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Thor Vol 1 231

Quote1  Jane Foster, nurse. What room is she in? Tell me now woman, or by all that the Gods hold holy, thou wilt pay for delaying me!  Quote2
—Thor

Appearing in "A Spectre From the Past!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Races and Species:

Locations:

Items:

  • Mjolnir
  • Sif's Sword
  • Madame Cynthia's Crystal Ball

Synopsis for "A Spectre From the Past!"

Thor and Hercules return to the surface and fix the hole in the street that Hercules had created in order to defeat the monster called "Fear." After they are done, Detective Blumkenn tells Thor that one of the people who had been stopped from killing themselves has been asking for him - Jane Foster. Hearing that name causes an emotional Thor to very forcefully demand to be told where she is, and he flies off as soon as he's told that she's at Midtown Hospital, leaving Hercules to tell Blumkenn that Thor once loved Jane Foster. Once at the hospital, Thor demands to know what room Jane Foster is in, goes there, sits down beside her bed and holds her hand.

Two nights later, as Madame Cynthia and her son Arnold conduct a séance for four members of the Carwell family, their (fake) attempt to contact the soul of the late David Carwell goes horribly wrong when something from the spirit world makes contact with Arnold and he is possessed by and transformed into a Neanderthal who calls himself Armak, the First Man. Having returned to life after three million years in darkness, Armak finds life good so he grabs Anne Carwell, punches a hole in the brownstone's wall and carries her off.

Back at Midtown Hospital, Sif sees that Thor, after holding vigil for the past 48 hours, has fallen asleep while holding Jane's hand, and she realizes just how much he still loves her. After the doctor tells Sif that there's not much hope and that Jane has a week or two at the most, Sif returns to Asgard seeking Odin, only to be told by Hildegarde that Odin has vanished and they are alone.

Back on Earth, Hercules is walking uptown (after having concluded an adventure with Spider-Man) when he comes across the rampaging Armak who is still carrying Anne over his shoulder and wanting to fight a man. Hercules responds to this challenge by punching him, but Armak, although impressed, is not downed and his punch knocks Hercules unconscious.

At the hospital, when Krista sees the battle in Times Square on a TV news report, she tells Thor that Hercules is in danger but he isn't inclined to help because he wants to stay at Jane's bedside. Krista gets his attention by slapping him and insists that he must act as Thor, god of thunder, would. Thor agrees that it's his duty to help his friend and flies off.

In Times Square, Armak is still rampaging when Thor arrives. After seeing that Hercules has regained consciousness, Thor punches Armak with enough force to stagger him and make him drop his captive. As Armak lunges to attack Thor, Hercules scoops up the near-hysterical Anne who tells him what happened.

After Armak picks up a car to throw at Thor and the godling smashes it to pieces with Mjolnir, the two begin fighting hand-to-hand, smash their way into a construction site for a skyscraper, and end up in an elevator that carries them ever higher above the ground. As Armak gets his hands around Thor's throat, Hercules and Anne arrive with Madame Cynthia who uses a police loudspeaker to appeal to her son. When Armak is momentarily distracted, Thor takes the opportunity to punch him off the elevator, and Armak takes the long fall down to the ground. Fatally wounded, Armak transforms back into Arnold who reaches towards Anne and calls her beautiful before dying. Hercules swears to unravel the mystery of what power changed Arnold into Armak and, when he looks up, is surprised to see that Thor is flying off without a word to him.

Notes

  • Three pages of this issue were printed out of sequence:
    • Page 27 should be Page 26
    • Page 30 should be Page 27
    • Page 26 should be Page 30

The printing error is noted in the letters page of Thor #236.

  • Jane Foster last appeared as a supporting character in this series in Thor #136. Thor last encountered Jane in Thor #172, at which time she was romantically involved with the brown-haired "Dr. Jim North."
  • In the middle of this issue, Hercules had an adventure with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #28, as noted by editor Roy Thomas.
    • That adventure, which was also written by Gerry Conway, featured the Son of Zeus and the Wall-Crawler separately investigating unnatural earthquakes that had been occurring in Manhattan and teaming up to defeat the two giant armored figures who had been using advanced earth-digging machines to cause the quakes. That story is best known for its impossible ending which has since been officially retconned into Hercules having boasted of what he had done to stop the villains in more grandiose/outrageous terms.[1]
  • Sif tells Heimdall that he is her friend, apparently forgetting that he is her brother.
  • Hercules utters the profanity, "Peaks of Olympus!" when Thor takes off without a word to him or the others.
  • In Thor #233, Loki will reveal that he created "that Neanderthal" to test Thor.
  • "The Hammer Strikes" letters page includes letters from Steve Andrews, Danny C. Ng, Bob Bryan, and Jeff Westfall.

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