The Surfer, The Titan, and the Dethroned

 

Following the introduction of Champion in the 1982 Marvel Two-In-One Annual, a story that saw him pitting his might against not only the Thing but also a grouping of Marvel's strongest characters, we catch up with the fierce competitor nearly five years later as he travels once more to Earth, having conspired with the Elders of the Universe in (to put it mildly) an ambitious plan to destroy Galactus. Yet for what purpose would he return to our planet? Having already whetted his appetite to compete against Earth's most powerful individuals, what could interest him on a world that Galactus has seemingly abandoned for good?

For the answer, we would have to turn our attention to the Antarctic continent in mid-1987, where the Silver Surfer is having an impromptu encounter with the Fantastic Four--a meeting which would lead to the Surfer finally achieving his freedom from being imprisoned on our world by his former master. Unfortunately, it's the Surfer himself who is being targeted by the Elders--and one Elder in particular, who all but announces his intentions upon landfall.

As we can see, Tryco Slatterus's arrogance as an Elder is intact, treating the Surfer with the same disdain as he would any other figure he would engage in battle with. Yet soon enough he learns what manner of foe he's challenged, at which point he becomes swept up in his fervor to triumph; but the Elders, including Champion, are known to the Surfer, and he responds accordingly.

Witnessing Champion's first loss is rather gratifying for we Earthlings, and particularly for the Thing. Yet Slatterus puts the best face on it he can, remaining in full Elder mode and only providing the Surfer with information he as the victor in their contest is entitled to know.

(A nice touch by artist Marshall Rogers with the breath condensation emitted by the FF members. We can only assume that, until now, they had the Fantasti-Car's rollover windshields in operation, rather than fly what is essentially a convertible through such a frigid climate.)

Inadvertently, of course, Slatterus' refusal to elaborate on just how the Surfer could escape Earth has been the catalyst for the Surfer and the FF putting their heads together to finally succeed in attaining the sky-rider's freedom. (You'll find bits and pieces of the Elders' plans for Galactus in the PPC, but do yourself a favor and read writer Steve Englehart's complete arc to see how it all plays out.)

Three years later in 1990, Champion makes another unfortunate choice in sparring partners--Thanos of Titan, who at this point in time has begun his search for the Infinity Gems (which were still referred to as the "Soul Gems")--one of which, the Power Gem, Champion now wears on his forehead yet remaining ignorant of its capability and only subconsciously drawing upon its energy. As a fighter, Champion has found the ideal world to provide sufficient challenge for his ability as a fighter in perpetuity--and when Thanos issues a suitably blatant challenge of his own as bait to draw his attention, a war such as this world has never seen (or, as we'll learn, shall ever see again) explodes onto an already war-torn planet.

Time Keeps On Slippin', Slippin', Slippin'...

 

Good grief, I thought in our senior years we became less busy.  Where does the time go? Wherever it's fled to, I'm running low on it this week, so I thought I'd once more raid my cache of graphics that I've stored from here and there and cobble together a little John Buscema goodness for you--mostly prior work that never saw the comics rack, with one or two homage prints thrown in.

Leading us off is someone else who appears to have run out of time--the Silver Surfer, who in an unpublished Buscema cover from his first series falls victim to none other than the heir of Frankenstein!

The Search for the Silver Surfer!

 

OR: "The Incredible Shrinking Sky-Rider!"

In mid-1968, Galactus would make his return to Earth, intent on re-enlisting the services of his former herald, the Silver Surfer, whom he confined to our world as penance for his betrayal--but also apparently done as a measure for the eventuality that the Surfer might be needed, for Galactus's return comes at a time when his hunger for the life-force of a planetary body rages within him due to his failure to locate a suitable world on his own. In a word: Galactus is starving.

For his part, the Surfer is reluctant to return to a life where he is responsible for choosing a world that must pay the ultimate price for sustaining Galactus--and so the Fantastic Four have decided to side with him, even as he searches for and finally locates a place of concealment where even the eyes of Galactus cannot detect him.

