Thunderstrike #1
Blood Without Glory!
A morning carjacking is interrupted by Eric Masterson who is still decked out in his Thor costume. Using his new enchanted mace — Thunderstrike — he quickly defeats the car jackers but trashes the car they were trying to steal in the process. Hoping the Avengers will pick up the tab for the damage, Eric leaves the traumatized woman with an arriving police officer before taking off because he has a lunch date with his friend Samantha Joyce. As he flies across the city, the man who once replaced Thor is unaware that someone is observing him from the rooftops.[1]
As he goes, Eric is bothered that they authorities are still calling him Thor even though the original god of thunder is now back from a lengthy exile.[2] He thinks of how his life got intertwined with the real Thor and how he took over the thunder god’s role for a time. Now that Thor is back, Masterson needs to come up with a brand new identity.[3] Once he arrives at the place were he is meeting with Samantha, Eric taps his enchanted mace on the ground to change back into his civilian identity. The two then sit down to lunch to catch up with one another as Eric has been hard to get ahold of since he left his old apartment.[4] Eric is being connected with a new architech gig thanks to their friend Jackie Lukas. Samantha also tells Eric about how his ex-wife Marcy brought their son Kevin out to visit his parents and how she’s opened a successful chain of health clubs. When Samantha also reveals that she is renting out a brand new loft in Manhattan and needs roommates, Eric decides that moving in might be better than living at Avengers Headquarters.
Across town, Marcy Steele is opening her latest Salon Steele health spa and in order to promote the grand opening she has gotten her new husband — Bobby Steele — to bring in his teammates on the New York Smashers football team to sign autographs. In the middle of the grand opening, Bobby tells Marcy that he and the guys are going to go out together.[5] While she allows this she is concerned because Bobby has been acting so moody recently.[6] Little does she suspect that when the rest of the Smashers agreed to go out for a “guy’s night out”, Bobby turned them down. Going outside to get his car, Bobby is then ambushed from behind by some car jackers who knock him out with a blow to the back of the head before peeling off in his car. They take the vehicle to a garage that is the hideout of a costumed car thief calling himself Carjack. He is furious that Bobby’s car has blood spatters on it and warns his minions against being slopping in the future as such an imperfection will impact the resale value of the cars they steal.
Meanwhile, Eric Masterson has arrived at his son’s school to pick up Kevin. When he arrives he senses something wrong since Susan Austin is there talking to Kevin’s teacher Ed Marrero.[7] Kevin rushes to his father and tells him that they all just learned that someone attacked Bobby and that he is in the hospital. Eric also learns about the car jacking and Ed makes a comment about people needing to take the law into their own hands in order to stop these thefts from happening.[8] When Kevin whispers to his father and asks him to get Captain America and the Avengers to catch the crooks, Eric tells his son that he’ll try his best.
While at the hospital, Marcy meets up with her husband who brushes off the attack as nothing. However, Marcy can see something is bothering her husband but he won’t open up about it. His doctor, Gary Paretsky, then tells them that three of the car jackers were busted by Thor earlier that day, something that Bobby finds very interesting.
A few hours later, a mystery person recovers the Executioner’s enchanted axe from a basement locker somewhere in the city. Upon touching the weapon they transform into the vigilante Bloodaxe who decides to go out looking for the car jackers and get vengeance.[9] Bloodaxe then shows up at the jail where the three carjackers are being held pending trial. Killing one of them, Bloodaxe learns that they work for Carjack as well as the location of his hideout. Once Bloodaxe gets the information they want, they kill the two other crooks as well.
At that same time, Eric has changed back into his Thor costume and is scouring the city searching for the hideout of the carjackers. This is made difficult because Thunderstrike is a lot less smoother to use than Mjolnir was back when he was filling in for the thunder god and this makes him realize that he doesn’t know all of this new mace’s magical abilities. When he hears police sirens nearby, Masterson decides to postpone his search to see if there is anything he can do to help the cops at the scene. Arriving at the police station, Eric discovers that the NYPD has dispatched Code: Blue to deal with the situation. Marcus Stone is happy to see “Thor” arriving on the scene since they are dealing with Bloodaxe again. Eric is able to track the mystical energies of Bloodaxe’s enchanted weapon and begins using Thunderstrike to lead him to the killer’s current location.
At that moment, Bloodaxe has just arrived at Carjack’s hideout but before they can start slaughtering the car thieves, Masterson arrives on the scene to stop them. As the two titans battle it out, Bloodaxe espouses their philosophy that criminals should be put to death. Masterson disagrees and says they need to be brought to justice. During the fight, Eric tries to tamping Thunderstrike on the ground to summon a storm and learns at the worst possible moment that this enchanted mace doesn’t have the same powers of Mjolnir. This allows Bloodaxe to pummel the former thunder god into submission. While the two combatants are distracted, Carjack strips off his disguise and try to bluff their way past the police. Unfortunately, when the crooks flee out the front door they are all arrested by Code:Blue.
As Marcus Stone and the others are arriving at the scene of the battle, Bloodaxe is about ready to land a killing blow on “Thor”. That’s when an energy beam streaks across the way and strikes Bloodaxe with enough force to cause them pain. Since they are outnumbered, the vigilante decides to retreat, warning “Thor” that they will kill them next time. Stone helps Masterson to his feet and the former thunder god assures him he’ll be fine. However, Eric’s mind is reeling with all sorts of questions such as the identity of Bloodaxe, as well as the person who saved him.[10] What he does know now is that he is not as strong as he was when he was Thor and needs to come up with better fighting strategies in the future, he also needs a new look and name.
