Chapter Summaries

Stark opened his Expo with a spectacular display, unveiling a mechanical floating island above Stark Tower and presenting Stark Industries’ inventions to the stunned crowd. After Schiller reminded him that his rivals were expected to cause trouble, Stark realized that Hammer Industries and Ivan Vanko had not appeared.

• Peter and Gwen entered Stark Tower and followed the guidance to the Expo on the eighty-ninth floor.
• Stark arrived amid a display of more than a hundred armored frames, then deployed a huge mechanical floating island that settled onto the tower.
• The crowd cheered as Stark welcomed them to the Expo, while Schiller and the others monitored the event and Rhodey checked the evacuation routes.
• Peter and Gwen explored the floating island’s many Stark Industries inventions as the chapter described how Stark’s expanded research approach had enabled him to create a full-scale Expo alone.
• Schiller asked Stark whether the Expo was missing its opponents, and Stark realized Hammer Industries and Ivan Vanko had not shown up.

Stark and Schiller prepared for Ivan Vanko to attack the Stark Industries Expo, but Stark’s upgraded tower and the confusion over its entrance made the confrontation farcical before the fight began. Ivan and Justin Hammer finally faced Stark’s armor forces, and Stark activated Stark Tower’s defenses as the battle escalated.

• Stark discovered Pepper had not invited Hammer Industries, but Ivan Vanko arrived anyway and could not break through Stark Tower’s reinforced glass.
• Schiller used Gray Mist to point Ivan toward the entrance, while Stark and Spider-Man joined the standoff; Ivan’s attack triggered a chaotic fight and the Gray Mist blinded the military helicopters.
• Ivan retreated to a nearby rooftop, where Stark tried to explain his outdated reactor before Justin Hammer arrived with Ivan and the military’s armor suits.
• Rhodey brought Stark’s armor suits to support Stark, and Stark activated Stark Tower’s defense protocol, lighting up its turrets.

Stark used Stark Tower’s extensive defenses to destroy Justin Hammer’s mecha force, then entered negotiations with the military, Hammer, Ivan Vanko, and Obadiah Stane. The chapter ended with Rhodey explaining that Obadiah had taken control of the negotiations, while he waited for a chance to change the military from within.

• Stark Tower transformed into a heavily armed fortress and destroyed most of Hammer’s mechas with overwhelming firepower.
• Stark ordered Rhodey to eliminate the remaining armed mechas, then refused the military’s request to negotiate remotely.
• After the battle, the military delegation arrived at Stark Tower and found Obadiah waiting for them instead of Tony.
• At the negotiations, Stark mocked Hammer’s damaged mecha while Rhodey stopped Ivan from attacking him.
• Rhodey told Schiller he did not plan to return fully to the military, but hoped to change it when he had the ability.

Obadiah explained that Anton Vanko and Howard Stark had jointly created the Arc Reactor, then recounted why Anton returned to the Soviet Union with part of their research. After the meeting turned to possible cooperation and Ivan’s technology, Steve and Rhodey discussed Ivan’s situation and Stark’s public image.

• Obadiah told the military that Anton Vanko had helped Howard create the Arc Reactor prototype and that Obadiah had planted most of the evidence in the CIA reports about Anton.
• Obadiah recounted how Howard tried to persuade Anton to stay in America, but the two argued over whether Anton could take their research to the Soviet Union.
• Obadiah explained that Anton returned home with part of the data, then noted that Howard, the Soviet Union, and Anton had died in December 1991.
• Obadiah offered to let the military obtain Ivan’s Arc Reactor technology and proposed cooperation with Stark Industries, while directing his attention toward Justin.
• Steve told Schiller and Rhodey that Nick had kept Ivan in the country and that S.H.I.E.L.D. was monitoring him.
• Rhodey said Stark had gone to speak with Pepper about public opinion, and he, Steve, and Schiller smiled knowingly.

After Stark confessed that Pepper was the first person he thought of before dying, they kissed, with Spider-Man and a gray-mist observer watching. The next morning Stark rushed to prove he could handle the company, then called Strange for help after signing an old contract and ended up at Arkham Asylum with Schiller.

