Thor #282


 

Thor #282 "Rites of Passage" 

Writer: Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio
Penciler: Keith Pollard

Plot: Thor battles Tempus and is drawn into further machinations of Immortus. 

Comments: Thor is still trapped in Phantus's core, transforming into Don Blake. It's still funny to see mild profanity that Gruenwald would later not use in favor of euphemisms. 

The Space Phantom frees Thor and promises to take him to his hammer. 


Thor and Space Phantom go to Immortus's castle, which looks like something M.C. Escher designed. 


Thor comes face to face with Tempus, who was last seen in Giant Size Fantastic Four #2. Thor ultimately prevails. I like how Thor points out Tempus's resemblance to a frost giant. The interior of Immortus's castle looks like M.C. Escher's Relativity. 



Immortus recounts his former life as Rama-Tut. 

Immortus and the Space Phantom convince Thor to help the Space Phantom's planet, but at the cost of Thor's hammer's time traveling ability. Thor agrees and is transported back to his time and surmises that it could have been scheme to strip away his hammer's power. Avengers Forever #8 later proves that Thor was correct and that it was a ruse after all. 






Thor's suspicions were also kind of leaning on the fourth wall, since the story was created explicitly to take away the hammer's time traveling abilities, which Gruenwald and Macchio disliked as they revealed in the letter's column. Gruenwald's fanzine Omniverse is given a plug here. It's something I would love to read someday. 








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