Thor #310
The Maelstrom to Mephisto
Thor is on a patrol of the city when he comes upon a gang of hoods trying to rob a woman on the street. The thunder god appears before them and tells the youths that they have a choice to make: They could return the woman her purse and walk away, or continue their robbery and face justice. Before they can decide a speeding car pursued by a police cruiser zips past them on the street. When one of the officers tries to shoot out the tire it causes the speeding driver to veer toward the sidewalk putting a number of pedestrians in danger of being mowed down. Quickly, Thor tosses his enchanted hammer knocking the car into the air and landing in his arms. As the police take the dangerous driver in, Thor reminds the would-be muggers that they have a choice to make. Seeing what just happened, they decide to do the right thing and return the stolen purse.
This is all witnessed by the demon Mephisto in his infernal realm. He is furious over Thor’s intervention as he seeks to claim the souls as many sinners as possible and the thunder god is cutting into his bottom line. Deciding to counteract this, Mephisto sends his astral form to Earth where he begins tempting people to commit crimes. He convinces a man to smash the display window of a jewelery story and steal the display items. He then appears before a landlord and convinces him to start a fire in the basement of his building so he can collect on the insurance. He then tempts some African-American men to take out their frustrations on a white man who walks through their neighborhood. Soon the entire block is in utter chaos as Mephisto tempts people to riot and burn the place down.
Seeing the flames, Thor heads over to the block to see what is happening. Pleased to see Thor has taken the bait, Mephisto uses his power to cause the street to open up and swallow all the people he goaded into committing acts of evil. Thor leaps in after them and discovers that this is no natural sinkhole, but a portal to another realm.
Appearing in Mephisto’s realm, Thor is confronted by the demon who has been looking forward to a rematch after their last encounter.[1] Mephisto unleashes a horde of his demonic minions which the thunder god easily fight off. The Lord of Lies then tries attacking Thor directly, growing in massive size to increase his strength, but he is no match for Thor. When none of his tricks work, Mephisto then reveals that he has fused the people he kidnapped to the wall of his domain. Horrified by this, Thor tosses Mjolnir at Mephisto but the demon has become intangible and the weapon strikes the wall of lost souls. They all grab onto Mjolnir, preventing the enchanted hammer from returning to its master. Thor then makes a run for his weapon but it takes more than sixty second and he reverts back to his mortal form of Doctor Donald Blake.
With Thor powerless to stop him, Mephisto tells the Don to grovel for mercy. Luckily, not all of the prisoners are fully loyal to Mephisto. One of the young muggers that Thor encountered earlier is among the captured souls and he decides to do the right thing. He wrests Don’s walking stick away from the others and tosses it back to its own. Quickly changing back into Thor, the thunder god pummels Mephisto. He points out that the demon is a hypocrite for going attacking Thor for influencing mortals, pointing out that Mephisto does the same thing when he tempts people to commit acts of sin. Admitting that Thor is correct and seeing that their battle is in a stalemate, Mephisto agrees to return Thor and the captured mortals back to Earth.
In the aftermath of this incident, the locals realize that they were led astray and begin cleaning up the neighborhood that they trashed earlier that evening. Thor is pleased to see that people are choosing the right path. Watching from the netherworld, Mephisto who warns Thor that in the struggle between good and evil the victor will always be the stronger force.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Mephisto
