Thor #441
The Thor War Part 4 of 4: My Brother’s Burden
The Timestream
Having followed Zarrko the Tomorrow Man into the timestream the Thor Corps — Eric Masterson the present day Thor, Dargo Ktor the Thor of the 26th Century,[1] and Beta Ray Bill — have confronted Zarrko aboard his Time Cube.[2] However, the time traveler has one last opponent plucked out of time for them to fight, Loki![3] Not understanding why there are three individuals dressed as his hated step-brother, Loki blasts them all out of the room with a single gesture.[4] Zarrko — realizing that Loki can’t be so easily controlled as the others he plucked out of time — has to gently convince the trickster that this was all part of his plan to destroy the Thor Corps. When the three Thors return, Zarrko’s Servitor robot leaps to his masters defense and sends them crashing through the floor into a lower level of the Time Cube. Seemingly convinced by Zarrko’s lies, Loki heads after them to destroy the heroes.
Finally alone, Zarrko gloats over his eventual mastery of time using energies he had stolen from Masterson and Ktor during their earlier battle.[5]
Down below, Dargo Ktor is separated by the others and comes across the computer that Zarrko used to trick him into attacking Eric Masterson. Deciding to find out if the threat to his timeline is true or not, Dargo begins poking around its database. What he finds is a recording of someone’s last moments and who that person is comes as a great shock to him.[6]
Elsewhere, Loki has caught up with the other two members of the Thor Corps. Beta Ray Bill is knocked out, prompting Eric to pick up Stormbreaker and try and attack Loki with two hammers. The trickster easily subdues Masterson and forces him to let go of both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir. Demanding to know what happened to the real thunder god, Loki begins beating Eric senseless until the 60 second enchantment kicks in and reverts Masterson back to his mortal form. This amuses Loki who gloats that his enemy would be defeated by such a pathetic limitation. His is about to slay Eric then and there when Masterson reveals that Loki died in his recent past. Not believing this, Loki looks into Masterson’s mind and sees that it is the truth by witnessing the moment that Thor killed him.[7] So shocked by witnessing his own demise, Loki drops Masterson and runs off to try and figure out a way to cheat his own death.
Eric quickly gets up and recovers Beta Ray Bill, then Mjolnir so he can change back into Thor. They then catch up with Dargo Ktor and the trio head off to find Loki. The trickster has tracked down Zarrko to his control room and demands the time traveler show him how to cheat his own death. Zarrko orders him to stay back as he is about to activate his Radical Time Destabilizer and unify the timestream. This means nothing to Loki who shoves Zarrko into the control panel. This causes the machine to overload and blow up, punching a hole in the side of the Time Cube and sucking both Loki and Zarrko into the timestream.[8]
With the ship breaking up, Beta Ray Bill races to the time controls to figure out how to send everyone back to their proper times. Before departing, Dargo apologizes for attacking Eric earlier and tells him to make every moment in the future count. Beta Ray Bill and Eric are next….
The Present
Thor appears over modern day New York City and is happy to finally be home. However, it’s only when he returns to his apartment does he remember that it was trashed during his earlier fight with Stellaris.[9] That’s when his phone rings from under a pile of rubble. Answering it, Eric gets some good but shocking news from Doctor Gary Patersky, the doctor that has been treating his assistant Susan Austin.[10] After a intensive search, he has finally managed to track down the long lost Doctor Donald Blake, who is now re-opening his practice in New York.[11] This new revelation leaves Eric speechless.
Recurring Characters
Thor Corps (Thor-616, Thor-8710, Beta Ray Bill), Loki, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, Servitor, Gary Patertsky
Continuity Notes
Dargo Ktor’s origins were first told in Thor #384. Per All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #11, his future exists in Reality-8710. Zarrko tricked him into going to the Modern Age and attacking Thor last issue as well.
For the record, Zarrko comes from Reality-6297 as detailed in All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12.
Loki was pulled out of time between his appearances in Thor #429 and 430.
Loki was pulled out of time before his apparent final battle with Thor in Thor #432, which left Loki apparently dead, Thor banished, and Eric Masterson taking his place as the god of thunder. We’ll get into this in more detail as we go along.
Over the last three issues Zarrko tricked Eric and Dargo to fight each other so he could steal the magical energies unleashed in the clash. His intention is to use this power to collapse the multiverse into a single unified timeline that he will have full mastery over.