The fact that the Surfer can so casually alter his size (and to such an incredible degree) shouldn't really have come as a surprise to me considering the nature of his power (albeit at a reduced state, at this point in time); but this ability still came across as if it were pulled out of a hat. Given time, the Surfer might have even used the Micro-World (aka Sub-Atomica) to traverse the barrier of Galactus, as he attempted in the company of the Defenders (though as then, the attempt might have proven futile).

In the meantime, under duress, the FF have agreed to locate the Surfer for Galactus after fending off the merest sample of the reprisal that he can deliver to Earth and its population should he be defied. And so, after returning to their Baxter Building headquarters, Reed deduces from the last place the Surfer was seen the sky-rider's probable destination, a trail the FF intend to follow.

And yet the clock is ticking, with the mother of all timetables in effect--and every second the FF spend on their hunt within Sub-Atomica weighs against the self-restraint of a being who will not countenance delay, or, worse, failure.

Silver Surfer: Judgment Day!

 

One project from Marvel which completely slipped under my radar in 1988 was the Silver Surfer: Judgment Day graphic novel--plotted by artist John Buscema and Marvel Editor-In-Chief Tom DeFalco, scripted by Stan Lee, and clocking in at sixty-two pages. The story's climax features a confrontation between the Surfer's perpetual menace, the demon Mephisto, and his former master, Galactus--with Nova, the current herald of the planet devourer, playing the role of unwitting accomplice caught up in Mephisto's web of deceit.

In addition, as will become quickly evident, Buscema has decided to contribute full-page art for the entire story--perhaps a complication as far as tying together the visuals in a meaningful way while awaiting sufficient captions and dialog to hopefully provide a riveting and engrossing experience for the reader. This work would be years removed from the books of the Silver Age where Lee hit his peak in doing just that, for the most part--but while Lee would prove to be more than adequate in handling the Surfer's 1978 graphic novel delineated by Jack Kirby, a story where a writer had the luxury of dealing with more conventional panels which offered the opportunity for details and subtleties that would do a great deal to invest the reader in the story, here there is instead mostly grandiosity to account for, along with Mephisto's trademark guile and relentlessness which tend to transfer easily from story to story without much variation. Given the format which Buscema has settled on, is Lee up to what's being asked of him?

This excerpt from the story's Foreword almost gives the matter a sense of mitigation after the fact, though that may be reading too much into it:

All of that being said, it was an interesting venture for Buscema and Lee to undertake, and, I don't doubt, a successful one. John Byrne took his own steps with such a format two years earlier with a 22-page story for Marvel Fanfare--the difference of course being that it played out on a third of the scale, but also having the advantage of the artist and writer being on the same page, as it were, in terms of a tighter meshing of story and art (at least to the extent that such a format would allow). The same could be said for Walt Simonson's similar effort in a story published toward the end of his run on Mighty Thor just a few months later.  Here, the bar is raised a bit for Lee, who fared well with his collaboration with Kirby as well as his one-shot story with Byrne (the latter also having involved Mephisto) but must now go beyond DeFalco's and Buscema's outline to craft a compelling and engaging tale, with virtually each page holding a measure of responsibility for its success.

The story begins with another failed attempt by Mephisto to entrap the Surfer and thus seize his soul. And as the demon ponders his latest setback, it's clear that his resolve to achieve his goal is as steadfast as ever.

"Again the deadly plan of Mephisto has been put to rout! But what does it matter?" A refrain that has become as worn as a doormat by now where the Surfer is concerned.

Marvel Comics: The End Of The Century, Part 1

 

Having traveled back fifty years to get a look at the comics which were showing up on Marvel's checklist in April of 1972, let's now be drawn forward again until we arrive just twenty-five years in the past. The calendar date is now April, 1997--and though some of us realize that perhaps the most significant day from that year is six months away on October 16 (the launch date of the space ship Jupiter 2 on its tragic flight toward Alpha Centauri), the fate of Marvel Comics was equally unknown, having gone through some financial difficulties and now in the midst of pulling itself together in terms of stability and direction.

