Late one night, Peter Parker is out walking and comes across
two men attacking a woman. Without taking the time to change into Spider-man,
Pete beats up the two bad guys; when he approaches the woman, though, she runs
off, saying she doesn’t want to get involved. He is annoyed and Thor, sitting
on a fire escape above, makes a joking comment (not knowing who Peter is) which
Pete also objects to. Thor advises Pete to let the matter pass but Pete again
insults him, annoying Thor in return. Then the night sky turns white and the
stars black; Thor spins his hammer around them so that the sudden change in the
world does not affect them. When it stops Thor and Peter are the only color
people in a negative world; the only people moving in a world frozen in time.
Pete changes to Spider-Man just as a band of trolls arrives, also moving and
rightly colored. The two heroes battle the trolls and Thor recognizes their
leader Kryllk the Cruel, who boasts that Earth is a stepping stone for his
conquest of Asgard. He shows them the Dark Crystal, which resembles a giant
blue egg, the device which has stopped time. Thor tries to seize the villain
but he and all of his warriors fade away….
Thor takes Spidey to Avengers headquarters where they find
Iron Man and other equally immobilized. At Thor’s suggestion, Spidey uses the computers
once he has figured out how to reverse the circuits. They see the traces of the
crystal’s residue between Asgard and … As Thor has been exiled, he spins his
hammer to send Spidey to the Golden Realm while he follows the villain to his
lair….
Spidey finds Asgard is also frozen in time while Thor
reaches a desolate planetoid near Jupiter. He hears the sound of machinery so
he smashes his way underground where the enemy base is hidden. Thor clobbers a
bunch of trolls but when he reaches for Kryllk, Thor finds his enemy is
protected by the aura of the crystal which has filled his mind with dreams of conquering
Asgard….
And in Asgard, Spider-Man also sees Kryllk standing with the
Dark Crystal and surrounded by his troll army. Spidey fights his way through
the baddies and punches Kryllk in the chest—and Kryllk standing before Thor
feels it. Then the villain, his army, and the crystal all fade away. Thor and
Spidey are now in the presence of the Watcher, who tells them that the Dark
Crystal is his and stolen by Kryllk. When the baddie used it to stop time, he
created a temporal echo which touched Earth and Asgard. Now Watcher sends
Spidey and Thor back to Earth and ponders how Fate kept them free to save the
Universe….