What the cover promises the 17 page story delivers, Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott depicting a Thor battle. Hercules guest stars and there are two mystery villains.
Plus a 5 page Beta Ray Bill back-up tale drawn by Ron Lim and Mike DeCarlo.
Ron Frenz collaborates with Joe Sinnott on the cover and the 22 interior pages. Co-plotter Tom DeFalco provides the variation of Marvel Misunderstanding that causes Thor to battle Excalibur.
Helping to make this a better than average issue are appearances by Ulik, the Enchantress and the cover-featured Wrecker (with his Wrecking Crew)!
STARBRAND REBORN Part One: RIOT IN THE SPACE PRISON! An epic space adventure that takes the Avengers into an alien prison the size of a galaxy, where a mysterious new wielder of the all-powerful Starbrand has suddenly appeared, unleashing cosmic chaos. Good thing the Avengers brought along their newest member, the Black Widow. Not only is Thor Odinson on the cover. He is inside too!
FANTASTIC FOUR GRAND DESIGN #2 $5.99
(W/A/CA) Tom Scioli Writer/artist/colorist/letterer TOM SCIOLI distills the magic of Stan and Jack's legendary FF run into forty pages of nonstop fun! Featuring Galactus and the Silver Surfer! Thor appears in a couple of panels.
VENOM #20 $3.99
(W) Donny Cates (A) Iban Coello, Jose Carlos Silva (CA) Kyle Hotz It's the final tie-in to ABSOLUTE CARNAGE! Thor appears on one flashback page
The 33 page Peter Gillis self-contained story is logical yet imaginative. The events it alters are from THOR #136. To increase your enjoyment Gillis/Buckler/Simons do a 2 page retelling of the 16 page Lee/Kirby/Colletta classic.
Mjolnir has gone missing! And nobody, not even the powerful eyes of Lady Sif, is able to locate it. So Thor must turn to the last person he wants help from - Odin. For until the hammer is found, nobody in the realms is safe! Artist Nic Klein is back for the twists and turns not even the All-Father is ready for!
(W) Jason Aaron (A) Steve Epting (CA) Russell Dauterman
The War of the Realms rages on. The only way to defeat Malekith is for the realms to join forces, and it's up to Lady Thor to bring them together. Heroes from across the ten realms - including Lady Sif and Angela - have united under Thor's command to form a new League of Realms with the sole mission of bringing this war to an end. And their first mission: Infiltrate Dark-Elf-occupied territory.
THANOS WINS. Thor’s hammer appears on the main cover and an unconscious Thor appears on the Jacen Burrows variant cover. Thor Odinson appears in 1 panel inside the comic.