Rites and Passage

Trapped in Limbo without Mjolnir, Thor accepted the aid of the Space Phantom who claimed to know where his enchanted hammer went. Instead, the Phantom trapped Thor at the planet’s core leaving him half-in and half-out of Limbo. With half of his body back in the time-stream, it changes back into his mortal form of Don Blake, leaving him at the risk of death from the planetary pressures at its core. The Space Phantom had hoped to use Thor’s godly form as an anchor to pull Phantus back into the time stream. However, seeing that this is not working, the Phantom pulls Thor back. Once completely back in Limbo, Thor is restored fully back to normal.[1]

The Space Phantom admits that he lied to Thor but only did so to save his world. Although he has no idea where Mjolnir was taken, the Space Phantom figures that Immortus — the Lord of Limbo — would know for sure. Thor is surprised to hear that Immortus is still alive since he believed the time-master faded from existence when they killed his past-self, Kang the Conqueror.[2] The Space Phantom points out that this was a deception and Immortus was very much alive, reminding the thunder god that Limbo exists outside of time and thus, those who live here are beyond death. After some unknown length of travel, Thor and the Space Phantom soon arrive at the massive castle of Immortus. This seemingly planet sized fortress defies all laws of physics and seems to continue forever.

Landing in the courtyard, Thor and the Space Phantom are attacked by the guardian of Immortus, the massive Tempus. The crystalline warrior attacks them not to protect his master, but in the hopes that his opponents will finally end his tortured existence.[3] In the ensuing battle, Thor manages to use his natural strength to topple his foe. Then, using the massive club of Tempus, slays the giant with a single blow to the head. However, the Space Phantom warns the thunder god that they shouldn’t linger as Tempus will soon return to life. Once inside, Thor is once again caught off guard by the bizarre endless corridors that seem to go on forever. As the Space Phantom leads Thor through the infinite passageways he catches a glimpse of his past self fighting the Frankenstein’s Monster.[4]

Soon, they enter the throne room of Immortus where Thor is shocked to see the time-master holding Mjolnir. Immortus points out that the enchantments placed on the hammer by Odin have no power in Limbo. He then hands back Mjolnir without issue, explaining that he merely wished to examine it. Immortus then explains to Thor his entire purpose. He starts back at the beginning when he was the elderly Rama-Tut. Seeking to cheat death and become the master of time, Rama-Tut ventured to Limbo and set up his fortress. There he enlisted the Space Phantom and created Tempus to assist with his goals.[5] He mentions one of his early encounters with the Avengers, which Thor no longer remembers because of a temporal divergence.[6] Not longer after this, Immortus met the Time-Keepers who were true masters of time. They made Immortus their pupal and put him in charge of seven millennia of history. He was also keeping tabs on his past self, Kang the Conqueror, hence his involvement in the Celestial Madonna affair and other schemes of his past self. Concluding his tale, Immortus explains that he survived the seeming destruction of his past self because Kang’s time travels have created divergent realities and the defeated Kang was but a branch in the tree of an existence that leads to his becoming Immortus.

Although this is all interesting to Thor, the thunder god is eager to begin his quest into the past to learn the secrets of the Celestials.[7] However, the Space Phantom reminds Thor of his vow to save Phantus after finding Mjolnir. Immortus tells Thor that the mystical energies that allow Mjolnir to travel through time can free Phantus from Limbo, however doing so will completely drain the hammer of its time traveling properties. Due to his promise to the Space Phantom, Thor sacrifices this power to save the alien’s home-world. Although Immortus refuses to send Thor to the prehistoric past, he does use his power to return Thor to the present day. Back on Earth, Thor decides that he must seek out another way of stopping the Celestials judgement of Earth.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Tempus, Immortus, Space Phantom, (flashback) Time-Keepers (Ast, Vorth, Zanth),

Continuity Notes

1. The whole plot about freeing Phantus from Limbo is all a lie. As explained in Avengers Forever #8, Immortus has been manipulating the Avengers destiny for his masters the Time-Keepers. He frequently used the Space Phantoms — who live in Limbo — to help in these schemes. In particular, getting Thor to drain the chronal energies from Mjolnir was to make sure the thunder god could not use time-travel to interfere with the schemes of Immortus.

2. Thor is referring to the events of Avengers #141-143, where he, Hawkeye, and Moondragon saved the 19th Century from Kang. It’s also later revealed that Kang did not truly die here as his mind was transmitted into a cloned body. See Fantastic Four Annual #25, Avengers Annual #21, and Avengers Forever #8.

3. There are multiple mentions of Tempus’ previous battle with the Fantastic Four. That happened in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2.

4. All events in Limbo exist simultaneously, thus explaining how Thor could see his past self. The battle with the Monster of Frankenstein was during the Celestial Madonna affair which took place in Avengers #128-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4.

5. Immortus claiming to create Tempus here is contradicted in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 shows an elderly Immortus creating Tempus moments before his death and sending it back in time to assist his younger self. Of course, Immortus has always been a master of deception so, take anything he says or days with a grain of salt.

6. Immortus first encountered the Avengers in Avengers #10 by enlisting the aid of the Masters of Evil. When this plan failed, the Enchantress traveled back in time to prevent their teaming up from happening, creating a divergent reality where the Avengers did fight Immortus. This reality was later indexed as Earth-64110.

7. Thor learned of the Celestials and their 50 year judgement of Earth in Thor Annual #7.

Topical References

• Immortus refers to the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe as being in the 20th Century. This should be considered a topical reference due to the Sliding Timescale. It has pushed the Modern Age forward in time so that it now does not begin until after the start of the 21st Century.