Issue(s): Thor #304
Cover Date: Feb 81
Title: "Reckless! / Love's labors lost"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Chic Stone - Inker
Bob Budiansky - Assistant Editor
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
Almost 40 issues ago, Donald Blake returned to Midgard to re-start his life. He discovered that he was away so long that his practice had been shut down. It was suggested to him at that time that he volunteer at the "People's Free Medical Clinic" which could accommodate his odd schedule but still allow him to practice medicine. Then Thor had to go away on his various epic quests for another three (publication) years, but now he's ready to try that clinic (which has now been renamed the West Side Medical Clinic). The idea was supposed to be that since he's donating his time, he could come and go as needed, but that won't actually be the case here, and the hiring process turns out to be a little more stringent than expected.

Meanwhile, a guard at Rykers Island picks up the Wrecker's crowbar...

...and it possesses him and forces him to bring it to the Wrecker. This seems to be something that requires the active concentration of the Wrecker, not an innate attribute of the bar.

When the Wrecker is free, he frees his teammates in the Wrecking Crew as well.

Thanks to their inclusion in Secret Wars, the Wrecking Crew are among my favorite villains. I also like them because they usually operate as a unit without the usual inter-team villain drama (until later). This is actually their last appearance as a team before Secret Wars, and it's also their first encounter with Thor.

But first, they want something to eat. One of them knows "just the place for great food" and takes them to a MacDonalds (i guess they have much better food than McDonalds).

The Wrecking Crew don't have much of a motivation in this story. The Wrecker just wants to beat up Thor. I do like the way he attempts to prepare his group for fighting Thor in the scene above. "Wear him down and waste him" is about as much strategy as you'd expect from the Wrecking Crew.

They trash Lincoln Center to get Thor's attention, and he does show up.

The Wrecking Crew are pretty tough, but they start to get a sense of what they're up against as the fight goes on.

The fight continues...

....but after seeing Piledriver and Bulldozer beaten, Thunderball decides to call it quits.

With that, the Wrecker gets a little more desperate and uses a tactic that endangers the crowd and indeed someone is killed (and it happens to be a little old lady that Thor rescued from a reckless cab driver earlier in the story).

Thor unleashes his full fury at that point.

After the endless and repetitive epics that have been plaguing Thor for about a decade, i really like this new status quo where Thor lives on Earth and fights super-villains in short one or two part stories while mingling with the Midgardians in a free medical clinic as Donald Blake. I could do with better motivation for the villains; there ought to be an actual story in here somewhere instead of "Villain X arrives to fight Thor this issue".

I also wouldn't want to forget about the Asgardian connection entirely, and that is addressed here in an unusual format. Beginning with this issue, the book has a Tales of Asgard back-up, but they aren't like past Tales that took place in the past. They take place concurrently with the current story and will even spill over into the main story occasionally in future issues. So they could have worked just as well as subplots integrated into the main story instead of being segregated in the back. They are even by the same creative team, so it wasn't a division of labor issue.

This one has Karnilla talking to Balder. Balder's perceptions have been altered. He says he'll no longer kill, because he can't bear the idea of sending anyone else to the land of the dead where he had to suffer. And he says he's decided that Karnilla really is evil and has only occasionally acted for good to win his favor. Karnilla protests that she has actually changed, but she doesn't win her argument any favors by conjuring a vision of herself making Balder a king, something he has no desire for.

So she gets mad and summons the "Barbaric", a monster that has appeared in Karnilla's domain once before.

Balder refuses to fight the demon, however, and so she sends the demon away and she and Balder part ways.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP give Doctor Octopus a behind-the-scenes appearance in this story. It might just be him taking advantage of the Wrecking Crew's escape to make his own prison break. Looking at the equipment in Rykers' impounded weapons room doesn't seem to suggest any other known villains currently in prison at this time.

References:

• The clinic was suggested to Donald Blake in Thor #267.
  
• The Wrecker got his powers in Thor #148. He shared his powers with the rest of the Wrecking Crew in Defenders #17.
  
• Balder first revealed that he was traumatized by his experience in Valhalla in Thor #302 (incorrectly footnoted as #301).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

hmmm so theres Thunderball using "holeeeeeee spit!"...marvel's cute way of avoiding swearing, always thought it was a Mark Gruewald invention...wonder how far back it goes?

You gotta love seeing the Wrecking Crew raid a "Mac" Donald's just so they can pig out on all that free food. I wonder if Ralf and/or Gru were Mickey Dee fans back in the day?

I began reading Thor in real time with issue #312 just as Donald Blake was moving from New York to Chicago. I still love the vastly underrated Pollard/Day art team all these years later.

Still, I'm clearly in the minority of fans who enjoyed the post-Thomas/pre-Simonson era, but I've always liked Thor better as an Earth-based superhero and Blake was by far the best of his many alter egos. The Asgardian stuff should indeed have been mixed in as subplots here rather than back-up stories. Thor and Blake's personal lives mirrored Peter Parker/Spider-Man's and Matt Murdock/ Daredevil's. As such, they could have been explored and contrasted a lot further before Simonson did away with Blake altogether.

The only Bronze Age writers who realized the wasted potential found in Blake were Ralf and Gru during this time and Moench in the brief run which is to come.

Who in the Marvel Universe thinks it's a good idea to haul all the villains' paraphanelia and weapons out to Ryker's? It's just asking for a breakout where the villains can quickly re-arm themselves.