Thor #171
The Wrath of the Wrecker!
Thor is on patrol of the city, and it makes him think about the struggles of mortals. Passing by a window he hears a report about Pedro Luis Lopez — a civil rights advocate — has been shot and is in critical condition. Fearing that Lopez’s death could lead to rioting, Thor decides to do something about it.
He soon arrives at the local hospital where he taps his cane to revert back to his mortal form of Doctor Donald Blake. Blake’s arrival is welcomed as the doctors could use his surgical skill to save the life of Pedro Lopez.
Elsewhere in the city, another patient has just finished being worked on by a doctor. However, this patient is the criminal known as the Wrecker. Just as the armed guards are worrying about the tranqulizers wearing off, the Wrecker wakes up and breaks free from his cell. He then recovers his enchanted crow bar and begins going on a rampage through the city in order to draw out Thor for rematch.[1]
The damage caused by the Wrecker shakes the entire city, including the hospital where Don Blake is working hard to save Lopez’s life. Suspecting that some danger is causing this, Blake tells the other doctors to keep Pedro sedated until he comes back. His abrupt departure from the operating theater leads the other doctors to think that Don is a coward. This is far from the truth and once outside, Blake turns into Thor and begins looking for the source of the earthquakes.
He is ambushed on the rooftops by the Wrecker who seeks to defeat Thor in battle this time. Their fight takes them all across the city and when the police try to get involved, Thor tells them to stay back. Smashing the Wrecker through the street, they continue their battle in a subway tunnel. There, Thor shoves the Wrecker into an oncoming train, but this does little to weaken his foe. Yanking the Wrecker from the train, Thor tosses him onto the electrified third rail. This does little harm either until Thor slams Mjolnir onto the track. The sudden jolt of power is sufficient enough to knock the Wrecker out.
With the battle over, Thor races back to the hospital and reverts back to Don Blake. After he completes the surgery and saves Pedro’s life, Blake abruptly leaves again, leaving the doctors to wonder why he would have ran off in the middle of surgery to begin with.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Wrecker
Continuity Notes
Continuity Errors
Although the Wrecker states that he was defeated by Thor, he was actually defeated by the Destroyer who was controlled by Sif.
It’s also interesting to note that the Wrecker’s crowbar is intact when it was actually broken into pieces by the Destroyer in Thor #150. Presumably the enchantment that enhanced its power allowed it to reform or something.
Topical References
This story is framed as though Pedro Lopez was part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. At the time this comic was published in 1969, it appears to have drawn inspiration to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated a year earlier. His death sparked riots which are also alluded to in this story. Modern readers should not interpret this story has happening during the Civil Rights movement but another unrelated struggle for civil rights. In a post George Floyd world, these issues are tragically all too common.
NEXT: Thor in the 1970s
