Thor #476-477Issue(s): Thor #476, Thor #477 Review/plot: And everyone is oblivious to little Jimmy Kincaid wandering off. But luckily he's found by the Godpack and everything's fine. Donald Blake is still mad about losing years thanks to the machinations of Odin, though. The High Evolutionary swears that he has no idea how Blake wound up at Wundagore. Thor refuses to go back to Asgard to ask Odin. Jane Foster accepts a job offer from the High Evolutionary acting as teacher and nurse to the Animutants (who with little fanfare are just back to working for the High Evolutionary now that the Man-Beast has been defeated). And Blake is still not getting it. Thor flies Blake to New York where he can see a newspaper (held by Clark Kent and Lois Lane) that shows a date of 1994. Blake gets mad and wanders off, and Thor is surrounded by his adoring fans and doesn't follow him. Meanwhile, Hela is with her pet wolf Garm, observing the Destroyer, which she holds captive. The spirit of Lorelei is still inside the armor, but Hela checks in with her and she says that she's repented. So she's released to the regular domain of the dead. And Hela says that Garm is going in the suit next. The Destroyer shows up while Thor is still with his fan club. Thor spends as much time trying to guess who is in the Destroyer as fighting. And Mjolnir gets damaged during the fight. Thor is beaten, but Thunderstrike shows up to help. With Thunderstrike's help (and having learned that Garm is in the suit), the Destroyer is on the ropes and Hela tells Garm to flee. The Thors scour the city for the Destroyer, leading to a bizarre non-interaction with a kid. When they catch up with the Destroyer again, Thor realizes that both Garm and Donald Blake are in the armor. Thor finds Blake's body, and Blake's spirit resists being controlled. Blake holds the Destroyer in check allowing Thor and Thunderstrike to pummel it. A misdirected word balloon makes it seem like Hela is happy about that. I have to admit that i'm not even really sure what Hela's goal was, but i always like a Destroyer fight. With Blake still demanding answers, Blake agrees to go back to Asgard. After he fixes his hammer. Meanwhile, it seems a Thor is already in Asgard. That expression on all the Asgardians' faces is about right. "That guy again?" "Not another Thor!" Quality Rating: C- Chronological Placement Considerations: This arc should begin soon after last issue and Thor shouldn't appear elsewhere in between. But Thor also has to appear in Thunderstrike #10, and that is Thor's first meeting with Thunderstrike while wearing his new costume (and Thor #477 references Thunderstrike #10). The MCP have Thor appearing in Thunderstrike #10 during issue #476 (i guess right before he meets with this fans). That seems to fit with a line that Thunderstrike says here, which implies that Thor's here on the same trip ("I thought you'd be all the way back in Wundagore by now"). Alternatively, Thor might have slipped away from Wundagore in between last issue and this one (leaving poor Donald Blake to continue wandering around asking for a lift back to Oslo). Either way, i'm placing Thunderstrike #10 directly before this arc. Red Norvell is off panel but still "appears" in this issue. A footnote in issue #478 will say that Hulk #421-423 was Norvell's "baptism of fire". Note that the Warriors Three are surprised to see Norvell here, so this must take place before the Hulk story (where they are with him). But Thor is standing and shouting at the end of issue #477 here, and he's seemingly still shouting at the beginning of next issue. Some time has clearly passed. In #477, it's seemingly daytime and Thor is on the ground, with Thunderstrike. In #478 it's night (or maybe just dark from a storm that Thor has summoned) and Thor is standing on a building, with Thunderstrike having left. On the other hand, Thor says that only "scant minutes" have passed. Thor's sense of time must therefore be slightly off, because it's definitely the case that Hulk #421-423 has to take place between this arc and the next one. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Anak, Balder, Bellam, Beta Ray Bill, Blitziana, Destroyer (Asgardian armor), Donald Blake Construct, Fandral, Freki, Garm, Geri, Hela, High Evolutionary, Huginn, Jane Foster, Jimmy Kincaid, Loga, Lorelei (Norse Goddess), Luminor, Muninn, Odin, Red Norvell, Riger, Sif, Thor, Thunderstrike, Tyr, Urson-Wellz, Volstagg, Zefra CommentsConsidering that Blake was eventually revealed to be a construct of Sigyn, it's weird that he was able to not only inhabit the Destroyer but also resist Hela. I wonder if Thomas had something else in mind for Blake when he wrote these issues. Posted by: Michael | February 20, 2018 8:09 PM "You...LOVE me, Jane?" "I never dared hope--!" Egads, what an awful panel. Posted by: Vincent Valenti | February 20, 2018 11:19 PM I was thinking exactly the same thing. I think Thomas was figuring Blake should still sound like we was written in 1963, as something of a joke, but it doesn't work. Even the best writers have expiration dates, and Thomas is way past his. Posted by: Andrew | February 21, 2018 2:43 PM But from Blake's perspective, it is 1963. His speech patterns would still reflect that, wouldn't they? Posted by: clyde | February 21, 2018 2:57 PM No, because of the sliding time scale Blake at this point would be from the 1980s, not the 1960s. Posted by: Tuomas | February 23, 2018 2:38 AM As we've seen from some of the continuity inserts posted - and we'll see more examples with things like Jessica Jones + Sentry - "12 years ago" in the 616 Universe was, minimally, a period of robust 60s revivalism, extending not only to language and dress, but even to politics and technology. Posted by: Cullen | February 23, 2018 4:39 PM And all this gets into why I'm a proponent of the fixed timeline instead of a sliding one, or as fnord calls it, the Reverse Sliding Timescale. Posted by: Morgan Wick | February 23, 2018 6:31 PM Comments are now closed. |
|||||||||
SuperMegaMonkey home | Comics Chronology home |