The moment that Dargo is witnessing is of Eric Masterson having Mjolnir stolen from him by Mephisto next issue. Ktor is led to believe that this was the incident that will lead to his obtaining Mjolnir in the 26th century circa Thor #384. He’d be wrong on that bet thought since Eric gets the hammer back in Thor #443.
This vision of the future and the knowledge of Eric Masterson’s connection to Thor will give him the knowledge he needs to cheat his apparent death in Thor #432. When he returns to the past he sets things up so that, rather than dying, Loki’s soul takes over the body of Odin shunting the All-Father’s spirit into Mephisto’s realm, as we’ll learn in Thor #450-455.
Loki will end up back in his proper place in time, circa Thor #430. Zarrko will also turn up alive as well and attempt to steal the power of Darkhawk, leading to a clash with the New Warriors. See Darkhawk #26-29.
Stellaris attacked Eric at his home in Thor #438.
Susan Austin was struck by a mystical blast from Loki in Thor #432 leaving her in a coma.
The situation with Don Blake is, as you can guess, complicated:
Don Blake was a mystical construct created by Odin to be the mortal guise of Thor during a period in which the All-Father wished to teach Thor humility. Thor learned his lesson and regained his power in modern times but retained the Don Blake identity for years before the enchantment was transferred to Beta Ray Bill’s hammer instead. See Journey into Mystery #83, Thor #159, and Thor #339.
For all intents and purposes, everyone in the know believes that Don Blake no longer exists. Years later, we’ll learn that Blake’s existence endured as he lived in a mystical limbo until he was needed again as we will see in Thor (vol. 3) #1.
Dr. Paretsky has been looking for Don Blake since Thor #437. Next issue it appears that he has succeeded but we’ll learn that the “Don Blake” seen here is Mephisto in disguise and this is all part of some elaborate attack on Thor.
Topical References
References to the Modern Age taking place in the 20th century should be considered topical. The Sliding Timescale has pushed the Modern Age forward in time such that it does not begin until after the start of the 21st century.
This story features the original twin towers of the World Trade Center as part of the New York City skyline. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced with the Freedom Tower.
If Death be my Destiny
Sif and Balder are on a quest to find the banished Thor.[1] Their quest has taken them to Neffelheim only to discover that the Destroyer has conquered the domain and imprisoned its mistress, Hela.[2] While Balder has gone off to use a magical sword they recovered from the realm of Midhogg, Sif has remained behind to try and convince the Destroyer — whom she believes is possessed by Thor — to stand down.[3] However, she has learned that it is actually possessed by the spirit of Lorelei and she is now preparing to use the Destroyer’s disintegration ray on Sif. Luckily, the warrior woman is able to leap out of harms way and the beam instead causes a cave in that buries the Destroyer under tons of rock.
Meanwhile, Balder arrives at the location where Hela is being held prisoner. Using a Norn Stone to turn the guards into frogs he then uses the magic sword to free Hela from her crystalline prison.
By this time, Sif has lured the Destroyer to the pit of monsters just on the boarder of Midhogg. There the creatures grab the Destroyer in their tentacles and drag it into the pit. That’s when Hela and Balder arrive. The goddess of death then uses her magic to place an impenetrable dome over the pit trapping the Destroyer forever.[4] Thankful for Sif and Balder’s rescue, Hela offers them a boon. When Sif asks her to return Thor to him, Hela explains that the thunder god is not in her realm, nor does she know where he has been exiled. Despite this failure, Sif refuses to stop searching for her one true love.
Recurring Characters
Sif, Balder, Hela, Destroyer, Lorelei
Continuity Notes
After Thor seemingly slew Loki, he was banished for the crime of killing a fellow immortal in Thor #432. Loki actually cheated death as we’ll see in Thor #450-455. We will also learn that Thor wasn’t banished someplace else, but had his identity buried deep within his human host, Eric Masterson, as explained in Thor #456-459.
Hela had previously cursed Thor with brittle bones that would never heal back in Thor #373. In order to force her to remove this curse, Thor piloted the Destroyer armor leading to their clash in Thor #381-382.
Here, Sif wonders whose spirit is piloting the Destroyer armor. She hopes that it is Thor. Unfortunately, Sif’s guess would prove to be incorrect, as we learned last issue, the Destroyer is actually being piloted by the spirit of Lorelei who has been dead since Thor #402.
The Destroyer and Lorelei won’t remain trapped there forever. Hela will later use them to attack Thor in Thor #476-477.