Thor (vol. 2) #33
The Million Dollar Debut of Thor Girl
A homeless man in an alleyway is awoken by someone seeking to find Thor. When he opens his eyes to look at the person he is telling off, the bum is surprised to see a woman dressed similarly to the thunder god and wielding a hammer of her own. She has little patience for the man’s stunned disbelief and lifts him off the ground. The homeless man tells her that nobody really knows where Thor usually hangs out.
Elsewhere, it appears that Thor is fighting in an arena fighting a massive Nulitron robot. The machine manages to wrest away Thor’s hammer Mjolnir then strikes him hard enough to knock his head clean off. As it turns out, this wasn’t the real Thor, but a robot duplicate. As the crowd cheers in celebration, two individuals agree that the Nulitron is ready to send into the past.[1]
So where is Thor? In his mortal guise of Jake Olson on present day Earth. The thunder god had just returned to Earth with Beta Ray Bill to discover that Jake Olson’s mother had come by for a visit.[2] Seeing the alien Beta Ray Bill causes her such a fright that she fainted. Waking her up moments later, “Jake” explains that Bill is a friend and the two spin a tale about how Jake assisted Bill during the recent alien invasion of Earth.[3] Once she hears this, Jake’s mother is delighted to meet her “son’s” new friend and offers to make them some lunch. However, they both have to go since Jake has a shift that he has to report to that afternoon.
Back in Asgard, Sif has silent council with Odin who is still deep within the Odinsleep.[4] She admits to him that she finds the role of leadership of Asgard to be to huge a burden to bare. Balder happens to walk in and he assures her that she is doing a good job, reminding her that she led Asgard to victory of Malekith the Dark Elf. While Sif thanks Balder for his kind words, she fears that not everyone shares his point of view.[5]
While on Earth, the homeless man who encountered the “female Thor” is once again woken up by another individual looking for the thunder god. This time, however, it is the Nulitron who was sent back in time to this era. The robot is less understanding when it doesn’t get the answers it wants, and uses its weapons to disintegrate the man. Since it cannot find Thor, the robot decides to go on a rampage in order to draw him out.
At that time, Thor — as Jake Olson — is on the job as an EMT with his partner Christine Collins.[6] The two have just saved the life of an elderly man who was choking. After the danger is passed, Christine admits that she is disappointed that she hasn’t seen any of Jake’s legendary life-saving heroics over the past few weeks. When they are back at the ambulance, she tries to make a pass at him, but Jake stops Christine from kissing him. That’s when a police officer — responding to Nulitron’s rampage — runs by calling in a request for the Avengers to help into his radio. When Jake gets a look at the robot and hears it calling for Thor, he tells Christine to evacuate the restaurant they were just in while he looks for injured on the scene of the attack.
In reality, Jake is creating a means of getting away from Christine so he can run into a nearby alley and change back into Thor. The thunder god then attacks the Nulitron at full strength. As per its programming, the robot fires a tractor beam that envelops Mjolnir and attempts to pull the hammer away. However, before it can be pulled from Thor’s grasp, the energies are shattered when it is struck by another hammer. Just like his own enchanted weapon, this hammer returns to the grasp of the person who threw it. This is the young woman who was looking for Thor earlier. Calling herself Thor Girl, she begins thrashing the robot. At first, Thor is shocked by the sight of this newcomer. However, he quickly joins the battle, where he recognizes Thor Girl as Tarene, the woman known as the Designate.[7]
Although Thor appreciates the save, he warns her that she is too important to put her life at risk like this. Thor Girl assures her inspiration that she can look after herself. To prove this, she strikes the Nulitron with enough force to destroy it.
Watching the robot’s destruction from the future is Zarrko the Tomorrow man and his ally, the Shi’ar warrior known as Gladiator. As Gladiator warned, the Nulitron was not up to the task. Zarrko admits that the alien is correct and orders Gladiator to go into the past and kill Thor.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Thor Girl, Beta Ray Bill, Sif, Odin, Balder, “Christine Collins”, Jake Olson’s mother, (unidentified) Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, Gladiator
Continuity Notes
As we’ll discover later this issue these two men are Zarrko the Tomorrow Man and Gladiator. They are plotting against Thor to prevent the future timeline of the Reigning, where Thor rules over Earth, as will be chronicled in Thor (vol. 2) #67-79. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 that timeline exists in Reality-3515. Per Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Thor, it states that Zarrko hales from Reality-3515, which is not exactly accurate. See below.
The real Jake Olson died saving lives during an attack by the Destroy in Thor (vol. 2) #1. Thor petitioned Odin to spare his life and the two were merged together. However, as we learned in Thor Annual 2000, Thor only took over Jake’s mortal body, his soul ended up going to the afterlife.
This alien invasion is reference to the then recent Maximum Security event. The core event was chronicled in Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet #1 and Maximum Security #1-3. Beta Ray Bill’s involvement in this conflict happened in Thor (vol. 2) #30.
Odin entered the Odinsleep back in Thor (vol. 2) #26, he will remain in this state until issue #35.
Asgard had just recently been attacked by Malekith who frozen the kingdom with the Cask of Ancient Winters. See Thor (vol. 2) #31-32.
Christine is actually the Enchantress in disguise, as we’ll learn in Thor (vol. 2) #35.
The Designate is a powerful being that is supposed to usher the universe to its next stage of evolution, as explained in Thor (vol. 2) #21-25.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. 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.
Divergent Zarrko
Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, Zarrko the Tomorrow man hales from Reality-6297, a possible future timeline that takes place in the 23rd century. The Reigning storyline is an instance where we see a Variant of Zarrko be created due to altering the timeline. Official Marvel sources refer to the Zarrko here (and subsequent stories in the Reigning storyline) as being from Reality-3515, that’s not an accurate way of looking at it, particularly when you consider the how time travel and alternate realities work in the Marvel Universe.
The Zarrko seen here is clearly from his native 23rd Century of Reality-6297 since it is still a high tech society. So technically speaking, we’re dealing with the “true” Zarrko until Thor (vol. 2) #67, the divergence point between Reality-616 and 3515.
It’s never clearly explained, but I think the reason why Zarrko (typically a villain) would care about Reality-3515 is because it would erase his timeline from existence or something to that effect, hence why he goes back to stop the Reigning from happening. Once we hit issue #67, we’re still dealing with Zarrko-6297. It’s not until Thor later goes back in time in Thor (vol. 2) #79 and prevents the Reigning from happening that the divergence happens. The Zarrko who exists between issues #67 through 79 is the the 3515 divergence. Up until that point its the 6297 version we’re dealing with.
