Issue(s): Thor #208
Cover Date: Feb 73
Title: "The Fourth-Dimensional Man!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
John Buscema - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot:
Thor returns to Avengers Mansion with Hildegarde. He is really, really upset over the fact that Sif went away with Karnilla. It's a little over the top - it's not like she's thought to be dead. She's just helping Karnilla find Balder. Doesn't even sound like a bad idea. But he is upset, and he takes it out on Jarvis.

He makes up with him later, and it's actually an interesting scene; imagine having a Norse god in the house, and angry at you. Jarvis is of coursed very composed.

The rest of the issue is about Donald Blake's new landlord, Karl Sarron, who we learn is actually an alien being. He's been drawing Asgardian power from Blake's office, off of the residual energy left when Blake transformed into Thor and back.

Whatever he's up to, it involves the survival of his world.

But he's actually now sucked up all the power available, so suddenly Thor finds himself compelled to visit the office, and therefore in battle with Mercurio, the Fourth-Dimensional Man.

Despite his alien and Asgardian themes, Mercurio looks more like your standard super-villain, and has a super-villain power set, where one hand generates extreme cold and the other extreme heat. He's also not in any way "Fourth-Dimensional". We'll learn in later stories that his people are just from another planet way out in outer space; even if that wasn't the case and he really were from another dimension i don't think that moniker would be applicable. We all know what's going on here; he's trying to one-up the 3-D Man.

He's a decent challenge for Thor, anyway.

While the fight is going on, the Vision is using the Avengers' viewscreens to show the Warriors Three Asgard, although it just makes them homesick. When he dials back to Earth, they see the fight, and the Warriors get involved (apparently it's not enough to get the Vision out of his chair). This gives Thor time to leave the battlefield and come back with a big iron girder, which kills Mercurio.

Because science.

We're into smaller, less epic stories for a little while, which is exactly what was needed after the past... two years (!) of endless universe threatening concerns. Mercurio isn't the greatest but he helps play up Thor's super-hero side while also hinting that there's something more going on. His seeming death is actually somewhat surprising since we (and Thor) don't get to learn his full story yet, but of course it's not really over...

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Mercurio the 4-D Man

Chronological Placement Considerations: I have Avengers #105-108 as a single run. But Thor comes in and out of it. His appearance in Thor #206-207, and then the beginning of this issue, where he returns to Avengers Mansion with Hildegarde, take place before his appearance in Avengers #108, then the rest take place afterwards.

References:

• While Thor sleeps after he returns to the Mansion, he dreams of recent events, beginning with the battle with Ego Prime in Thor #203.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Maybe Mercurio was inspired by the 1950s horror film "The 4-D Man"?

"Mercurio" has always been the name of Quicksilver in the Spanish editions.....