Thor #335
Runequest’s End!
Thor, Sif, and Keith Kincaid have ventured to the home world of Kamo Tharnn to find out what happened to Jane Foster.[1] However, Sif fails to make Jane materialize when she uses the power of the Runestaff to make her return. When they try to question Tharnn about why this is, the elderly scholar denies his identity — claiming to be someone named Axor — before he collapses from injuries sustained while in captivity. Thor then races back to the Quinjet they used to travel to this alien world in order to recover medical equipment to treat Tharn’s injuries.
While he is gone, Keith becomes desperate to find out what out what happened to Jane and pleads with Sif to think back to what happened after she originally used the Runestaff to merge themselves together. All Sif can remember is how her spirit briefly passed into the Runestaff but nothing more. That’s when Keith suggests they travel travelling into the staff to search. When Thor returns with the equipment, the two Asgardians decide to do just that, leaving Keith behind to treat Kamo Tharnn’s wounds.
Using Sif’s dimensional spanning sword, they travel into the Runestaff and find a hostile dimension that has no trace of any life. Meanwhile, Keith continues to treat Kamo Tharnn who continues changing personalities and speaking in different alien tongues. Removing the madman’s blindfold he is shocked to discover that Tharnn’s eyes have been replaced with images of distant stars. It’s during these ravings that Tharnn — in a moment of lucidity — tells Keith to access a specific datafile on his computer to learn everything he needs to know. What Keith pulls up is the personal log of Kamo Tharnn himself. It reveals that one of the Elders of the Universe and that he has devoted his entire being to the pursuit of information. He founded the very library that now stands in ruins and used it as a repository of all knowledge in the universe. Scholars from all over the universe used to come to this planet to learn and share their knowledge with Tharnn.
When Kamo Tharnn learned of the Runestaff he became obsessed with obtaining it and slew its previous owner in order to harness its power. Unfortunately, Kamo Tharnn was no skilled in its use and instead of absorbing the knowledge of his fellow scholars, Tharnn destroyed their physical bodies and absorbed their minds into his own, driving him mad. This was the state that Tharnn was found when Hercules and Sif first came to this world seeking the Runestaff.
Realizing that Jane’s mind must be trapped inside the mind of Kamo Tharnn himself and not the Runestaff, Keith grabs the artifact and tries to mentally transmit what he has learned into the staff itself. This manifests as giant lobsters that attack Thor and Sif in the Runestaff’s dimension. Eventually, Thor and Sif fight off the creatures and escape from the Runestaff dimension. After Keith tells them what he has discovered, Sif uses the staff to try and free Jane Foster’s mind from her prison inside Kamo Tharnn’s mind. This doesn’t just free Jane, but every alien being that has been trapped inside the Elder’s brain.
Searching among the sudden crowd, they quickly find Jane alive and well. However, she doesn’t have any memories of her past romance with Thor but she instantly remembers her fiancée Keith and runs into his arms. Its during all this that Sif notices that Thor has nearly forgotten her after seeing Jane and is deeply hurt by this. Kamo Tharn, meanwhile, has had his sanity restored and explains that the Runestaff ended up back in his possession because he used a recall spell to return it to him after Sif had stolen it. He then used his power to absorb the mind of Jane Foster while trying to remaster its power. Now that he has been cured, Kamo Tharnn vows to restore his library, vowing that the information gathered here will only be used for good.
Thor and the others then return to the Quinjet to make the return trip to Earth. Although Thor believes that everything has ended well, Sif has made up her mind and has decided that she cannot spend another day on Midgard. She has decided that she will tell Thor this once they have returned to Earth, even if this may break up their relationship forever.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Sif, Possessor, Keith Kincaid, Jane Foster
Continuity Notes
The search for Jane Foster is quite the complicated series of events:
Months ago, Jane was driven to near suicide by the Dweller-in-Darkness and given up all will to live as seen in Thor #230-231.
In order to save Jane’s life, Sif recovered the Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn and used it to merge with Jane to save her life. See Thor #235-236.
Jane remained with Don Blake for a time until she accompanied Thor to Asgard in Thor #249. When she grabbed Sif’s sword, Jane swapped places with her. The last time Jane has been seen was in Thor Annual #9 when a trip to the Dark Dimension caused the pair to swap places again.
Don Blake was brought in for questioning in Jane’s disappearance in issue #332.
Thor, Sif and Keith Kincaid began their quest to find Jane last issue that Jane has since been trapped in the Runestaff of Kamo Tharn pretty much the entire time she’s been absent.
