Heroes

It’s another sunny day in New York City and many of its citizens are wake up to morning talk show host, Chucky Diamond. On the morning program, Diamond has an issue with Thor, the god of thunder. He blames the thunder god for the destruction caused by the Destroyer on the pier a few days earlier and spends most of the morning suggesting that Thor is a fraud.[1] One of the listeners is a FAX delivery driver who is a huge fan of the Avengers.

Unaware of this critical broadcast, Thor travels across the city, pulled aloft by Mjolnir. Needing to resume the life of his mortal guise, Thor ducks into a nearby alley and transforms into Jake Olson and heads to the hospital for his shift. There, he runs into Jane Foster who works as a doctor at the hospital. Seeing his former lover again causes “Jake” to originally address her in Thor’s Asgardian affectation.[2] This startles Jane, reminding Thor that he promised Marnot that he would keep his new double identity a secret, even from Jane.[3] He is about to reveal the truth any way, but when they bump into Keith Kincaid, Thor remembers that Jane is still married to Keith and decides against it.[4] The encounter is very strange to Jane, however her mind is taken off this strange encounter when Keith tells her that more drugs have been stolen from the hospital pharmacy. That’s when Hannah Fairmont, Jake’s fiancée and hospital administrative assistant arrives. They tell her about the situation and she agrees to check the computer records to see if she can’t find out who is responsible for the thefts.[5]

Meanwhile, “Jake” meets up with his partner Demitrius Collins and the pair head off to answer an emergency call that Collins believes is a heart attack. The radio in their ambulance is tuned into Chucky Diamond’s radio show and hearing him disparaging Thor prompts “Jake” to turn it off. This surprises Collins since Jake always listened to Chucky Diamond. When they arrive at the scene, “Jake” — thanks to Thor’s medical knowledge from his time as Don Blake — recognizes that their patient isn’t suffering from a heart attack but a blocked airway due to trauma to his larynx. He tells Demitrius that the only way they can save the man’s life is by performing a cricothyrotomy to create an opening for a breathing tube. Dimitrius is shocked to hear this and reminds “Jake” that he hasn’t been cleared to perform such a procedure. Listening over the radio is Jane Foster who tells “Jake” not to do this as he could lose his job. In order to convince her that he knows what he is doing, “Olson” tells Jane that he learned how to do it from Don Blake. When Demitrius tries to stop him “Jake” yells at him in Thor’s Asgardian affectation, further shocking Foster. With all opposition out of the way, “Jake” performs the much needed operation, saving his patient’s life.

While this medical drama is happening, the FAX delivery man who has been listening to Chucky Diamond all day arrives at the WNYX station with a package for Diamond. When the secretary refuses to allow the package to be delivered directly to Diamond, the delivery man bolts past her and into the studio. There, he pulls a gun out of the box he is carrying and threatens to shoot Diamond on air for all the horrible things he has said about the Avengers, especially Thor, his personal hero.

By this time, Dimitrius and “Jake” have been loading their patient into the ambulance. Hearing about the hostage situation from some nearby police, “Jake” tells Dimitrius that he’s heading down there solo. He then races into a nearby alley where he changes into Thor. Moments later, the thunder god comes crashing in through the wall of the radio station. The FAX delivery guy explains to Thor that he is going to shoot Diamond to make him pay for the awful things he said. However, the thunderer refuses to let anyone get killed in his name. He throws Mjolnir at the gunman, however something causes the enchanted hammer to veer off course and it almost pulps Chucky’s head. Luckly for him, Thor is able to move fast enough to grab hold of his hammer before it can strike. Wondering what is wrong with his enchanted weapon, Thor suddenly sees a evil eyes and tentacles begin to emerge from his weapon, but they quickly vanish before he can make sense of them.[6]

By this time, the police have arrived and after giving the gunman a stern talking to, Thor hands him over to the authorities. Before the thunder god can depart, Chucky — ever the opportunist — tells Thor that there is no hard feelings and tries to convince him to stick around to record a promo for his show. Thor tells him that he would never do such a thing, even if it meant preventing Ragnarok. He then takes off, whirling Mjolnir around enough to blow Chucky Diamond’s toupee off his head, much to the amusement of everyone around.

Meanwhile, the ruins of Asgard have been transformed into a obscene parody of its former majesty by the Dark Gods know nas Perrikus and Adva. This is done in preparation for the arrival of their leader, Majestron Zelia. When she finally arrives she is pleased with their work and declares that Asgard is hers now and forever.

Recurring Characters

Thor, Jake Olson, Dark Gods (Perrikus, Majestron Zelia, Adva), Enrakt (possessing Mjolnir), Jane Foster, Keith Kincaid, Hannah Fairmont, Demitrius Collins, Peter Parker, Thing, Tony Stark

Continuity Notes

1. Chucky Diamond is of course referring to the battle between the Avengers and the Destroyer that took place in Thor (vol. 2) #1-2.

2. Thor fell in love with Jane Foster during the time he posed as Doctor Donald Blake from Journey into Mystery #83 until Odin deemed her unworthy of becoming a goddess in Thor #136. The pair have been estranged more or less ever since. We’ll get into why in a second. This encounter with Jane will make her suspicious of “Jake Olson” and she’ll eventually figure out he’s actually Thor by issue #12.

3. When Jake Olson and Thor were both killed in the battle against the Destroyer, Mernot offered to restore Thor to life but he would have to take over Olson’s life to atone for his death. We’ll later learn in Thor (vol. 2) #13 that this was done to hide Thor’s presence from the Dark Gods.

4. Jane ended up getting into a relationship with Keith Kincaid in Thor #136. Eventually, the two got married in Thor #336. Although they were separated when we saw her again in Thor #475, they had apparently patched things up prior to Jane becoming a doctor and working at the hospital in Thor (vol. 2) #1.

5. It’s later revealed in Thor (vol. 2) #15 that the real Jake Olson, before his death, was responsible for the drug thefts. He was working with his partner Dimitrius Collins, an undercover cop assigned to investigate and catch the person stealing drugs.

6. Thor’s hammer has been possessed by Enrakt. See Thor (vol. 2) #14 and 16 for details.

Topical References

• There are multiple TV screens and computer monitors in this story that are depicted as CRT model devices. This should be considered topical as these are obsolete technologies.