Minute of Madness — Dark Day of Doom!

After stopping Stilt-Man from committing a robbery of some technical equipment, Thor is ambushed by his ally, Blastaar the Living Bomb-Burst. Separated from Mjolnir, the thunder god scrambles to recover his weapon before sixty seconds elapses and he reverts back to his mortal guise of Don Blake. Although he fails to do so, Blastaar knocks Thor into a nearby ally just as the transformation begins. When the Negative Zone tyrant enters the ally looking for the thunder god, all he finds is a lame doctor. Blake convinces Blastaar that Thor fled, prompting the creature to leave in order to finish his mission.

Relieved, Don races out of the alley to recover Mjolnir, which has reverted back to an ordinary wooden walking stick. He is dismayed when the stick is picked up by a local hood named Brother Honcho. When Blake tries to get Honcho to give his cane back, the gang leader instead tries to hit Don with it. However, when the stick comes into contact with Blake, it triggers the transformation into Thor. Unable to hold Mjolnir, Honcho is forced to drop the enchanted hammer before fleeing for his life. By this time, police have arrived off the scene and have been busy stripping off Wilbur Day’s useless Stilt-Man armor. Thor quickly questions the crook to learn who hired him and why.

Learning that a powerful computer had hired Stilt-Man, Thor decides to enlist the aid of his friend, Tony Stark. Arriving at Stark Industries, Thor tells Tony of his dilemma. Tony then checks the computer database and pulls up information on a the Fully-Automated Unit of Structural Technology, or FAUST for short. FAUST was a completely automated factory created by inventor Paxton Penticost. The facility not only could operate on its own, but through artificial intelligence it could perform upgrades to ensure it remained state of the art. However, the project never saw fruition because Penticost murdered his business partner, Ferguson Blaine. Records indicate that the facility was destroyed and nothing but rubble remains. Thor thanks Tony for his help, but declines the aid of Iron Man, preferring to deal with this situation on his own.

Meanwhile, Blastaar returns to the FAUST facility with the electronic safe they had Stilt-Man steal. When Blastaar demands to know what it’s for, the super-computer only reminds Blastaar how he was recently defeated by the Human Torch and the Hulk, and how FAUST promised to help Blastaar become the ruler of the Negative Zone if he helped FAUST obtain the materials it needed.[1] That’s when the computer detects Thor’s arrival and orders Blastaar to stop him. While the two fight it out, FAUST concludes that Blastaar has outlived his usefulness. It then uses the technology stolen for it to reconstruct its form into a rocket that then blasts off into space. Seeing his former employer fleeing the scene, Blastaar races into the ruins of the FAUST facility. There he finds a portal to the Negative Zone has been opened and leaps through it.

The process is painful and Blastaar realizes — to his horror — that portal kept him in a positive matter form and left him adrift near the annihilation area of the Negative Zone, where postitive and anti-matter meet and are violently destroyed.[2] Although Blastaar has been defeated, Thor finds no joy in this victory as FAUST — protected in an adamantium shell — now orbits the Earth as a potential threat to all life on the planet.

Recurring Characters

Thor, FAUST, Blastaar, Stilt-Man, Tony Stark

Continuity Notes

1. For more on the Ferguson Blaine’s murder by Paxton Penticost, as well as Blastaar’s battle with the Human Torch and the Hulk, see Marvel Team-Up #18.

2. This is not the end of Blastaar (obviously) he’ll turn up alive again in Fantastic Four #215-216.

Topical References

• Brother Honcho speaks in a type of slang here that was commonly used in blaxploitation films of the era in which this comic book was published. Such dialogue would be considered a negative stereotype by today’s standard.

• When Tony describes the computer database at Stark Industries he uses a lot of dated terminology for computers that should be considered topical as they do not reflect a lot of obsolete technology.