Appearances: 

Space Phantom

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor dwells upon what he has learned about the Eternals and the Celestials (in Thor Annual #7).  He decides that he will travel back in time to when the Celestials first appeared on Earth.  But once in the time stream, Mjolnir vanishes and Thor is left in a land of fog and shadows.  He is then confronted by the Space Phantom, who tells him he is in Limbo.  He tells Thor of his planet, Phantus, and that his hammer is probably at it's core.  Thor agrees to help him save his planet, if he will help find Mjolnir.  Once on the surface, they are repeatedly attacked by the warring Phantoms.  The Phantom leads Thor to a complex containing a shaft that leads to the core.  Thor leaps in, but it was a trap.  The Phantom planned on using Thor's immortal body like a cork to keep Phantus from slipping completely into Limbo.  What he didn't know is that for half of Thor, 60 seconds have past, so one half of his body is Thor, the other half is Don Blake.

Thor #282                                      April 1979
"Rites of Passage"

Writer:  Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio
Artist:  Keith Pollard
Inker:  Pablo Marcos
Letters: Jim Novak

Appearances: 

Space Phantom, Tempus, Immortus

Significant Events:  Mjolnir temporal enchantment is removed.  Immortus holds Mjolnir.

Synopsis:  The Space Phantom realizes that his plan is not working and checks on Thor.  He discovers that he is losing his godly attributes and transports him out.  Thor returns to normal and confronts the Phantom.  He tells Thor that he does not know where Mjolnir is but he thinks he can find it.  He leads Thor to the castle of Immortus, where they are confronted by Tempus.  Thor and Tempus battle back and forth, until finally, using Tempus' own club, he is defeated by Thor.  Thor and the Phantom enter the castle and find Immortus holding Mjolnir.  He tosses it to Thor casually telling him that he wanted to investigate its temporal properties.  In return for the knowledge, he tells Thor the truth about himself.  With Immortus' help, Thor saves Phantus, but had to sacrifice every iota of temporal energy in his hammer.  Thor does so, but he will never again be able to travel through time.  Immortus then transports Thor back to his own time.

Thor #283                                           May 1979
"Suddenly...the Celestials!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  John Buscema
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Odin, Gammenon the Gatherer

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor is flying over Mexico City, when he notices an armed robbery in progress.  He stops their escape and helps in thier capture.  Thor, concerned with the Celestials, summons Odin to seek answers.  Answers as to why he has such a fascination for Earth, why he has never been told who his mother is, and why Balder cannot be saved.  Odin answers only the last, simply telling him that Balder's half-life keeps Asgard and Midgard safe.  Thor then asks what Odin knows of the Celestials.  Odin, instead, simply disappears.  Thor flies over the Andes Mountains, searching for answers, and discovers the dome of the Celestials.  Thor tries to break through, but it resists his mightiest blows.  Just then, the airplane that Thor passed earlier comes across Gammenon, who gathers it for study.  He begins to rip it apart, which prompts Thor to act.  Thor strikes Gammenon with one of his mightiest blows, again to no effect.  Gammenon then blasts Thor with a cosmic bolt, seemingly obliterating him.  Gammenon then returns inside the dome with the plane and its passengers.

Thor #284                                       June 1979
"The City of the Space Gods!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  John Buscema
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Tom Orz & Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Gammenon the Gatherer, Jemiah the Analyzer, Ajak, Ereshkigal, Ikaris, Sersi, Arishem

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  The passengers are horrified inside the plane at seeing Thor obliterated, and inside that plane, a young man questions the passenger he doesn't remember seeing before - Dr Don Blake.  Gammenon sets the plane down and goes about his own tasks.  The passengers begin to get out of the plane and are greeting by Dr Damian and Ajak.  Blake tricks Ajak into giving him and Damian privacy when Damian almost collapses.  After transporting the three of them to a secluded chamber, commenting on how Blake seems familiar.  Ajak leaves and Damian reveals that he had been faking.  Damian then tells Blake about how Ikaris helped him and his daughter, Margo, discover the dome.  He then continues to tell Blake about how the Celestials experimented with Earth's life forms in the past.  Blake then reveals what he knows and about how he is there to try and stop the Celestials judgment from taking place.  Blake then changes to Thor in front of Damian.  Ajak then reveals that he had been watching for quite a while.  Johnson and Sally come into the chamber and he has a gun.  He reveals himself as a SHIELD agent looking for some missing comrades.  Sally then reveals her true self as Ereshkigal.  Back in the United States, Margo is in the care of Sersi and Ikaris.  Meanwhile, Ajak tries to force everyone to stay, as does Ereshkigal, but Thor stops them both.  He manages to disrupt the dome long enough to get the planeful of mortals out, leaving Ajak, Ereshkigal, and Damian behind.

