Issue(s): Thor #357, Thor #358, Thor #359
Published Date: Jul-Sep 85
Title: "A new deal from an old deck, or: The credit card soldiers" / "When dalliance was in flower, or: Take the cash and let the credit go" / "The grand alliance! (or: Life with Loki!!!)"
Credits:
Walt Simonson - Writer
Walt Simonson - Penciler
Walt Simonson - Inker
Craig Anderson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Thor escorts Frigga and the children of Asgard back home. Simonson is really wonderful depicting Thor interacting with the children.

Loki and Lorelei continue their schemes. Loki gives Lorelei a love potion to use on Thor.

It eventually (seemingly) works, and she's able to convince Thor that Loki should be on the throne.

Meanwhile, Loki grabs Odin's Scepter of Power, but the Enchantress gets their first, and she's still upset about her sister not joining in during the Surtur War, so she leaves a little trap for Loki.

The Enchantress' spell causes Lorelei to fall in love with Loki.

But these issues largely focus on what's going on in Midgard*. The Asgardians are still trapped there (Simonson manages to get some Shakespeare, a There Might Be Giants reference, and a Power Pack cameo all on one page).

The US soldiers introduce the Asgardians to modern weapons.

Sif and Beta Ray Bill continue to get close...

...but their downtime is interrupted by a group of soldiers in power suits. The group is called the Green Liberation Front (GLF) (Green as in cash money), and they're a bunch of disgruntled Vietnam Veterans. In addition to the body armor, they have the ability to teleport in and out of an area via small cards that are dropped in advance by a man named Sergei.

They also have the ability to call up the Marvel Handbook in their HUDs, but it's an older version that doesn't have an entry for Beta Ray yet. The recommended strategy is still operative, however.

Sif gets into the fight as well.

It turns out that the GLF are unknowingly working for the Titanium Man, and when Sergei finds out that his parents, previously thought held hostage by the Soviets, are actually dead, he makes sure they find out about it.

The GLF are thieves but still patriots, and they have no interest in working for a "commie".

Titanium Man isn't aware that Sergei turns against him, so rather than face the GLF, he transforms back into "card" form (like we saw with the GLF earlier). But when Sergei retrieves him, he destroys the card, seemingly killing the Titanium Man.

There's also a Scourge appearance in issue #358. He kills Megatak (who appeared only once before, in Thor #328).

The action scenes, humor with the GLF, and the schemes and counter-schemes are all very well done, but Simonson's writing is so incredibly human, the book is elevated beyond just an adventure story. Thor and the kids, Frigga returning to a ravaged Asgard and accepting Heimdall's condolences over the death of her husband, Bill and Sif; it's all very special stuff, with amazing art that can handle epic battles and subtle facial expressions equally well.

Issue #359 picks up with Thor still yelling about how Loki should be king.

It's possible he's been yelling for quite some time but i've decided to include that issue in this entry as a direct continuation of #358. This issue is pure comedy. Thor is smitten with Lorelei, and she's convinced him that Loki should be king. Lorelei, however, is smitten with Loki due to the Enchantress' spell. Not even the Enchantress' kiss can neutralize Lorelei's potion, but the Enchantress figures out that if she gets Thor to show up while Lorelei is with Loki, sparks will fly.

And they do.

Lorelei is able to seduce Thor into submission again, but she pushes her luck by making out with Loki right in front of him.

This gets Thor enraged enough to force Loki to reverse the spell (by throwing his hammer way up into the sky and saying he'd better reverse the spell before it returns). Of course, the Enchantress' spell is still in effect.

The other awesome thing in issue #359 is Lorelei's bird.

The one not so awesome thing is that while he's under Lorelei's spell, he hits Sif.

She's not so forgiving when he returns after the spell is broken, and it'll be a continuing concern for future issues. But she does tell Thor the reason she's returned to Asgard. She has an idea to get the Asgardian warriors home. Thor swings his hammer at one end, Beta Ray Bill at the other, and a portal between dimensions is opened.

The very end of issue #359 shows what i'm pretty sure are Walt and Louise Simonson (or, more likely, as Michael notes below, it's probably Jim and Margaret Power with Margaret's hair miscolored), but i don't know who the other man and the kid are, or what the dedication is about.

Issue #359 is a different type of story than the previous two, but it's still quite good.

*Earth

Quality Rating: A-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Power Pack's appearance in #357 is context free. But at the end of issue #359 the portal to Asgard is opened, and that ties in with Power Pack #15. There are a lot of Asgardians and it will take a while for all of them to get through, but Power Pack #15 shouldn't take place too far after this arc.

References:

• While Sif is contemplating her love for Beta Ray Bill, she notes that mortals live such a short time, and wonders if it was because of this that Odin forbade Thor's love for Jane Foster. The footnote says "A long time ago!". I think it was Journey Into Mystery #97.
  
• Lorelei is upset that Thor did not return to her after the Surtur War ended in Thor #354.
  
• The War itself ran from Thor #350 to Thor #353.
  
• Threatening Loki, Thor says if the charm spell isn't reversed, Loki will be headless for a second time. The first was in Thor #344.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A

One thing that you didn't mention in your review is that the Titanium Man is seemingly killed in this story and stays dead until 1992. This is important because in the interim, the Gremlin assumes the identity of the Titanium Man and gets killed by Tony Stark.

I've added a scan of the death scene.

I'm not sure how the GLF database would know about the Tomorrow Man, considering he was a time traveller from the future who had only appeared a handful of times and was unknown to the general public.

The real answer is probably that the names are taken from an upcoming issue of the Official Handbook.

A No-Prize style answer is that the Avengers database would have these, which meant the US government would have them, which meant the Soviets likely also had them, and the Soviets were the ones who built the Credit Card Soldier armor.

At the MCP, we assumed that the couple you refer to as "Walt and Louise Simonson" are meant to be Jim and Margaret Power. Hence, the "some of them might grow up to be superheroes themselves" line. No clue on the dedication or the fat guy and his kid.

The fat guy and the kid are characters from Simonson's "Manhunter" serial back in Detective Comics. One story takes place in the background while that family is touring some monastery. Here's a link to one of the pages from it where you can see them - http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/tec441.jpg

And the "Archie" in the dedication might be Archie Goodwin, the writer of that Manhunter serial, but that's just a wild guess.

Cool info, S. Thanks.