Thor #245: Review

Mar 1976

Len Wein, John Buscema

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Story Name:

The Temple at the End of Time!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Thor #245 Review by Peter Silvestro (August 7, 2014)

Review: Satisfying wrap-up of the Time Twisters saga tosses out a temporal paradox to delight 70s comic book fans and we ate it up. The denouement is similar to that of the obscure sci-fi flick CYBORG 2087 (released in 1966 but shown on television only a few years later)—except the Thor one makes sense (while lacking Cyborg’s bittersweet tone). The big question here is how Derek remembered the previous world so he could explain it all to Zarrko; everyone else forgot it all because it never happened. Anyway, mind-boggling sci-fi epic ends well.

Comments: Part four of four parts. The Time Twisters and an alternate version called the Time Keepers will appear in WHAT IF? Vol. 2 #35-39 in an arc designated “Timequake.”

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #245 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Mourning the ruined Earth, Thor and his companions decide that it was Sif’s powers over time and space that allowed them to survive the destruction that came in the wake of the departure of the Time Twisters.
Zarrko returns to berate the heroes for failing to save his empire; Thor responds with accusations of cowardice against the tyrant. Zarrko’s Servitor defends his master by assaulting Thor; the Thunder God responds with a hammer blow and the battle is joined. Meanwhile, we learn that Derek stowed away in Zarrko’s Time Cube; he is shattered to discover he is the sole survivor of Earth. Jane Foster halts the fight between Thor and the Servitor and reminds them that the 20th century Earth is still threatened by the enemy. Zarrko is not interested in saving the 20th century until Thor proposes that they move forward in time to stop the Time Twisters in the 80th century; Zarrko approves but suggests they travel even further ahead to stop them from ever being born. They all board the Time Cube and journey to the end of the universe; the voyage is a dangerous one but they finally arrive at their destination. There they discover a small temple on a desolate asteroid, protected by a force field, which only the combined energy of Thor’s hammer and the Servitor’s power lance can penetrate. The heroes then must battle the temple’s guardian statues to gain entry. Inside they find the fetal Time Twisters in a life support machine and their creator, the elderly He Who Remains. He is the last surviving being of the universe and he has created the Time Twisters to carry all the accumulated knowledge of the dying universe forward into the new one which shall be born. Jane explains that the experiment will go awry and his charges will end up ensuring that the old universe will never have come into being. As the cataclysm begins, the heroes escape in the Time Cube and He Who Remains, with a single tear in his eye, terminates the life support of his charges….

The Time Cube returns to Zarrko’s 50th century to discover the place a utopia, ruled over by the wise and kindly Derek. He explains that having prevented the Time Twisters from ever being born, time reset itself without Zarrko, who was never there. The ex-tyrant appeals to Thor and the gang to help him but they point out that if the Time Twisters were never born, Zarrko would never have come back for them so they were never there. The heroes slowly fade away and find themselves back in Don Blake’s apartment with no memory of being interrupted for a journey into the future….

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