, dazed and mumbling about dinosaurs. At the construction site,
Eric hears about the fracas at the station house and transforms into Thor to
head over there. He and Herc arrive just as the time-bot leaves the building
with the two crooks in tow; Doctor Doom, watching from the Embassy, realizes Hercules
is an unforeseen factor and heads over to involve himself personally. The robot
withstands Herc’s punching and hurls the demigod through a window. Herc is
shocked at a feeling he barely recognizes as fear, an effect programmed into the
robot by Doom. Thor is zapped by the time-bot’s ray and transported back to prehistoric
Earth for a few seconds and then returns as Doom has arrived. The villain has
the time-bot rise to him on a nearby roof, leaving the two crooks to be recaptured
by the cops. Thor and Herc try to continue the battle on the rooftop: the
Thunder God hurls Mjolnir at the robot, which zaps it with his ray and it
vanishes. Having achieved his goal of capturing Thor’s hammer, Doom and the
robot depart for Latveria; after sixty seconds without the hammer, Thor transforms
back into Eric Masterson and their only course of action is to follow Doom and
recover Mjolnir….
“To Fight the Unbeatable Foe”
Writer: Tom DeFalco. Pencils: Mike Mignola. Inks: Bob Wiacek.
Colors: Bob Sharen. Letters: Richard Starkings.
Synopsis: Thor fights the giant Uru monster Uroc who can
absorb the blows from Mjolnir and fire them back at Thor and Grundor. Grundor
gives a hasty recap of Uroc’s origin: he was the weaponsmith for a prior troll
king who demanded the ultimate weapon. Uroc made a giant of Uru then used
sorcery to transfer his consciousness into it to take revenge against the
trolls. Thor soon realizes that Mjolnir cannot harm his foe directly; Uroc uses
his power of magnetism to draw Mjolnir to his hand—and then his hand falls to
the ground and he cannot raise it since he is not worthy to lift the hammer.
Uroc releases the hammer, Thor and Grundor flee and Thor smashes the bridge over
the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow and Uroc tumbles in while Thor flies himself and Grundor
to safety. Grundor sees this as the start of a beautiful friendship. Thor isn’t
so sure….