If you were born in 1997, you would of course be 25 this year, another reason to note the twenty-five-year mark. Let's take a peek at what else was happening in April of that year:

• The launch of the pay-per-view Extreme Championship Wrestling event Barely Legal (I take "extreme" to mean that all the body blows and elbows to the face seen in the regular wrestling ring aren't staged in ECW--someone will have to educate me);
  
• Two environmental anomalies: the April Fool's Day blizzard which dumped rain, sleet and as much as 3 feet of snow from Maryland to Maine, as well as the Red River of the north breaking through dikes and flooding Grand Forks, ND and East Grand Forks, MN, to the tune of $2B in damages;
  
• Celebrities' births include actors Asa Butterfield, Maddison Brown, and Maisie Williams; YouTuber Crawford Collins; model Molly Bair; south Korean rapper Kim Min-gyu; football players Donny van de Beek, Matteo Pessina, and Oliver Burke;
  
• The first space burial: a Pegasus rocket carries the remains of 24 people into Earth orbit (this one threw me--not exactly a "burial," is it?);
  
• The TV series Pokémon premieres on TV Tokyo;
  
• Michael Chang (who turned 49 this year) defeated Grant Stafford in the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships singles final;
  
• The comet Hale-Bopp meets or exceeds predictions when it passes perihelion (the point when Earth is nearest the sun), visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months.

Over at Marvel, the Bullpen Bulletins page has been expanded to two pages, which now include an editor profile, a February (?) Marvel checklist for books sold in April... and, well, a grand total of two bulletins, where the "Items" of yore have made the journey to what you and I might refer to as full-blown "ads."

As for the February April checklist, the PPC is going to do a little expanding of its own and run down a few more of the 1997 books sold that month.

Fifty Years of Marvel Comics

 

What were some of you doing five decades ago? It's funny when you reach certain points where you find yourself recalling the world as it was then, and the realization hits that you lived during that period of time and lived through many of the events and changes which took place. For those of you in high school right now, you'll experience your own reflections of today's world in the year two-thousand seventy-two (!) -- and if you're like the rest of us, you're understandably not looking that far down the road, nor can you have a true conception of how your world, its people, its advances, and your own way of life will change.

Regrettably, it's safe to assume that by 2072 the price of a comic book will probably be around the cost of a monthly house payment, so be sure to factor that into your budget.

Fifty years ago, my own calendar would have put me at the year 1972, fourteen years old and looking forward to starting high school the next year. Here's a little of what my world looked like at the time:

• NASA was one flight away from closing out its Apollo moon mission, where America established itself as a pioneer of a sort but eventually realized it was spending a lot of money just to collect moon rocks;
  

• The SX-70 Polaroid camera was introduced, giving us film prints which developed themselves "right before your eyes"--an alternative to dropping your film off at "photo marts," but still too slow for those who reasoned that shaking the print feverishly would speed up the process (a reminder to think twice before following a wacky trend);
  
• Born in April of that year: actresses Jennifer Garner, Jenni Garth and Carmen Electra;
  
• The United States was nine months away from withdrawing its forces from Vietnam;
  
• The world's first law to officially recognize change of gender passed in Sweden;
  
• Winners of the 44th Academy Awards included The French Connection, Jane Fonda, Cloris Leachman, and Gene Hackman;
  
• The price of gas was at $0.55/gallon; the cost of a new home was around $30,000; a new car, $3,800; average rent, $165/mo.
  
• The home videogame industry took its first baby step with inventor Ralph Baer's patent for "A Television Gaming Apparatus and Method" (i.e., the home video game console).

But if you were a Marvel Comics reader in April, 1972, your focus away from school was probably on the comics stand at your local drugstore, shopping mart or whatever distributor carried comic books in your town, thanks to the Bullpen Bulletins page which often included the Marvel Checklist. If your comics collecting was in full swing, here's a "snapshot" of what Marvel Comics readers were plunking down their 20¢ for.

(WARNING: Please don't try shaking this image in the air for faster loading.)

