Plot, Pencils & Words Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz
Finished Art Joe Sinnott
Lettering Mike Heisler
Coloring Mike Rockwitz
Cover promises a four way battle. Of which, I haven’t seen the likes since Wrestlemania 2000 with the Rock, HHH, Mick Foley and the Big Show.
This comic gives us Thor v. Excalibur v. Wrecking Crew v. Code : Blue.
Opening page is great use of only two panels. One depicting the illusion of Juggernaut and the below with the actual victim, Thor.
Kitty utterly defeated and caused Thor so much pain.
Also depicted is Kitty and Lockheed!
Great double splash page with all 16 characters. Only ones missing are Enchantress and Ulik, which makes sense as they are invisible at the moment.
One of the Code : Blue refers to Excalibur as the British Avengers or X-Factor.
Kitty is thinking they might think she went too far with merging Thor with the dock.
Kitty fights Jock Jackson. She finds him cute with a nice butt.
I miss the classic blue sweater costume of her’s. She really is due for a new costume design.
Thor escapes his predicament by using Mjolnir.
Kitty starts realizing that Juggernaut is acting strange and mumbles all of his words.
Rachel throws a fireball at Thor, he bounces it right back at her.
Nightcrawler saves her from falling into the water.
Meggan fights Wrecker on her own, then Lockheed swoops in for the assist. Enchantress puts Wrecker’s hands and feet in rocks.
Lockheed notices the invisible Enchantress and Ulik, in a very cute panel.
Captain Britain fights Thor, one on one for most of the issue.
Lockheed breathes fire at Enchantress and Ulik.
Kitty is about to assist Captain Britain when Bulldozer charges at her. Thor notices and throws his mighty hammer.
Wrecker teleports the crew, minus Bulldozer. Once they are gone, Excalibur sees Thor as he really is.
Code : Blue gathers Bulldozer and Captain Britain tells Thor that they still need to know what happened to the Juggernaut.
For his part, Thor is pretty cool with the entire misunderstanding.
Thor teleports Excalibur, minus Rachel and Kurt, to the asteroid where he left Juggernaut, back in Thor 412.
Once they land, they all get zapped. Kitty fakes being unconscious.
Turns out, the aliens who carted the heroes away, work for their new king . . . The Juggernaut!
I looked Eric Masterson up on Wikipedia, and it reads like his time as Thor, is super complicated. Like, it is Thor’s mind in Eric’s head and then he became Thor outright. I don’t know, it doesn’t sound like a great era for Thor. Super complicated, and isn’t acknowledged at all now.
The popular idea is to tell the story of Kevin, Eric’s son, becoming the new Thunderstrike. Which is the identity Eric adopts once he is no longer Thor.
Next issue promises to be exciting, with the Juggernaut being a king. Why would he ever leave, once you rule all?
Shadow and Flame with Magik 