Thor
flies Hildegarde back to Avengers Mansion and they land on the roof. The silent
alarms awaken Jarvis who goes to investigate and finds the two Asgardians.
Thor, in a dark mood over Sif’s abandonment of him, snarls at Jarvis and chases
him off. Hildegarde rebukes Thor for his treatment of Jarvis and goes to bed.
Thor broods over the events of the last several issues and when he is finished,
he seeks out Jarvis and apologizes to him….
Landlord
Karl Sarron goes to Dr. Don Blake’s locked office and enters. We discover he is
an alien, Mercurio the Fourth Dimensional Man from the planet Gramos. He has
settled in this office because he detected the energies emitted by Blake when
he transforms into Thor and draws on them to power a Dimensional Oscillator
which he uses to open a communication portal to his home planet. He contacts a
leader with a progress report on obtaining Earth’s electromagnetic field to
save their dying planet. After he signs off, he tries to use the Oscillator to
resume his native form but the device loses power midway through, leaving
Mercurio stranded between alien and human….
Thor
greets the Warriors Three, returning from their camping trip and they inform
him that Balder did not return with them, pining for his lost Karnilla. Thor
then sees it as his mission to reunite the two loves as the only way to free
Sif from her vow of servitude to the Norn Queen. Thor is drawn to Don Blake’s
office where he is attacked by Mercurio, whose left hand is a burning fire and
his right, deadly ice—and only by killing Thor and taking his energies can he
complete the transformation back to his natural form. The two battle, crashing
through the wall and down to the street below. The villain sets the sidewalk on
fire with a touch and Thor calls down a rainstorm to quench it. A police
officer comes to see what the fuss is about and Mercurio freezes him,
threatening to do the same to all the inhabitants of the city unless Thor
surrenders to him….
The
Warriors Three explore Avengers Mansion and come upon Vision on monitor duty. They
have Vision look in on Asgard but the sight of their homeland makes them sad so
Vision changes the scene—and they discover Thor battling Mercurio. They dash
into action, commandeering a taxi and riding atop it to the scene of mayhem….
When
the Warriors Three arrive, Thor leaves them to occupy the villain while he
turns back into Don Blake and visits the library. Having learned what he wanted
to know, Thor returns to battle carrying an iron girder. He melts it so that it
coats Mercurio and the iron conducts his forces and consumes him. He vanishes,
accusing Thor of having destroyed him and his world….