Virus Of The Spirit

 

"But I thought freezing kills any virus." -- Will Robinson
"You thought. It's a good thing I'm the doctor and not you." -- Zachary Smith

The end of 1989 also marked the end of writer Steve Englehart's noteworthy run on the second volume of Silver Surfer, making way for new Surfer scripter Jim Starlin to come aboard (with Thanos in tow, it goes without saying). Sandwiched between the two points, however, was a stand-alone issue put together by Jim Valentino with artists Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott that is suitably entertaining in its own right as well as possibly a breath of fresh air for readers who may have had their fill of the cast of characters Englehart had introduced which tended to steal the book's thunder. Yet while its cover gives the impression that this will be an album issue, the images are instead indicative of a dangerous threat to the Surfer which will make him a foe to all who live should he fail to perceive its true nature in time.

As an interesting twist to such stories, we're tipped off from the beginning as to what we're dealing with, if not yet who--"A disembodied intelligence attempts to convince a sentient virus... to do its bidding." From their discussion, and in light of the title of this book, it's not difficult to guess which sky-rider of the spaceways these two are targeting--but the answer as to why will take some time to become clear.

The Surfer, The Skrull-Deviant, and the Eternals!

 

It wasn't until 1988 and around fifteen issues into his second series that the Silver Surfer received his first annual, written by Steve Englehart with art by Joe Staton and Joe Rubinstein--an issue which shares a cover distinction similar to the four annuals which followed, indicating their reliance on promotion-fueled crossover events which typified Marvel's line of comics going into the early 1990s. In this annual's case, that would be the eleven-issue Evolutionary War, where the High Evolutionary sought to accelerate human evolution worldwide in separate, piecemeal efforts as well as through the use of a genetic bomb.

Titled "Adam" (for a reason I've failed to grasp), the main story obviously involves the Eternals, led now by Ikaris following the final conflict with the Celestials which their Uni-Mind barely survived due to the sacrifice of their former sire, Zuras. In his globetrotting to assemble allies and put the pieces of his plan in motion, the Evolutionary appears in Olympia, the city of the Eternals, and secures their aid in regard to what he requires from the Surfer.

When Skrulls Take A Holiday

 

At the conclusion of the PPC's post on the Skrulls of Kral--a planet of Skrulls who became fascinated with Earth's gangster era from the 1920s-30s to the extent of shifting their shapes to mimic the people and culture of that period--it seemed those Skrulls were getting their just deserts from those they had captured from other worlds and enslaved to fight one another in their "Great Games," held to settle territorial disputes between Kralian gang bosses. Having broken free from their captors, thanks to the timely arrival of the Fantastic Four who had come in search of the Thing, the slaves turned on the Skrulls in revolt, making their intentions crystal clear.

But you wouldn't expect gangsters to take this sort of thing on the chin--and gangsters who are actually Skrulls, a race which doesn't particularly hold humans in high regard, might bear even more of a grudge toward those who have interfered in their affairs.

Which gives a nod to our 1928 Packard to pull up to another

---

Marvel Trivia Question

---

What became of the Kralians after the demise of the Great Games?

How To Repair Your Planet In 5 Easy Steps

 

To begin to understand the meaning and context of this post's title, we have to return to the year 1986, when the all-powerful being known as the Beyonder had come to the planet Earth and took human form in order to better understand us. Yet while the Beyonder was inundated by the sensations, distractions, and conflicts that we humans deal with on a daily basis, he had difficulty putting them into perspective and bringing either meaning or enlightenment to his existence as one of us. As a result, he reached a point where he began to lash out in one form or another, and often found himself at odds with our world's super-beings, some of whom he had earlier abducted and studied extensively on a world he'd created for that purpose--but eventually, things became so heated that a final confrontation between them was inevitable.

The struggle came to a head while the Beyonder was attempting to create a new form for himself, in a desperate effort to make himself truly human while still retaining his total might. It's at that crucial point that those who had now become his enemies located and confronted him; but the provocation forces the Beyonder to strike a fatal blow against all of them, and it's only the power of the Molecule Man which saves them from instant death.

