Thor #257
Death, Thou Shalt Die!
While on their quest to find Odin, Thor and his allies have stopped aboard an alien worldship called the Levianon in the hopes its passengers might know the location of the Doomsday Star.[1] They discover a race of blue-skinned aliens who are terrorized by an unseen monster called Sporr who has been kidnapping the sick and the old.[2] The most recent victim is Thor’s beloved Lady Sif. Fearing for her safety, Thor and the Warriors Three have pledged to help Relstor — the leader of the aliens — to help destroy Sporr.
With an army of able bodied warriors, they then begin going deeper into the ship in the hopes of finding Sporr’s domain. Thor and the Warriors Three note that the massive ship is in a serious state of disrepair and ask how Relstor’s people ended up in this situation.
Relstor explains that his people lived once lived on a world that was a utopia. While its people lived in opulence, all of the work was done by robots which endlessly dug below the surface of the world for the resources needed to support this utopia. Eventually, they ran out of resources and the strip-mining caused the planets core to become unstable. The few remaining scientists left build the Levianon to allow as many of their people to escape the destruction of their world. However, they did not learn their lesson and the survivors continued to live their hedonistic lifestyle until things started breaking down and they realized nobody knew how to fix anything. This is how Relstor’s people found themselves living like primitives aboard a highly advanced ship. In more recent history, their ship was struck by a meteor that contained Sporr and the alien has been terrorizing them ever since.
Back in Asgard, Balder and Karnilla have been left in charge of the kingdom while Thor searches for Odin. After being warned of an impending threat, the couple venture to the castle walls. There they witness an army standing silently just outside the kingdom. Balder finds their silence eerie and wants to investigate things further before deciding how to act.
While aboard the Levianon, Thor and his allies finally find the chamber where Sporr has been operating from. The creature is a shapeless mass with a single eye and a mass of tentacles. They begin attacking the creature and it begins defending itself. Ultimately, the battle is won when Thor stuns the monster with a blast of energy from Mjolnir, allowing Resltor and his people to gore the creature to death with spears. They then search the next chamber and are shocked to find Sif and the kidnapped aliens have all been living in peace in a utopia set up by Sporr. As it turns out, Sporr was never a threat at all and only wanted to help the people of the Levianon. Thor and the others are horrified to discover they destroyed the Levianon’s only chance for salvation.
As the Asgardians ponder over what they have done a new threat is heading their way. An alien war vessel called the Bird of Prey is heading their way and have detected their ship. The captain of this vessel is Thor’s old foe the Grey Gargoyle who orders his crew that they will board the ship and plunder it, vowing that whoever is aboard the ship will rue the day they crossed paths with him.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Grey Gargoyle, Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg), Sif, Balder, Karnilla, Recorder, Fee-Lon, Sporr, Darnak, Relstor
Continuity Notes
Odin has been missing since Thor #243 and has been a prisoner on the Doomsday Star since that time. See Thor #250 and 262 for more details.
Neither alien race is identified in this story. Sporr is a member of the Fomalhauti while the blue skinned aliens are later identified as the Levians. These facts are detailed in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 and 6 respectively.
Although not specified in this issue or the next, Thor finds himself plucked out of time and brought back to Earth. He will appear in Avengers #162. Avengers #175 reveals that the Collector had been doing this in order to keep the Avengers alive until he could add them all to his collection. Thor would be put back from the exact moment he was taken from with his all memory of the events wiped from his memory.
