The Lightning and the Flame

This story continues from Avengers Annual #23…

The the realm of Hades, Pluto makes a trip down the River Styx with Charon to oversee the various souls sent to his domain for punishment. They soon arrive in Tartarus to watch the worst-of-the-worst suffer in eternal agony. His trip is interrupted by the astral projection of Loki, who demands to know what Pluto is doing. He reminds the Olympian that they entered into a pact to destroy their mutual enemies — Loki would kill Hercules while Pluto dealt with Thor. Pluto points out that Loki’s past attempt to kill Hercules using Typhon didn’t pan out and, more, he utilized others from Pluto’s domain to do the job, something they did not agree upon.[1] As such, he believes that their agreement is now null and void.

Loki disagrees, saying that their original agreement was that each party had to at least attempt to kill their chosen target, something that he did regardless of success and presses on Pluto to fulfill at least the bare minimum requirement. Since he is trapped in Mephisto’s realm, Loki cannot sustain his projection for very long and demands an immediate answer before he is detected.[2] Pluto relents and agrees to go after Thor, but mostly because he also has a score to settle with the thunder god, if anything else.[3]

Casing a spell to see where Thor is at that moment, Pluto learns that the thunder god has since relocated to Wundagore Mountain on Earth to work alongside the High Evolutionary’s Godpack.[4] He then looks to Asgard to find a suitable pawn to use against the thunder god to hide his involvement. In a distant wasteland he find the warrior known as Hrinmeer the Flame and since the warrior and chooses him to be his champion.[5] Pluto then appears before the Flame and tells him that he is being recruited on a mission to destroy Thor. Teleported to Hades, the Flame tries to strike down Pluto, but his attacks have no effect. He eventually relents and agrees to fight on Pluto’s behalf as he wishes to have a rematch against the thunder god. To assist him on his quest, Pluto summons Cerberus who transforms from his humanoid form to one that is in line with Greek mythology: That of a massive three headed hound with poison dripping maws.[6]

Meanwhile, unable to fully trust Pluto, Loki risks making a second contact to the outside world. This time he reaches his wife Sigyn and after explaining his situation has her promise to be her eyes and ears in Asgard. Sigyn agrees to do so as she is a dutiful wife, even though their relationship is often one-way and painful as the stinging arrow.

While on Earth, Thor is assisting the High Evolutionary and the Godpack set up operations at Wundagore Mountain so the geneticist can create more of his new race of gods.[7] Suddenly, the facility is shook by an earthquake, prompting Thor and Blitziana to work together to stop falling debris from causing any harm. The quake open a tunnel in the ground which reeks of brimstone. Recognizing the scent as the foul smell of Hades, Thor decides to go down into the tunnel alone to investigate. Sure enough, when he enters the tunnel, Thor is transported to Pluto’s realm where he is attacked by the Flame and Cerberus. The thunder god recognizes his old foe and tries to reason with him, reminding him that his perceived ugliness is all in his head. However, Hrinmeer refuses to listen and insists that they battle to the death.

In the ensuing brawl, Thor continues to try and get the Flame to see the truth about his traumatic upbringing but this continues to fall on deaf ears. While Thor is able to hold his own against his opponent, he soon becomes distracted when Cerberus attacks from behind. While the thunder god is busy defending himself, the Flame runs him through with his sword. Thor suddenly becomes incredibly ill and the Flame reveals that he slathered some of the poison from Cerberus’ maw onto the blade of his sword. Thor finds this a cowardly tactic, but can’t do anything about it as he becomes completely immobilized from the poison. Before the Flame can land the killing blow, Pluto interrupts and tells him that Thor must die in Asgard. Hrinmeer doesn’t like this but complies anyway.

After tying Thor up to Cerberus, the Flame uses the tunnel to dimensionally hop to Asgard. His arrival is spotted by two Asgardian warriors, forcing Hrinmeer to slay them before his presence can be given away. This is witnessed by Sigyn who had come to observe Thor’s demise. Seeing her as another witness to silence, Hrinmeer begins chasing the woman, hating her for her beauty. Observing this is Pluto who wants the Flame to slay Loki’s wife out of revenge. To push Hrinmeer over the edge he waits until the warrior removes his helmet to show her his “hideous” face. Rather than seeing Hrinmeer’s handsome features, Pluto has cast a spell to make his visage look like a rotting corpse. This frightens and disgusts Sigyn, just as Pluto had planned.

Watching this from his prison in Mephisto’s realm, Loki won’t allow Pluto and the Flame kill his beloved wife. Realizing he has no other choice, Loki goes to Thor and offers to merge their powers so he can become strong enough to counteract the poison and save Sigyn. At first, Thor doesn’t trust his step-brother and refuses his aid. However, when Loki impresses how much he deeply cares for his wife, the thunder god relents and allows Loki to help him. With the poison purged form his system, Thor breaks free and battles Cerberus. The three headed dog tries to match his opponent by changing back to his human form, but Thor easily trounces him.

