Thor #384: Review

Oct 1987

Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz

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Story Name:

Who Shall Be Worthy?

Review & Comments

Rating:

Thor #384 Review by Peter Silvestro (September 7, 2020)

Review: Another new Thor? But this one doesn’t show up very often in the character’s history so it’s cool. The story is a rather simplified origin issue, having to sketch a whole new futuristic society with its political organization and subversive movements and all that; yes, it’s done with rather broad strokes and if one puts one’s mind to it, one can find all sort of silliness in the premise but the real focus is on a new Thor, one Dargo Ktor (which rhymes with Thor), a cynic until he sees his people in trouble and then his inner nobility shines through and declares him worthy. So where is the real Thor Odinson at this point? No idea. Can anyone out there supply the info?

Comments: This future has been designated Earth-8710 by the powers that be. First appearance/origin of Dargo Ktor as Thor, whose next appearance is issue #400. First appearance of Loki’s troll sidekick Tyrus, whose only later appearance is issue #440. The big question: Who put Thor’s hammer on that pedestal for everyone to try to lift?

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Thor #384 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

New York A.D. 2537: The city is ruled by a massive faceless corporation that has enslaved the populace. Dargo Ktor and his wife Salla risk their lives breaking curfew to attend a clandestine meeting of an illegal sect that worships Thor God of Thunder; tonight, they have Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and a big guy tries to lift it to become the people’s hero—but he fails. On their way home, we learn that while Salla is quite sincere in her faith that a savior would arise, Dargo is a cynic who thinks it is a waste of time….

The Corp’s chairman sees the Thor cult as a threat to the company’s smooth running so he hires an outside specialist to eliminate them. The specialist reveals he will forgo his usual fee and exterminate them for free. This is because this specialist is a disguised Loki who is seeking the missing Mjolnir. That night, he and his minions, wolves, monsters, and a troll named Tyrus the Terrible as his right-hand man, invading the cult’s headquarters during a ceremony, wreaking havoc and killing the cultists. To protect his wife, Dargo grabs Mjolnir—and is transformed into a new Thor. He creates a tornado, blowing all the baddies up to the street; he is hailed by the worshippers as their savior but he rejects the role and flees, turning back top Dargo when he is alone….

Word spreads of the advent of Thor and Mr. Chairman demands that Loki do something. Soon, the workers are staging a protest march and they are surrounded by Loki’s minions and the Corp police. After some thought, Dargo realizes he was given the power for a purpose and transforms into Thor and battles the cops. But Tyrus the Terrible takes him on and the fight is complicated by Mjolnir’s attempting to escape from Dargo; the battle becomes brutal but finally Thor is victor….

Back at Corp Central, Mr. Chairman is throwing a fit over the losses to the company but a brooding Loki simply blows the place up. The workers see it and cheer while Dargo realizes that the hammer is trying to get to its rightful wielder and releases it into a gateway to another dimension, resuming his Dargo form as well. Sensing that the hammer is gone from that plane, Loki and his army also vanish….

Salla and Dargo are reunited and join the rest of the workers in a second chance.…

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