Issue(s): Thor #442, Thor #443
Cover Date: Jan 92
Title: "The day of his return! / The trial of Beta Ray Bill! / A hero... no more!" / "The Mephisto waltz"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Script
Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz - Plot
Ron Frenz / Pat Olliffe - Penciler
Al Milgrom / Pat Olliffe - Inker
Len Kaminski - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
As we learned at the end of last issue, Donald Blake has mysteriously resurfaced. In this issue Eric Masterson goes to the hospital to meet Blake, where he'll be operating on Susan Austin. Blake says that he's been in Norway on extended leave. But when the Enchantress (still disguised as Susan's roomate, Leena Moran) sees "Blake" she recognizes him as someone else and quickly leaves the hospital before he detects her true aura.

For a while now, Ron Frenz has been doing breakdowns instead of full art, and it's been looking more and more wonky. We've definitely moved away from Frenz's Silver Age pastiche.

Some time after the surgery, Eric returns to talk to Don, convinced that Don is really Thor, trapped again in Blake's body by Heimdall's banishment. So he hands Don his walking stick, thinking that Don can use it to transform back into Thor. But "Blake" turns out to really be Mephisto.

When Mephisto disappears to his realm with the stick, Eric goes to Dr. Strange for help. Even though Eric is stuck in human (non-Thor) form, Dr. Strange recognizes him and agrees to help. Eric insists on dealing with the problem himself, not going to the Avengers as Strange suggests. So Strange gives Eric a magical ring, amulet, and talisman (which transforms into a gun in Eric's hand) and teleports him to Mephisto's realm. Mortal Eric, running around in Hell with a grappling hook and a gas mask, is one of the dumbest things i've seen. He should have died instantly; i don't care what trinkets Dr. Strange has given him. Hell isn't just another exotic environment to explore. It's... Hell. It should be beyond the capacity of mere mortals to handle.

Dr. Strange kind of agrees and says that dealing with Mephisto directly is really something that someone like Adam Warlock or the Silver Surfer should be doing, so he summons the Surfer to help Eric.

While the Surfer battles Mephisto, Eric tries to get the hammer back. Despite the trinkets from Strange, Eric gets into trouble with Mephisto's demons, but he's helped out by a mysterious figure from the bag with Thor's face that we've seen Mephisto holding. Eric thinks it is Thor.

Eric gets the hammer back and transforms into his Thor persona, and tries to help the 'real Thor'.

But Dr. Strange's spell runs out of time, and Eric and the Surfer are transported back to Earth. Strange refuses to send Eric back to Mephisto's realm, saying that Mephisto will be prepared for an attack this time. So Eric goes home, only to find that he's being evicted from his apartment.

Issue #442 is broken into three parts, with the first and third dealing with the Donald Blake/Mephisto reveal. The middle part is a "Tales of Asgard" dealing with Sif and Balder's separate search for Thor. This story is written entirely by Tom DeFalco, unlike the other portions that are co-plotted by Frenz. Sif and Balder's quest takes them to Beta Ray Bill's new home planet, where Bill's people have recently been woken up from their long sleep in stasis.

Sif claims that her relationship with Bill has always been chaste, and it looks like Balder isn't happy to also be put in the "chaste" category.

Bill's people turn out to be skittish and, frankly, terrible people. They initially mistake Sif and Balder for demons, which is understandable given how they were terrorized and driven from their original planet by demons in the first place. But even after that misunderstanding is cleared up, the people demand that Beta Ray Bill kill the "invaders". And when Bill defends his Asgardian friends against a mob, Bill's leaders find fault with Bill ("our cyborg lap dog") for 'attacking' them. The Imperial Leader demands that Bill turn over his enchanted hammer. Despite protests from Sif, Bill agrees to turn over the hammer, saying that at this point he's looking forward to a quiet life. But he transforms the hammer back into walking stick form before turning it over, creating a 'sword in the stone' style situation as Bill's people line up to see if they can activate it.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is another Silver Surfer appearance that takes place during the final pages of Silver Surfer #60.

References:

• Eric notes to himself that Norway is where Donald Blake first became Thor, in Journey Into Mystery #83, so it "fits" that he'd return there for vacation. Eric later recounts this story to "Blake", along with the fact that Thor was banished after killing Loki in Thor #431-433.
  
• The fact that Beta Ray Bill allowed Ego the Living Planet to destroy some of Bill's people's space fleet in Thor annual #16 is used against him in his trial.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

So many questions.

What did Mephisto want with the hammer? Can't he just steal it back nao that's it pubic property? If the Enchantress can immediately sense him, given their respective power levels, shouldn't he had alrdy sensed her first? Why can't the combined might of Thor and the Surfer take on any "preparedness" Mephisto may have? How chafe is Sif's love for Bill? Is it bestiality if the horse can talk? Can she even take the whole thing?

DeFalco bringing you the hard hitting questions!

JC- it's implied that he DOESN'T want the hammer, he just needed a way to get Eric to see the Thor bag without Eric getting suspicious.

Oh? And wat's in the bag?

"How chafe is Sif's love for Bill?"

I think you mean chaste. Or maybe not...it makes sense with our wording as well...

JC - telling you what's in the bag would spoil the surprise ;)

Yeah I almost told him earlier but decided not to because fnord is covering the issue with the revelation later in 1992.

This here is one of the big problems I had with DeFalco's run, a run that I actually was enjoying for awhile for its Silver Age throwback-ness. The Thoric story wasn't exactly setting the world on fire, so resolving it here or at least setting it up to be resolved at the 450 milestone would have been a good idea. But no, we have like 10 more issues before we even find out about the stupid bag and another issue or two after that before the real Thor is back in place. Perhaps DeFalco would have ended it with 450 but Galactic Storm put that idea on hold, I don't know, but he could have cut or changed some of the filler issues coming up to make it work.

Well nao I won't tell yew how chafe Sif's love for Bill's protruding hammer is =p

Actually I think I can figure it out from the character's appearing list, though to be fair it wouldn't have been my first guess =p

I really liked these two issues. I remember at the time thinking that "Donald Blake" must be a red herring, but I had no clue who he could really be. So I was on pins & needles reading #442, with its cover warning of "stunning dramatic final pages."

I clearly remember that #442 was cleverly laid out so that you see "Blake" stamping down the cane on the bottom of the page, then you had to turn it for the big reveal... oh crap, it's really Mephisto!!! Well, when I was 16 years old that made an impression on me.

What I liked about #443 is that it showed why Eric Masterson was a hero. Yeah, he was often bumbling about and making errors. But here DeFalco & Frenz show him as a powerless human invading Mephisto's infernal realm to fix his mistake and recover Thor's hammer. Eric didn't have the best judgment and he was inexperienced, but he was definitely brave and had a real sense of responsibility.

"Waltz" is a reference to the Fred Mustard Stewart early 1970s horror novel/film.

Mark, the ghost of Franz Liszt will haunt you tonight.

Unless he resembles Roger Daltrey I'm not worried.