• Pepper woke late and scolded Stark for forgetting her work commitments.
• Stark told Pepper about his dream of losing everything and admitted that he had thought of her before dying.
• Pepper kissed Stark after he asked whether she would ever leave him, while Spider-Man watched with a gray-mist figure.
• Stark promised to manage Pepper's work, then discovered he had signed an outdated contract and called Strange for help.
• Strange brought Stark to Arkham Asylum, where Schiller demanded payment for admission and for his earlier answer.

Eddie agreed to help S.H.I.E.L.D. extract the chaotic power inside Riot, but Venom proposed using an Asgardian host instead of risking Eddie. Meanwhile, Loki and Thor continued adjusting to their exhausting jobs and life together in New York, where Loki remained determined to keep Thor from returning to Asgard.

• Eddie settled into his new editor-in-chief job at the Global Times, while Venom criticized him for choosing comfort over ambition.
• At a S.H.I.E.L.D. laboratory, Venom refused to leave Eddie to extract Riot’s residual power and proposed devouring it inside an Asgardian host.
• Loki arrived home to find Thor eating fried chicken and drinking beer, then complained about sharing their apartment and their difficult jobs.
• Thor asked Loki how Asgard was doing, but Loki told him that it did not matter because Thor could not go back.
• Loki answered a phone call by introducing himself as Odin’s son, and Thor silently crushed his beer can.

Loki let Venom enter his body to examine him, and Venom revealed that Loki was not an Asgardian. Loki returned to his apartment shaken, reconsidering his memories, his family, and the honors Odin had recently given him.

• Loki agreed to let Venom inhabit him after Venom offered him a share of its power and access to the wisdom of past hosts.
• Venom examined Loki and concluded that his body was not Asgardian, citing his weak constitution and lack of Asgardian strength.
• Loki walked back through Manhattan, recalling his childhood and realizing that walking had once been the only way to avoid facing Odin.
• Loki returned home, knelt before Thor in confusion, then retreated to his bedroom and shut the door.
• Loki considered that Odin might not be his biological father and Thor might not be his brother, and questioned why Odin had recently granted him honors and power.

After learning that he was not Asgardian, Loki sought Schiller’s help to understand why Odin had begun favoring him. Schiller helped Loki recognize that his resentment and suspicion could not hide his longing for family, and Loki stopped him when his words became too painful.

• Loki asked Thor whether Odin had favored him, and Thor said he believed Odin had given Loki a godly office to spite him.
• Venom suggested that Loki see a psychiatrist, and Loki went to Schiller for an appointment.
• Schiller asked Loki about his father, and Loki admitted that he feared Odin and felt he could not make mistakes like Thor.
• Schiller explained that Odin’s blood relation to Loki did not determine whether Odin favored him, since Odin had knowingly raised him as a son.
• Loki confessed that he had planned to investigate his origins but found he did not want to act against Odin.
• Schiller said Loki’s jealousy and resentment concealed his longing for family, and Loki told him to stop when the assessment grew too painful.

Schiller guided Loki through an imagined reversal of roles to help him examine his jealousy of Thor and the reasons behind his past pranks. Loki acknowledged that Thor may have noticed his actions and simply not cared, while Schiller left him with the idea that Thor could feel jealousy and resentment too.

• Loki tried to leave, but Venom urged him to stay, and he agreed to continue with Schiller.
• Schiller asked Loki to imagine being Thor, admired by Odin, Frigga, and the people of Asgard, then consider how Thor saw Loki's escalating pranks.
• Loki admitted he had noticed Thor's indifference but had not cared about it, and Schiller suggested Loki had wanted attention more than harm.
• Schiller asked Loki to imagine Thor envying him if their positions were reversed, and explained that both brothers could feel jealousy and resentment.
• Schiller told Loki that his painful emotions were ordinary and that Thor might chase approval even more eagerly than Loki did.

Schiller helped Loki examine his resentment toward Thor and his complicated feelings about Odin, suggesting he test whether Odin would forgive his mistakes. Loki returned home to find Thor living modestly, and despite recognizing their brotherly bond, he admitted he still wanted to punch him.