Thor #285                                        July 1979
"Deviants and Doormen!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  John Buscema
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Karkas, Ikaris, Thena, Reject, Sersi

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor pulls the plane through the air and lands it at JFK Airport.  He leaves and heads for the address given him by Damian, to the apartment of Sersi.  He changes to Blake and begins to look around, when he is confronted by Karkas.  They begin to fight until Karkas realizes that Thor is not a Deviant.  Karkas then reveals that Margo and Ikaris were captured by a ship carrying him, Thena, and Reject.  They have discovered the location of the new City of the Deviants.  They head there to parley with the Deviants, but are attacked almost immediately.  Kro threatens Margo with a bomb, forcing them to surrender.  Karkas managed to escape back to Sersi's apartment just before Thor arrived.  A small statue then transforms into Sersi who changes a statue of a cat into a captured Deviant.  They force him to tell them about a hidden entrance into the Deviant City.

Thor #286                                       August 1979
"Mayhem Under Manhattan!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  Keith Pollard
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Karkas, Sersi, Kro, Odin, Mimir, Hogun, Volstagg, Fandral, Sif, Thena, Ikaris, Brother Tode, Reject

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor, Sersi, and Karkas are sneaking into the Deviant City, but are detected and attacked.  Sersi flees and Karkas is assaulted by some Deviant device that knocks him out.  Kro then reveals himself and demands Thor surrender his hammer or he will kill Karkas, and Thor has no choice.  In Asgard, Mimir is showing Odin Thor's defeat, and Sif and the Warriors Three want to fly to his aid.  Odin tells them no and sends them on missions for Asgard.  Back on Earth, Brother Tode is about to put all the prisoners in the Atom Displacer, and is talking to Thor, when "he" suddenly changes into Sersi, and reveals that Thor's hammer is really a cane.  Then Blake comes from behind a curtain, knocks Kro over, and is transformed into Thor when the cane hits the ground.  Thor and Sersi free Karkas and the rest and they begin to attack the Deviants.  Warlord Kro then frees Metabo, who begins to take down the Eternals.  Thor then bests him easily since he was designed to fight Eternals.  Brother Tode and Dragona make their escape, leaving Kro behind while detonating their city.  Thor and the group make their way out, and decide to head to Olympia to try and get help from the Eternals against the Celestials.

Thor #287                                    September 1979
"Assault on Olympia"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  Keith Pollard
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters:   Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Karkas, Reject, Thena, Ikaris, Sersi, Zuras, Makkari, Sif, Storm Giant, Hogun, Volstagg, Fandral, Fafnir, Atlo, Hero, Domo, One Above All

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor has taken Margo home and then meets up with the rest of the group.  As thier ship arrives above Olympia, a strange golden disk slashes through one of their engines, sending the ship crashing into a mountain.  The group escapes just in time and lands.  They then see that they were not attacked, but it was a discus errantly thrown during their own Olympics.  Zuras welcomes the group and the games resume.  In Asgard, Sif is searching for something when she is attacked by a Storm Giant.  Elsewhere, the Warriors Three are searching for something as well when they are attacked by Fafnir the dragon.  Back in Olympia, the games are continuing, when they are interrupted by the arrival of the Forgotten One, now called Hero.  He is now the emissary of the Celestials and warns the Eternals not to interfere in their 50 year judgment of Earth.  He then topples all of the Eternals and begins to cause Olympia itself damage.  Thor then faces off against Hero and they begin to go at it.  Then, high above in space, the One Above All transports Thor and Hero to his ship.

