Thor #288
Fury of the Forgotten Hero!
Thor and Hero are transported aboard the Celestial ship in the middle of their battle. There, the thunder god is in awe of the presence of the One Above All, leader of the Celestials. Hero believes they have been brought here so the One Above All might observe them and he continues his fight. Hero plans on returning to Earth and continuing his revenge against Zuras for exiling him centuries ago.[1]
During the fight, Hero offers to spare the thunder god if he agrees to stop interfering with the Celestial’s 50 year judgement of the Earth. However, Thor refuses to surrender as he intends to defend the Earth from any threat the space gods might pose to his adopted home. Hero then makes the mistake of trying to electrocute Thor with a massive wire, but this only renews Thor’s strength.
Meanwhile, the battle between Thor and Hero are being observed by Odin and Mimir in Asgard. The flaming entity in the Well of Wisdom mocks Odin for his lack of action. However, the All-Father has plans for the Celestials and he cannot interfere with his son because of them. That’s when Karnilla the Norn Queen appears before Odin. She has just learned that Balder was sacrificed during Odin’s staged Ragnarok and is now keep in a state between life and death in order to preserve the kingdom.[2] When she demands that Odin restore Balder to life, the All-Father tells her that the power to do so is out of his grasp right now.
When she questions why she would sacrifice those most loyal to him, Odin tells her he takes no pleasure in doing so. To prove his point he shows her images of Sif, who is locked in battle with a Storm Giant named Skoll on a mission for Odin. Using the Odinpower infused into her sword, Sif defeats Skoll and enters the cave where she finds the Destroyer armor. Elsewhere, the Warriors Three are on a separate mission for the All-Father, leading to a battle against Fafnir the dragon.[3] The trio fare worse than Sif as, after Fandral stabs the dragon in the eye, it seemingly incinerates the Warriors Three with its flaming breath. This deeply upsets Odin who once again refuses to revive Balder when Karnilla asks. When she threatens to do everything in her power to stop him, Odin suddenly teleports away. Mimir won’t tell the Norn Queen where Odin went, but assures her that the mission he is now embarking on will only end in failure.
As this transpires, the battle aboard the Celestial ship rages on. When hero tosses a metal globe at Thor, he knocks it up toward the One Above All.[4] The massive Celestial then vaporizes the projectile like it was nothing. Hero then tries to wrest Mjolnir from Thor’s grasp. Although he succeeds, the enchantments placed on the weapon prevent Hero from lifting it off the ground.[5] With sixty-seconds before he reverts back to Don Blake, Thor quickly knocks Hero away and reclaims his hammer. Eventually, the thunder god knocks Hero out and decides to turn his might against the One Above All.
Back on Olympia, the Eternals petition Zuras to help stop the Celestial’s 50 year judgement of all life on Earth. However, Zuras declines to do anything rash and instead decides that the matter will be decided by merging everyone together to form the Uni-Mind.
While back aboard the Celestial ship, Thor’s attack on the One Above All are shrugged off. Although the massive Celestial does not speak it manages to stop Thor dead in his tracks by showing him an image from the past: In it, Thor sees Valkin, Druig, and Ajak, the Eternals he first met over a millennia ago. He is also shocked to see his father Odin bowing down before the Celstial known as Arishem the Judge.[6] Seeing such an image is beyond belief to the thunder god who insists that it must be some kind of lie.
Recurring Characters
Thor, Mimir, Odin, Karnilla, Balder, Sif, Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg), Ikaris, Zuras, Thena, Major Domo, Makkari, Ransak the Reject, Karkas, Hero, One Above All, Skoll, Fafnir, Destroyer, (flashback) Arishem the Judge, Ajak, Druig, Valkin
Continuity Notes
For more on the Forgotten One’s exile and his transformation into Hero, see Eternals #13.
The whole fake Ragnarok thing was why Thor is also exiled on Earth. This all went down in Thor #273-278.
Mention is made of the Warriors Three’s previous battle with Fafnir which took place in Thor #134-135. Karnilla makes a point here to differentiate this Fafnir with a Storm Giant of the same name that horded gold. This is a reference to the Ring of the Ninblung. How this ties into Asgardian lore is covered in Thor #294-300.
Hero states here that he was responsible for holding the world aloft on his soldier, taking credit for the legend of Atlas. However, this is later refuted in Incredible Hercules #123 which shows that Atlas indeed supported the heavens on his shoulders (actually something called the Axis Mundi) which he continued to support well into the modern age, as seen in Incredible Hercules #132. An official explanation has yet to be provided. I think that since Greek myth as well as Thor #356 tell that Atlas was given relief from holding up the heavens by Hercules. One could assume that Atlas took another break, enlisting the Forgotten One instead of Hercules that second time. Stranger things have happened.
Here, the Forgotten One claims to be the source of the Biblical story of Samson, the guy who is only strong as long as nobody cuts his hair. This is also at odds with Venus #4, which depicts Samson as a real entity that was slumming it with the Olympians in the 1940s for some reason (read: writers back then were playing it fast and loose). However, given that there are multiple conflicting stories where Eternals are attributed to the works of gods and vice versa, it’s entirely possible that people mistook Hero for the real Samson.
Thor recalls his previous encounter with Valkin, Ajak, and Druig. That was in Thor Annual #7.
