Lo, the Quest Begins!

Thor returns to Asgard after he failed to obtained the ruby that Mimir sent him to recover so they could learn the location of the missing Odin.[1] He tells the vizier, Sif, Balder, Karnilla, and the Warriors Three that he sacrificed the ruby in order to help Ulik save the Rock Trolls from a deadly threat.[2] Even though he thinks he failed his quest, Thor asks the vizier to summon Mimir again so he can report his failure.

However, when Mimir appears before them, he reveals to them all that using the ruby to save the Rock Trolls was all part of a test put in place by Mimir. Thor passed the test by helping his enemies and won the right to know where Odin has been taken. However, all Mimir can say is that Odin is being held on a world near what is called the Doomsday Star, which projects nothing but darkness on the worlds that orbit around it. Even though they have very little to work with, Thor vows to never rest until locates the Doomsday Star and rescue his father. The Warriors Three, Sif, Balder, and Karnilla also pledge to accompany Thor. However, Thor orders Balder and Karnilla to stay behind to watch over Asgard in his absence. Soon, Thor and the others leave aboard the Starjammer, the viking ship that can sail across space itself.

As they begin their voyage, the Asgardians accidentally fly into a meteor shower. Although Thor uses Mjolnir to smash the meteors in their path, one of them manages to punch a hole in the sail of their ship. This forces them to land the Starjammer on a nearby asteroid to repair the damage. There they find an abandoned alien ship and decide to investigate. They also find a series of stone statues nearby. The ship itself is wrecked and no longer operates and they are left to assume that whoever was stranded here carved the statues. Without anything else to learn, the Asgardians head back to their ship to make the repairs. Suddenly, the statues come to life and begin shaking off the dust that covers their stone bodies.

These aliens have been in suspended animation since getting stranded on the asteroid until they could be rescued. Recognizing Thor and seeing his ship, the stone creatures decide to take his ship to escape. When they attack the Asgardians, Thor recognizes them as the so-called Stone Men from Saturn that he first fought after a long exile in the mortal form of Donald Blake.[3] Unfortunately for the stone men, they are no match for the combined might of Thor and his compatriots. One of the aliens races back to their ship and grabs a graviton device and uses it to increase the Asgardian’s gravity to pin them to the ground. While the others are pinned to the ground, Thor manages to fight against the crushing gravity and smash the graviton device with Mjolnir.

The removal of the weapon from the alien ship causes its power core to destabilise and as it reaches critical mass, Thor orders his allies escape in the Starjammer while he holds back their attackers. While the Asgardians escape, they leaving the stone men to be destroyed when the ship explodes, taking out the asteroid with it. Thor manages to escape the explosion as well, much to the relief of Sif. This is proves to be the first ordeal on what will be a voyage fraught with danger but Thor has hope they will succeed in finding the Doomsday Star and Odin.[4]

Recurring Characters

Thor, Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg), Sif, Balder, Karnilla, Mimir, Kronans,

Continuity Notes

1. As revealed in issue #250, Odin has been missing since issue #243. He will be found again in issue #262.

2. This would be the other-dimensional creature called Thogg. See Thor #252-253.

3. Lots of exposition being dropped here:

   • The Stone Men are not from Saturn even though they are identified as so. This alien race is identified as the Kronans in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5. They don’t come from Saturn but the planet Ria. It’s explained that they claimed to come from Saturn to obfuscate where they actually came from and that Saturn was only used as a staging ground.

   • Thor encountered the Kronans way back in Journey into Mystery #83. Thor’s “first appearance”.

   • Thor also makes mention of the fact that, at the time of his first battle with the Kronans he believed that he was a mortal named Don Blake that took on the powers of Thor when the opposite was true. As explained in Thor #159, Odin actually banished Thor to Earth in the guise of Donald Blake in order to teach the thunder god a much needed lesson in humility.

4. Although not specified in this issue or the next, Thor finds himself plucked out of time and brought back to Earth. He will appear in Marvel Super Special #1, and Avengers #159 and 160. Avengers #175 reveals that the Collector had been doing this in order to keep the Avengers alive until he could add them all to his collection. Thor would be put back from the exact moment he was taken from with his all memory of the events wiped from his memory.