• Schiller asked Loki to consider his privileges without comparing himself to Thor, and Loki listed his royal comforts before Schiller pointed out how privileged both brothers were.
• Schiller argued that Loki’s lack of ambition came from having surpassed Thor in status and honor, and Loki acknowledged that he had chosen to seek Thor out after learning he was not Odin’s biological son.
• Schiller said Loki could not understand his relationship with Odin without knowing the facts, and suggested he test Odin’s tolerance by getting into trouble.
• Loki returned to the apartment and found Thor eating a small portion of fried chicken and sharing his last beer with him.
• Thor offered Loki food and told him to get a glass, and Loki admitted to Venom that he wanted to punch Thor.

Thor’s friends from Asgard arrived on Earth to warn him that Loki might be planning to send the Destroyer after him. They urged Thor to recover his divine power and Mjolnir, leaving him to face the threat and reconsider his trust in Loki.

• Thor helped coworkers respond when Benjamin collapsed, then confronted the repair shop boss for blaming and insulting the dead man.
• Volstagg arrived at the repair shop and attacked the boss for disrespecting Thor, while Thor stopped him and reunited with Sif, Fandral, and Hogun.
• Thor called Steve and Hill for help, and Hill drove the Asgardians to his apartment after warning them to report to S.H.I.E.L.D. the next day.
• Sif and the others told Thor that Heimdall had seen Loki repeatedly visiting the armory and storerooms and suspected he planned to teleport the Destroyer to Earth.
• Thor rejected the claim that Loki wanted to kill him, but his friends warned that the Destroyer could endanger both him and Earth.
• Thor admitted he could not lift Mjolnir or decipher Odin’s clues, and Sif urged him to regain his power and protect the Nine Realms.

Thor lost his job after attacking the auto shop boss who had mistreated his workers and contributed to Benjamin’s death. He left the shop with no work or money, questioning whether his past strength and achievements had been his own or the result of his divine power and weapons.

• The auto shop boss fired Thor, threw his wages at him, and threatened him with a gun after Thor objected.
• Thor beat the boss, but Old White and the other workers stopped him and explained that losing the shop would leave them without income.
• Thor picked up the money the boss had thrown and gave it to Old White, then left the auto shop.
• Thor walked back toward Hell’s Kitchen and reflected on the workers’ poverty, their fear of speaking out, and his own former life in Asgard.
• Unable to afford even tissues and aware that he could not protect the workers without making their lives worse, Thor questioned what remained of him without his divine power and weapons.

Thor returned home after losing his job and argued with Loki over rent and food, then discussed Loki’s behavior and Asgard’s rising tensions with Sif. Sif warned that Thor’s allies and their families were watching both brothers as Odin aged, though Thor remained convinced Loki’s rivalry was ordinary sibling competition.

• Thor came home exhausted, told Loki he had lost his job, and worried he could not pay rent.
• Loki refused to order Thor takeout or let him stay without rent, and Thor suspected Loki would throw out his belongings if he failed to pay.
• Thor complained about Loki to Sif in the S.H.I.E.L.D. cafeteria, but Sif questioned whether Loki’s cruel behavior was mere mischief.
• Sif said Loki did not want the throne and suggested that his rivalry with Thor came from wanting to prove himself, while Thor insisted their competition was normal between brothers.
• Sif warned Thor that Hogun and the other two, along with their families, would watch him and Loki amid growing tension as the All-Father aged.

Thor found Old White beaten and robbed by the auto shop boss’s gang, then was shot while trying to protect him. After Matt and the ambulance crew rescued them, Thor questioned humanity’s cruelty, and Sif urged him to think beyond battle as a future king.

• Thor found Old White injured beside a junk pile, learned the auto shop boss had beaten and robbed him, and heard about Old White’s struggling family.
• The auto shop boss and three gang enforcers confronted Thor, and the boss shot Old White while Thor tried to defend him.
• Thor was shot in the shoulder, but Matt arrived and called an ambulance for Thor and Old White.
• In the ambulance, Thor met nurse Jane Foster, and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Asgardians later visited him at the hospital.
• Thor worried over Old White’s suffering and questioned why people harmed one another, while Sif reminded him that a future king must understand causes and processes, not just victory and glory.

Thor and the Asgardians faced Loki-controlled Destroyer in New Mexico, while Schiller arranged for Stark and Connors to build a cryogenic weapon to defeat it and preserve its technology. The Destroyer wounded Fandral as Thor’s allies struggled to stop it, and Schiller’s team prepared to intervene.