(No, I don't know how having control over molecules allows Owen Reece to not only mentally chart the path of the Beyonder's death strike but also provides him with the knowledge and power to access sub-space. At any rate, we have to give him props for taking the initiative to safeguard the lives of innocents.)

But while the heroes have survived, the Earth has suffered a mortal wound from the discharge of the Beyonder's power--and when the Beyonder's experiment with his new form later ends in a second and tragic confrontation, the death knell of the planet's eventual doom from the destructive force unleashed by his hand becomes the focus and concern of everyone assembled in the aftermath. Soon, all eyes will turn to the one man whose power might yet save the world.

The question is: Will he?

Crisis From The Stars!

 

Having remembered writer Mark Waid's Fantastic Four run from the early 2000s, I was not only intrigued at seeing him take up work on the title again fifteen years later, but also surprised to learn that distinguished artist Neal Adams would also be aboard for Waid's four-issue series, which debuted in October of 2020.

I believe the last pages I remember seeing from Adams during his time at Marvel was his War Of The Worlds work from Amazing Adventures #18 in 1973. If I'm not mistaken, Adams' only work depicting the FF (three of them, at any rate) took place in Avengers #93, when a trio of Skrulls took their form to attack the assemblers (with Adams doing a few cutaway panels of the real McCoys in a subsequent issue). Having plied his craft with the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Inhumans, the FF would elude Adams for forty-nine years before finally landing on his drawing board as a full-fledged project--which was bound to make even those like myself, who had all but ceased reading new Marvel work, more than curious about the finished product.

This first installment of Waid's story is geared to build momentum for whatever challenge the FF will face, with much of it featuring the group in action against not one but two more immediate threats, the latter of which will be related to what is to come. The story's overriding theme, "antithesis"--literally, the opposite or contrast of one thing in relation to another--could mean anything at this point; the only thing we know for now, thanks to the cover, is that it will involve the Silver Surfer, who has returned to the service of Galactus. Obviously the Surfer is in bad shape, and the FF don't seem to be responsible for his condition--but we'll have to wait and see what we learn as things take shape.

As for that first threat, a character which fits that bill is surely Annihilus, the fiend from the Negative Zone who has once more broken through to our world with intentions toward conquest and death.

 

Cry Dentist!

 

A few weeks ago, alert PPC reader M.P. made an interesting observation of how artists will at times exaggerate a villain's facial features, specifically their mouths and teeth (as seen in a related post).

Well, you didn't expect me to leave a carrot like that dangling in front of me, did you?

Or, as Captain Axis might put it:

The Surfer, The Stranger, and The Judgment!

With the world-devouring Galactus having devoured five of the Elders of the Universe in retaliation for their plot to end his existence, Galactus has charged his herald, Nova, to find and retrieve the Contemplator, the one remaining Elder to be dealt with--while also requesting that his former herald, the Silver Surfer, guide Nova to the Elder's likely location. It's a request the Surfer is obliged to honor, after first securing the oath of Galactus that his home world of Zenn-La will remain inviolate in regard to Galactus's need for sustenance.

Yet once the two depart the presence of Galactus, the Surfer suspects that there is a deeper, even extraordinary, reason Galactus wished to be alone--and so he invites Nova to join him in remaining to covertly witness what happens next: a meeting that neither of them (or, I dare say, any readers) had suspected would take place.

Scripted by Steve Englehart, this particular meeting, at Eternity's behest, will be considerably less grim and depressive than the conversation which took place between Galactus and the manifestation of Death, five years prior. Here, instead, Eternity offers a recap of events, with the intent of putting those events in the perspective of "the big picture," so to speak, as it relates to both Galactus and Eternity--and, in a way, to the Surfer.

"Every man and every woman is a star!" I confess to at times being mystified by Englehart's nonsensical asides when exploring the workings of a character--that is to say, since when did Galactus have such high regard (or any regard) for mortal beings? It certainly didn't give him any noticeable pause from destroying their homeworlds and leaving them as refugees (those who had the means to escape their world's end, that is).