Thor #288                                        October 1979
"Fury of the Forgotten Hero!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  Keith Pollard
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

Hero, One Above All, Mimir, Odin, Karnilla, Balder, Sif, Storm Giant, Fafnir, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg, Zuras, Ikaris, Thena, Makkari, Karkas

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Hero tells Thor that he will spare him if he swears not to interfere with the Celestials.  Thor, of course, says no and they begin to battle again.  In Asgard, Karnilla arrives, angry after finding out what Odin had done to Balder.  Odin then shows her Sif fighting Skoll.  Sif defeats him and finds the prize she seeks in Skoll's cave.  The scene then shifts to the Warriors Three fighting Fafnir.  Fandral manages to stab his eye before all three are consumed by the dragon's fiery breath.  Karnilla demands that Balder be restored and Odin tells her no, the leaves.  Back aboard the Celestial ship, Hero and Thor continue their battle.  Thor finally bests Hero, then demands that the One Above All tell him how to stop their judgment of Earth.  Back in Olympia, Zuras decides to form the Uni-Mind in order to fight the Celestials.  The One Above All attempts to grab Thor, and Thor strikes back.  The giant Celestial hurls machinery at Thor, but that doesn't stop him.  As Thor prepares to attack again, the One Above All shows Thor an image of a time long gone.  An image of Odin kneeling before Arishem.

Thor #289                                    November 1979
"Look Homeward, Asgardian!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  Keith Pollard
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

One Above All, Zuras, Karkas, Ikaris, Thena, Hero, Makkari, Sersi, Reject, Sprite, Odin, Argus, Zeus, Ares, Hercules, Athena, Karnilla, Balder, Frigga, Heimdall, Sif, Destroyer, Arishem

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor, after seeing his father kneeling before the Celestials, angrily hurls himself at the One Above All.  But instead of striking him, he is instantly transported back to Olympia.  Hero is transported right behind him and is transformed back to human form - that of the Forgotten One.  Zuras is determined to punish the former Eternal, but Thor stands with him.  Makkari reveals that it was Sprite that caused all the trouble and Zuras' punishment is that he and Sprite care for each other with the Forgotten One being blind.  Zuras tells Thor that he has 24 hours to find another solution to the Celestials, and then the Uni-Mind will attack.  Elsewhere, Odin is riding Sleipnir to the gates of Olympus, where he is first met by Argus and some Yellow-Crested Titans, and then by Ares, Athena, Hercules, and Zeus himself.  Odin wants an alliance with Olympus to destroy anyone that stands against the Celestials.  Back in Asgard, Karnilla weeps over the body of Balder, then speaks to Frigga about her not being Thor's real mother.  Thor arrives on Bifrost, and is stopped by Heimdall and the warriors of Asgard.  Then a portal opens in the air and Sif steps through carrying her prize - the Destroyer.  Sif agrees that Thor should not enter Asgard, and Thor begins to fight his way in.  As Thor batters back the warriors, he is attacked by the Sif-powered Destroyer.  The Destroyer batters Thor, then tosses him from Bifrost back down to Earth.

Thor #290                                      December 1979
"Ring Around the Red Bull!"

Writer:  Roy Thomas
Artist:  Arvell Jones
Inker:  Chic Stone
Letters: Joe Rosen

Appearances: 

El Vampiro, El Toro Rojo

Significant Events:  none

Synopsis:  Thor is crashing down towards Earth and finally comes to in time to save himself.  He then sees a strange garbed figure trying to fly - poorly.  Thor saves the man, who introduces himself as El Vampiro.  El Vampiro tells Thor about his meting with El Toro Rojo, and how he was beaten badly.  Just then, El Toro Rojo comes crashing in, intent on killing El Vampiro.  Thor knocks him outside, but before Mjolnir can return to his hand, El Toro Rojo sends it careening away by butting it with his head.  He and Thor fight hand-to-hand, until Thor allows himself to be hurled towards his hammer, but it is too late.  Thor transforms into Blake, and El Toro Rojo crashes into him, sending Blake careening towards a wall.  Before he hits though, he is saved by El Vampiro.  Believing him finished, El Toro Rojo takes Blake's cane and leaves.  He has a match, but will return afterwards to finish off El Vampiro.  Blake heads to the arena to get his cane back.  He ties a scarf around his face and climbs into the ring.  He grabs the cane and manages to get slammed to the mat, triggering the change.  They wrestle back and forth, unto El Toro Rojo attempts to gore Thor.  Instead, he gets his horns shaved off by Thor's whirling hammer.  His power halved, Thor knocks El Toro Rojo through the roof and out of the arena.  Thor then leaves and heads for Olympia.