Thor #315
The Thunder God and the Bi-Beast
An insectile submarine emerges from the ocean. On board, the crew spot their latest target, a freight vessel and head to intercept. The ship in question is owned by Stark International the ship’s doctor is none other than Donald Blake, the mortal identity of Thor. He has been offered the job by Stark himself after Don lost his job at a New York clinic.[1] This is not just because Blake is a good doctor, but because a number of ships have gone missing at sea and he wants Thor to be around to prevent the same disaster from happening to his own vessel.
When the submarine attacks the ship, Blake slips away to change into Thor. Unfortunately, while he is busy keeping the crew from harm he is separate from Mjolnir for over 60 seconds and reverts back to his mortal guise. While trying to recover the enchanted hammer — which changed back into Don’s walking stick — it gets washed into the cargo hold by the water flooding the ship. When Don tries to go after it the boat shifts and he slips and knocks himself out on a bulkhead.
When Don finally wakes up he discovers that the entire ship and its drew has been taken to an underwater city built by their captors. The mastermind behind this plot is the massive android known as the Bi-Beast. It explains that it was created by the Avians — a race of bird-people who lived in the clouds — to be a repository of their entire culture. When the Avians died off, the Bi-Beast became lonely and tried seeking companionship.[2] This led to clashes with the Hulk, the Harpie, and MODOK, which ended in the Bi-Beast’s original body being destroyed. Luckily, the Bi-Beast’s mind was trasferred to a second body and it sought to rebuild the home of his former masters by taking over the SHIELD helicarrier.[3] This led to another clash with the Hulk where the Bi-Beast was lost at sea. The creature washed up on a deserted island and began stealing vessels and enslaving their crews in order to construct the massive city they now occupy. This last attack was so the Bi-Beast could steal the rocket thrusters the Stark ship was carrying so that his new domain can finally leave the ocean floor and take its rightful place in the sky.
To assist with this operation, the Bi-Beast intends to put mind control helmets on the crew of the Stark ship as well. Quick thinking, Don Blake manages to convince the Bi-Beast not to enslave him — at least not right away. Blake points out that a number of the Bi-Beast’s slaves are injured and need immediate medical attention, something that he can treat since he’s a doctor. However, he explains that he needs full autonomy in order to treat the injured effectively. The Bi-Beast decides to allow this, seeing no threat from a doctor with a limp. Don begins treating the wounded while also trying to think of a way of finding his walking stick. As luck would have it he passes by two slaves carrying a crate with his walking stick laying on top of it.
Snatching it up and striking it on the ground, Don Blake transforms into Thor once again. Fighting through the mind-controlled slaves, the thunder god confronts the Bi-Beast in the control room of his massive city. There he learns that he is too late to stop the android from installing the rocket engines and soon the city blasts off into the sky. A fight between the two breaks out and the Bi-Beast summons his slaves to come and shoot Thor with their guns. Not wanting to harm anyone, Thor then tosses Mjolnir into the machines that control the mind control helmets, destroying it.
In the ensuing battle, the Bi-Beast activates one of the floating island’s weapons, which threatens a beach-side community it has drifted toward. When Thor accidentally destroys the control switch, he knocks out the Bi-Beast and then begins smashing the island’s controls until all its systems shut down. When the island begins to fall out of of the sky, Thor tosses Mjolnir outside to create a vortex of air that helps the island land gently onto the beach. With the immediate threat over, Thor takes off so he can switch back to Don Blake and continue tending to the injured before anyone notices he wasn’t present.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Bi-Beast, Tony Stark
Continuity Notes
Blake worked at the Westside Clinic in New York City from Thor #302 to 312. He was let go due to budget cuts.
As seen in X-Men #44, the Avians willingly went into suspended animation after being disillusioned by war. The Red Raven allowed for their floating city to sink into the ocean. It was later stated in Sub-Mariner #26 that everyone actually died. However, it will later be revealed in Nova (vol. 3) #4-5 that Red Raven faked the death of his people and that they went into hiding. At the time of this writing (October 2021), nobody has let the Bi-Beast in on any of this and it continues to be a menace to the world to this day.
The Bi-Beast’s battles with the Hulk were chronicled in Incredible Hulk #169 and 215-216.