Over a year and a half later, Englehart would script his final issue of the Silver Surfer series, having brought to an end the saga of the second Kree-Skrull War and turning the reins over to another writer and penciler. And to cap his run on the book, an incredible meeting again takes place--one which, in a way, takes its cue from a possible seed which Englehart planted in the earlier story where Eternity alludes to the Surfer gaining the notice of beings such as themselves. Here, it's the Surfer and the Stranger who confer, at first, with the Surfer hoping to learn more of how the Stranger bears the isolation he imposes on himself. Yet when the Stranger is not forthcoming and the situation becomes tense, a third party arrives to provide the Surfer with the answer he seeks--and much more.

In The Grip Of The Psycho-Man!

Let's just recap how bleak things are looking recently, shall we?

• The Silver Surfer, fed up with his treatment by the hostile human race, refuses to turn the other cheek any longer and vows to meet force with force and violence with violence, "battl[ing] them on their own savage terms!" (That means we're in for it with interest, folks.)
• Reaching New York City, the Surfer unhesitatingly begins blasting large areas of the city to rubble, unmindful of the innocent lives he puts in danger!
• Spider-Man, the only hero in the vicinity (or, put another way, the only hero in the entire city who notices the continual devastation taking place--which one sounds more unbelievable?), responds to the emergency and fights bravely to stop the Surfer's rampage, but in the end falls beneath the onslaught of the Surfer's power!
• With Spider-Man at his mercy, the Surfer prepares to end his life--while in the wings, the true cause of the Surfer's emotion-charged violence is revealed to be the sub-atomic alien known as Psycho-Man!

By the way, the Surfer currently has no mercy to offer his fallen foe--so does this mean it's finally curtains for Spider-Man? It probably would be--if members of the very race the Surfer loathes didn't rush in to save the web-spinner's life without a second thought, even at the cost of their own.

Yet one remains on the scene who actually appreciates the chaos and destruction that's taken place--and continues to torment the alleged perpetrator.

What plan drives Psycho-Man's behavior on our world? And before he's through, will he succeed in dooming the Silver Surfer?

When Strikes the Savagely Sensational New Silver Surfer!

In September of 1970, Silver Surfer readers were presented with a tantalizing, and potentially terrifying, cliffhanger:

A startling scene which unfortunately coincided with the end of the series' 18-issue run, due to disappointing sales. Of course the more jolting news came in the "Stan's Soapbox" segment of the Bullpen Bulletins page for that issue which announced the departure of artist Jack Kirby, who apparently had turned in his work for the story with one foot out the door, leaving his celebrated run at Marvel Comics for greener (and reportedly fairer) pastures--though if you were still on page one, his name on the story's credits might likely have had you wondering as to whether he was taking over the book as its regular artist.

Yet there was still the matter of the Surfer's final dramatic scene, one so compelling that it would necessitate being followed up on before any future appearances for the Surfer could be arranged. How surprising, then, to see its ramifications dispensed with so quickly, when the Surfer is brought back into circulation five months later (as part of the newly-formed "Titans Three"):

As cooling-off periods go, the Surfer's surely sets a new standard.

But almost 29 years later, writer Eric Stephenson dusts off that dangling plot in order to resolve it in the Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man series, which in this case turns time back to shortly after the Surfer's battle with the Inhumans takes place--where we find a delegation from the Great Refuge contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. (which has had first-hand experience with the Surfer's apparent brand of madness) to alert Nick Fury and his organization to what they believe to be the Surfer's unprovoked aggression.

It's a decent connection to Stan Lee's prior story, though the Inhumans fail to mention that their own actions in this matter are proof that there's enough blame to go around here.

Nevertheless, the stage is set to finally explore in full the scene which closed that decades-old story--and on a calm afternoon in New York City, the Silver Surfer's newfound rage finds release, and a certain web-swinging hero finds himself the only one who can stem the loss of life.

(Efforts which will hopefully include his own!)

God vs. Titan!