First things first, Eric needs a new outfit and decides to pay a visit to the costume shop where he had his Thor costume redesigned.[11] The owner looks over his sketches and says that she can make him something that is more in line with the times. However, she suggests that he ditch the cape and go with an earring instead.
Later that day, Carjack and his goons are being bailed out of jail. The story hits the news and is caught by Eric Masterson and Jackie Lukas who are about to go out on a date. Seeing the story, Eric decides to call his ex-wife Marcy to check how Bobby’s doing. When she answers she tells him that Bobby tore out of the house after learning that the guys who robbed him got bail. Fearing for his step-father’s safety, Kevin pleads with Eric to call Thor for help. Masterson tells his son that he’ll do what he can and cancels his date with Jackie. She is deeply disappointed because she thought tonight was going to be special.
Back at their hideout, Carjack and his goons are celebrating their bail when they are attacked by Bloodaxe again. Once again, Eric — now in his new costume — comes barging in to stop them. In the ensuing clash, Carjack and his goons grab their guns and begin opening fire on the two combatants. Bloodaxe then uses their enchanted weapon to deflect the bullets back at the thieves, seriously wounding many of them. This angers Masterson who lays into Bloodaxe with all of his might. Ultimately, the battle is ended when Eric discovers that his enchanted mace can unleash powerful energy blasts. The force of the bolt not only separates Bloodaxe from their weapon, but causes the entire building to collapse. Bloodaxe manages to get away but after being separated from their weapon for more than a minute they revert back to their mortal form. With the Executioner’s axe trapped under tons of rubble, Bloodaxe realizes their only option is to flee the scene.
Moments later, Code:Blue arrives from the scene and secure the perimeter while emergency crews dig through the rubble for survivors. That’s when Eric pulls himself out from under the collapsed building. When Marcus Stone calls him Thor again, Eric says to call him Thunderstrike from now on, for lack of a better name. In the aftermath of the battle, Eric now has the Executioner’s axe and is disturbed to hear it whispering in his head, leaving him to wonder what to do with the enchanted weapon.
Recurring Characters
Thunderstrike, Bloodaxe, Carjack, Code: Blue (Marcus Stone, Rigger Ruiz, Mad Dog Rossitano, Mother Majowski), Marcy Steele, Bobby Steele, Kevin Masterson, Susan Austin, Gary Paretsky, Ed Marrero, Samantha Joyce, Stellaris (unidentified)
Continuity Notes
This is Stellaris who has been slumming it on Earth since Thor #439. She’ll make her presence known to Thunderstrike in issue #6.
Eric Masterson and Thor have a long standing history together. When Masterson was seriously injured in battle, Thor merged with him in Thor #408. The pair lived a shared existence until the thunder god was manipulated into seemingly killing his brother Loki leading to his banishment in Thor #432. Masterson took over as Thor until the true thunder god was restored in issue #459.
When Eric is recollecting his past history with Thor we see various flashbacks of the many foes he faced. They include Doctor Doom (Thor #409-410), Annihilus (Thor #404-405), as well as Ulik, Loki, and Mephisto who were ever present foes throughout Eric’s entire time sharing his life with or covering for Thor.
Eric was evicted from his old apartment due to it frequently being attacked by supervillains in Thor #443 and he has since been living at Avengers Headquarters.
At the opening of this scene, one of the staff at Marcy’s health club complains about there being a clog in one of the hot tubs by some known substance. These are the remains of a victim killed by Pandara, a Deviant hiding in plain sight as a member of her staff as we’ll learn in Thunderstirke #4.
Bobby’s erratic behavior is for a few reasons: He was apparently brutally mugged recently. His performance on the Smashers has also been flagging leading to him to start abusing steroids to try and enhance his game. See Thunderstrike #5 and 8. His strange behavior is being used here as a red herring to lead readers into believing he might be Bloodaxe, but we’ll get into that in a minute…
Eric recalls how Susan Austin was once his assistant and now works for Marcy as Kevin’s nanny. Susan started working for Eric circa Thor #392. When Eric couldn’t afford to pay her anymore, Marcy hired her to be Kevin’s nanny in Thor #458.
Ed’s statements here are yet another red herring to make the readers wonder if he is secretly Bloodaxe. Bloodaxe is a vigilante that gets their powers from the Executioner’s enchanted axe and has been killing criminals since Thor #450. Their true identity has been kept a secret so far however at this point they have been revealed to be someone close to Eric Masterson.
See what I said about the red herrings? Bloodaxe will be revealed to be Jackie Lukas in Thunderstrike #22.
Eric wonders if his savior is Sif before remembering that she is in Asgard and is about to wed Thor. Indeed, when Eric parted company with Thor and Sif in Thor #459, the pair were planning on retiring to Asgard to get married. However, Thor will suffer an identity crisis and go on a quest of rediscovery in Thor #460 and the marriage will be postponed indefinitely.
This is the same costume shop that Eric visited in Thor #433.
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 they were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced by the Freedom Tower.
Marcus Stone likens Bloodaxe’s slaughter in the police station as something out of “those Terminator movies.” This is in reference to a scene in the original Terminator film wherein the title character (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) slaughters all the cops in a police station. This should be considered a topical reference as the movie came out in 1984 and there are more contemporary examples that could be used today.
Jackie Lukas is depicted as having a CRT television that changes channels using dials and knobs. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
When celebrating their bail, one of the car jackers is drinking a bottle of Wild Turkey brand bourbon. This should be considered a topical reference as it is a real world product.