Thor #281
This Hammer Lost!
With his battle against Hyperion behind him, Thor decides that it is time to investigate the Celestials and what threat they may pose to the planet Earth.[1] To this end, Thor decides to use the time-traveling properties of his hammer, Mjolnir to go back to the time of the Celestial’s First Host on Earth where they allegedly experimented upon primates to create humanity, the Eternals, and the Deviants.
However, when Thor makes the attempt, the time vortex sends him to a mist covered limbo without Mjolnir. As he tries to make sense of what is going on, he sees his past self streak by on an earlier mission.[2] He is then joined by the Space Phantom who tells the thunder god that he is trapped in a place outside of time and space called Limbo. Due to his past encounters with the Phantom, Thor demands to know what the villain has done with Mjolnir. The Space Phantom insists that he did not take the thunder god’s enchanted hammer but know where it is. Since he has no other choice, Thor reluctantly follows his guide through Limbo.
Along the way, the Space Phantom reveals his motivation for attacking the Avengers in the past.[3] He tells Thor that he comes from the planet Phantus where his war-like people developed time travel technology and utilized it in a war with each other to the point that the time-paradoxes created and divergences caused his home-world to begin sagging out of the time-stream. The Space Phantom himself found himself trapped in Limbo during this conflict when his chronal capsule was damaged in combat. There he was found by Immortus the master of time who had the Space Phantom’s ability to shunt those he temporarily imitated into Limbo so they could be examined. Although the Space Phantom despised Immortus, he went along with his first mission to Earth to examine the Avengers with the dual purpose of seeing if Earth would be ripe for conquest once his people stopped fighting each other and went about conquering the universe.
Thor is getting annoyed with the Space Phantom’s constant prattle when they finally arrive at a section of Limbo where half of the planet Phantus is trapped. The Space Phantom tells Thor that his hammer is trapped somewhere on the planet. Once they enter the planet’s atmosphere, Thor is attacked by the armies of Phantus. He manages to shrug off their advanced weapons and even fashions a crude hammer out of metal to fight them off. Soon, the Space Phantom leads him to a complex where he claims Mjolnir is being kept. Inside, the Phantom points Thor to a juncture point that leads to the planet’s core and tells Thor his weapon is there. Without question, the thunder god leaps in. He quickly realizes that he has been tricked when he is stunned by a powerful energy and then finds himself trapped in the center of Phantus. Here, Thor’s body is half in Limbo and half in real time. As he has been separated form Mjolnir for more than sixty seconds, the half of him that is outside of Limbo has transformed back into Don Blake, leaving him at the risk of death due to the planetary pressure found at the core.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Space Phantom
Continuity Notes
Thor learned of the Celestials 50 year judgement of Earth back in Thor Annual #7.
Thor witnesses himself and other time travelers from previous stories, since they all exist simultaneously in Limbo. These instances are:
When Thor first traveled to the future to stop Zarrko the Tomorrow Man in Journey into Mystery #86.
Iron Man and Spider-Man when they teamed up to stop Zarrko and Kang’s time war from Marvel Team-Up #9-11.
Zarrko’s timeship from when Thor teamed up with him to stop the Time-Twisters in Thor #242-245.
Doctor Doom’s appearance here is less distinct, however I presume that it was likely when he traveled back in time to the Salem Witch Trials to help Spider-Man against Cotton-Mather and the Dark Rider in Marvel Team-Up #44, as it is the only time around this publication that Doom was depicted traveling through time.
There is also an image of Captain America, Giant-Man, and Iron Man. Given the costumes that Hank Pym and Iron Man are wearing (the Giant-Man costume and Iron Man armor with “rivetted” helmet) I presume that this was from their first battle with Immortus in Avengers #10.
Lastly, we see an image of the Fantastic Four. This is another generic looking cameo. Given that Sue is depicted as having long hair I presume that this was from when they traveled back in time to World War II in Fantastic Four Annual #11, as it was published within a few years of this story as well as being the only time travel story around the time of publication that also included Sue Richards traveling through time with her teammates.
At the time of this story, the Space Phantom had battled the Avengers twice in the past. First, shortly after the team formed in Avengers #2 and later to get revenge with the Grim Reaper in Avengers #107-108. However, the motivations stated here and the whole situation on Phantus he describes are all a deception. As explained in Avengers Forever #8, the Space Phantoms are beings that were transformed into their current form after spending too much time in Limbo. They were then used by Immortus to deceive the Avengers in order to alter their destiny for his masters, the Time-Keepers.
