Issue(s): Thor #329
Cover Date: Mar 83
Title: "Stranded"
Credits:
Alan Zelenetz - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Holy freak out! There's a giant at Stark International!

His name's Hrungnir, and he really wants to find Thor so that Mjolnir can send him home. But Thor is back in Chicago, so Hrungnir has to hitch a ride on a shipping truck. And he's got a wound that is getting infected with Earthly bacteria, and it's driving him crazy.

Donald Blake, meanwhile, is performing surgery. And i know that at issue #329 i'm a little late to this question, but what type of doctor is Donald Blake, exactly? He runs an office where he treats people for everything from infertility to lack of assertiveness and yet he's also a surgeon so brilliant that he can perform operations while his mind is wrestling with the question of what happened to Jane Foster.

His mind is on such things because he's finding out that Sif is a lot weepier than he remembers.

We're definitely getting into romance comic territory here, and it's reflected in Herb Trimpe's art (very unlike his work on, say, Hulk).

But if that's not your thing, here's Hrungnir eating a live cow.

When Thor and Sif show up, Thor sends Sif after the remaining cows, because she's "Goddess of the Hunt", and that includes cow fetching and leaving the fighting to the men-folk.

Meanwhile, Thor knocks out Hrungnir...

...and uses Donald Blake's medical skills to cure his wound before sending him back to Jotunheim.

Sif secretly envies Hrungnir's ability to leave Midgard. One has to wonder what her expectations were. What did she think Thor did on Earth all the time?

Alan Zelenetz inherited the Sif situation when Doug Moench left, but he seems to be moving forward with it as planned. And unfortunately not with any great speed.

This issue also begins a subplot where the police are investigating Donald Blake; we'll learn that it's about the disappearance of Jane Foster.

Nurse Stevens is black again. A lesser man might decide to ignore the script and the nurse's uniform and assume that she's really receptionist Brenda Barclay, or that there are in fact two Nurse Stevenses, but i am convinced that there's something else going on here.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: When Hrungnir wakes up, it's been "twenty hours" since the battle in Thor #327. But it takes him until evening to reach Chicago.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A