When last we left the mighty (and unfortunately insane) Thor, he had finally been subdued after having undertaken a violent and seemingly inexplicable rampage through the stars--all part of the 1993-94 "Blood and Thunder" crossover event that would end up involving Warlock, the Infinity Watch, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, and Thanos of Titan. (To say nothing of the Super Skrull, Ares, Pluto, and Beta Ray Bill--as well as crossing paths with another crossover event, The Infinity Crusade.) By the time of his capture, Thor has managed to acquire for himself from Drax the Destroyer the "power" Infinity Gem, which, added to his own considerable might, makes the Thunder God one of the most extreme threats ever to face the universe should he ever break free of the containment field which Thanos had managed to encase him in.

What has only recently come to light is that Thor's rage doesn't stem from the Asgardian "warrior madness" which he'd experienced in the past, but is instead rooted in the instances when his father Odin has in one way or another manipulated his spirit, whether it was by forcing him to coexist with a mortal form or by use of disciplinary measures, all of which have led to an imbalance in his soul. A further complication of this saga is that the Lady Sif, who remains unaware of this, continues to believe that Thor once again suffers from warrior madness, and has attempted to keep that news from Odin for fear that Thor will be exiled from Asgard. But her house of cards in that respect begins to crumble with the recent arrival of Thanos and his party on the rainbow bridge, as they seek an audience with Odin in the hope that he can cure his son.

Though Thanos has all but ensured that their reception will be anything but a cordial one.

Blood And Thunder!

From a period of eleven months during 1993-94, you may remember a crossover event which took its lead from the pages of Mighty Thor and essentially had the Thunder God decimating a number of high-profile opponents in a fit of madness and rage which, if unchecked, would have him seeking the destruction of the entire universe, including his homeland of Asgard. Aptly named "Blood and Thunder," the storyline would also serve the purpose of drawing readers' attention to five other titles to which it had a connection, specifically:

• Silver Surfer #s 86-88
• The Warlock Chronicles #s 6-8
• Warlock and the Infinity Watch #s 23-25
• The Infinity Crusade

As well as, for the sake of accuracy,
• Thunderstrike

The Infinity Crusade, of course, being a crossover event in itself, capitalizing on its 1991-92 predecessors The Infinity Gauntlet and The Infinity War, with this new series perhaps being the first (and only?) time two crossover events have *ahem* "crossed" paths at the same point in time. In this case, "Blood and Thunder" gave a plug to The Infinity Crusade by dealing in its protagonist, the Goddess, who merely conscripted Thor in the same way she did other characters in her story--temporarily derailing the influence of the female figure named Valkyrie (more on her in a moment) until The Infinity Crusade ran its course, after which Thor would again fall under Valkyrie's sway.

Yet "Blood and Thunder" informally has its beginnings in Mighty Thor #s 460-467, several issues before the "Blood and Thunder" banner begins appearing above the masthead--installments which take us back to where Odin is concerned about Thor starting unprovoked brawls and consequently sends him on vacation among the stars to sort himself out. Though if we cut to the chase of "Blood and Thunder," we find that the violent madness which afflicts Thor thereafter is rooted in actions Odin himself has taken over time:

Aside from Blake, Dr. Strange alludes to other instances which in one way or another affected Thor's spirit, including Thor having to surrender his identity to Eric Masterson, as well as the period during which Thor saw his power and hammer duplicated in the form of Beta Ray Bill. (The latter of which I'm not buying, since Thor was totally on board with Odin's decision regarding Bill and displayed no misgivings about it or signs of trauma in the slightest--in fact, quite the contrary, given the deep friendship and trust he and Bill established between themselves.) Still, during his madness, Thor often despairs that he's lost "bits and pieces" of himself, which would seem to validate the overall diagnosis.

But on his "vacation" in space, seeking solace instead causes a manifestation of Thor's anguished mental state to take shape as a woman known only as "Valkyrie," a hallucination that he nevertheless believes is real and which naturally sympathizes and encourages his most deep-seated doubts about his father's treatment of him.

And armed with the affirmation he has long sought, Thor embraces a path of anger which will have him lashing out at friend and foe alike.