Thor #290
Ring Around the Red Bull!
Ejected from Asgard by his beloved Sif, Thor comes crashing to Earth. He manages to stop his fall and happens upon what appears to the Hulk attacking people on the ground below. However, he quickly sees that this is a television production and that he has appeared over Hollywood, California.
As he leaves the Hollywood sign, Thor spots a strange man dressed as a bat limply flying across the sky. Seeing the man is injured Thor comes to his aid. He learns that this strange being is a Luchador named Vampiro who was injured in a wrestling match with his opponent El Toro Rojo. Toro who wears sharpened horns to gore his opponents in the ring, with Vampiro being his most recent victim.
As Thor takes him home to recover, Vampiro explains that El Toro Rojo’s horns are real because he is a member of the Deviants. Thor is surprised by this revelation and that Vampiro is himself a member of the Eternals. Vampiro also knows about Thor’s recent encounters with the Eternals and explains that he was unable to answer Major Domo’s call for the Eternals to return home to form the Uni-Mind due to his injuries. That’s when El Toro Rojo comes crashing in through the wall to finish off his foe.
Thor leaps out to defend Vampiro against his foe and their battle sends them out onto the front lawn of the home. El Toro believes he can beat Thor thanks to the intelligence that his people have gathered since the thunder god assisted in the destruction of their home in New York.[1] In the ensuing battle, Thor is separated from Mjolnir for over 60 seconds causing him to revert back to his mortal identity of Donald Blake. Although this transformation stuns Rojo, he knocks Don Blake aside. The doctor is saved from being dashed against the wall by Vampiro. However, while Blake was being saved, El Toro grabbed his walking stick — really Mjolnir in disguise — and takes off.
After getting Vampiro into bed, Don is told that El Toro has a match that evening and is driven to the arena by Vampiro’s wife, Maria. During the ride, Blake tries to explain his double-identity, which Maria can believe given the fact that she is married to an Eternal. Racing into the arena, Don can hardly believe that Rojo would end their battle so he could attend a wrestling match. Seeing that El Toro has brought his walking stick into the ring, Don uses a handkerchief to cover his face and goes in after him. After a brief struggle, Don manages to get ahold of his walking stick while Toro strikes it against the ground, causing him to change into Thor once more.
In the ensuing battle, Thor learns that El Toro is uninterested in the coming war against the Celestials, or his people’s conflict with the Eternals. Instead he is more interested in dominating people in the wrestling arena. Although they are evenly matched in strength, Thor manages to win the bout when he uses Mjolnir to cleave off El Toro’s horns and knocking him out. With the battle over, Thor decides that he must go to the Eternals and convince them not to attack the Celestials as the Uni-Mind for fear that they might advance the space god’s judgement of Earth.
Recurring Characters
Thor, El Vampire, El Toro Rojo, Major Domo (flashback)
Continuity Notes
The Deviant city was destroyed during a battle with Thor and the Eternals in Thor #286.
Topical References
A footnote thanks Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner for helping repair the Hollywood sign. This is in reference to a 1978 campaign to restore the sign as it had suffered neglect and disrepair for a number of years. Since this is a footnote and not anything that is said in-story, it’s reference here would not be a topical reference.
What is a topical reference is when Vampiro states he read about Thor in El Dario, a Spanish language newspaper published in California as this is a real world publication.
NEXT: Thor in the 1980s