Thor then comes to Sigyn’s rescue before the Flame can push her over a cliff. However, in the ensuing battle Thor realizes that Loki’s presence is slowing his reaction times. Needing Loki gone in order to fight more effectively, but Loki refuses to leave as he suspects Thor will betray him. Thor manages to force Loki’s presence from his body through sheer force of will. Back at his full fighting capacity, Thor matches Mjolnir against the Flame’s sword. When the blade shatters, Thor then puts Mjolnir back in its belt loops. He tells the Flame that he actually has three hammers (two of them being his fists), but in this battle only two will suffice. Thor then beats the living shit out of the Flame. Watching his champion get defeated, Pluto accepts his defeat, figuring that Thor will tell Odin about Loki’s involvement in affairs.

In the aftermath of the battle, Sigyn thanks Thor for rescuing her and pleads with him not to tell Odin about Loki’s part in the whole affair. Thor agrees but not because of Sigyn’s plea, but because he renounced Asgard no that long ago.

It’s by this point that Heimdall finally becomes aware of Thor’s presence in Asgard. However, the thunder god departs before the guardian of the Bifrost can confirm his presence. However, this doesn’t go unnoticed by all-seeing Odin who can hardly believe his son came home. The All-Father quickly dismisses it since he is convinced that the gulf between father and son are worlds apart.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Pluto, Loki, Odin, Sigyn, Heimdall, High Evolutionary, Blitziana, Charon, Hrinmeer the Flame, Cerberus, Loga, Sisyphus

Continuity Notes

1. Loki and Pluto entered this pact and the subsequent battle between Hercules and Typhon was chronicled in Avengers Annual #23.

2. This story follows the events of Thor #432-455, wherein Loki attempted to conquer Asgard by taking possession of Odin’s soul. He ultimately failed and TL;DR version, he was banished to Mephisto’s realm for punishment.

3. Pluto has many reasons for going after Thor as the thunder god has thwarted many of his plans in the past as seen in Thor #127-130, 199-201, 222-223, and most recently Thor #462-467.

4. Thor renounced Asgard to return to Earth and joined up with the Godpack in Thor #472-473.

5. Readers are reminded that Thor fought the Flame and defeated him back in Thor Annual #18. The Flame was later freed from his prison by Loki in that same issue.

6. This sequence is used to explain why when Cerberus first appeared in Thor #130 he was a humanoid and not a three headed dog. Why did they do that to begin with? Not sure, but I bet it was Comics Code fuckary that had become more lax by the time this story was written nearly 30 years later.

7. A footnote here tells readers that this story takes place between the events of Thor #475, just prior to Thor’s discover of Don Blake, subsequent battle with the Animutants, and the creation of his new costume. The Marvel Chronology Project places it has specifically happening between page 10 and 11 of that story.

Topical References

• In his opening monologue, Pluto complains how the mortals have named both a planet and the dog after him. References to Pluto being a planet should be considered topical as the designation for this mass was changed to a dwarf planet in 2006. The dog named Pluto is a cartoon dog that first appeared in Walt Disney cartoons in 1930. Typically this reference would be considered topical as well. However, now that Disney owns Marvel Comics, it wouldn’t be the case anymore since the company likes to synergize their brands whenever possible.

Estranged Relations

Thor has come to the Rocky Mountains to be alone and ponder over his recent decision to leave Asgard for good and make a life for himself on Earth. He is thinking about the rift that has formed between himself and his father when he spots hitchhiker on the road below and remarks how he isn’t so alone after all. Suddenly, there is a rockslide that puts the young man in danger, prompting Thor to come to his rescue.

After battering the fallen rock away with Mjolnir, Thor asks if the young man is ok. He is unhurt but realizes that he has made a terrible mistake being out there. He introduces himself as Danny Walker of Windber, Pennsylvania. He had gotten into an argument with his father and decided to run away from home. Eventually, he blew through all his money traveling and was forced to hitchhike, which left him stranded on foot on this lonely mountain pass. Now all he wants to do is get home and make amends with his father.

Danny’s plight hits close to home and Thor agrees to take him back to Pennsylvania. At the Walker home, Danny races inside to meet with his father. However, only the housekeeper is present. She tells Danny that his father became very sick while he was gone and has since passed away. This devastates Danny who realizes that he will never get to make amends with his father and didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye. Thor tries to comfort the boy, but he tells the thunder god to go away and leave him alone.

Thor then returns to his silent vigil in the Rockies once more where he ponders Danny’s situation. He thinks of the looming threat of Ragnarok and envisions his father dying in battle all by himself.[1] Thinking about Danny’s situation, Thor wonders if a god can learn something from the human experience.

Recurring Characters

Thor

Continuity Notes

1. Asgard has been under the risk of Ragnarok yet again after Thor had a prophetic dream in Thor #472. However, this threat will not come to pass. Ragnarok will be circumvented in Thor #491 by the WorldEngine, a powerful device that tricks Yggdrasil to think the twilight of the gods has already happened.

Supplementary Material

This story features four pin-ups of Thor. One of him is of fighting a Storm Giant, the other is him fighting Karnivore. The rest are just Thor.