• Thor woke to a storm, then received a confused call from Hill about something that had landed in New Mexico before Strange teleported him there.
• Thor, Strange, Hill, and Steve saw the enormous Destroyer, and Warriors Three and Sif arrived and discovered Loki was controlling it.
• The Destroyer attacked, and its beam melted Fandral’s right arm; Sif urged Thor to retrieve his weapon while Hill waited for help.
• Strange went to Stark Tower and told Stark, Schiller, Peter, and Connors that the Asgardians could not handle the Destroyer.
• Schiller explained that he wanted Stark and Connors to make a cryogenic nuclear bomb to freeze the Destroyer intact, calling the fallen weapon “Nature’s Gift.”

Thor and his companions were overwhelmed by Loki’s Destroyer while Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Lizard Doctor tried to stop it. Loki was killed by the Bifrost, and the Fire God’s divine office and power passed to Thor before a portal pulled him away.

• Sif, Volstagg, Hogun, and Fandral fought the Destroyer, but Loki’s attacks badly wounded them while Thor remained powerless.
• Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Lizard Doctor joined the battle, but they could only evade the Destroyer’s attacks.
• Loki threatened Sif and told Thor that the Warriors Three and Sif had used him to pursue power and war.
• Iron Man used drones to deliver a freezing bomb that encased the Destroyer, forcing Loki to fly out of its cockpit.
• Loki seized Thor with a fiery arm, but the Bifrost struck Loki and shattered him into motes of light.
• The World Tree stripped Loki of the Fire God’s divine office and transferred it and his power to Thor, who was then pulled into a black-hole-like passage.

Thor woke on Planet Sakaar after believing Loki had died, and the grief forced him to reconsider how Asgard’s flattery and contempt had shaped his understanding of honor. Loki later explained to Schiller and Strange that he had staged his death to awaken Thor and transfer his divine office, leaving Loki to recover and choose a new one.

• Thor awoke on Planet Sakaar and believed Heimdall had killed Loki with the Bifrost.
• Thor regretted ignoring Loki’s mistreatment and realized that praise from the Asgardians had made him arrogant and blind.
• A recovered Loki told Schiller and Strange that he had staged his death to make Thor question honor and flattery.
• Loki explained that he had drawn Heimdall’s attention, used Venom and Riot to survive the Bifrost, and fooled the World Tree into extracting his divine office.
• Loki said he had transferred his divine power and office to Thor so he could cultivate anew and seek a more suitable divine office.
• Schiller, Strange, and Loki joked about the psychological impact of the revelation on Thor.

Loki showed Schiller and Strange Thor’s arrival on Planet Sakaar, where a junkyard owner sold him to a mine after Thor appeared dazed and helpless. Thor was brutally chained and transported to Red Ring Mine, leaving his fate there unknown.

• Loki revealed that he had left a magical observation spell on Thor and showed Schiller and Strange a view of him on Sakaar.
• Red Wing tried to sell Thor to a red-skinned Sakaaran, and the buyer agreed to take him to the mines for 120 Sakaarbi and a pack of Gray Grass Root.
• Thor instinctively struck the buyer, who kicked him and drove a spike through his shoulder to attach a heavy chain.
• The buyer dragged Thor into a cramped compartment in a prison cart, where the jolting ride made his shoulder bleed as other captives screamed around him.
• The convoy crossed Sakaar’s red landscape and stopped at the gate of Red Ring Mine.

Thor was forced into the deadly Red Ring Mine on Sakaar, where he had to extract Sakaarian Rock from a shattered dimension while injured and under threat. As the mine shook, Loki reacted to Thor’s danger from his hospital bed, hinting that he was about to intervene.

• Sakaaran overseers whipped and abused Thor and the other slaves, and Thor silently entered the Red Ring Mine after watching a green-skinned prisoner be killed.
• Loki watched Thor’s ordeal on a magical screen as the nature of Sakaar’s slave economy and the deadly Sakaarian Rock mines was explained.
• Thor was assigned to a mining platform where workers had to time lasers to shatter glowing fragments while avoiding deadly failures and a gigantic creature.
• A tremor shook the mine, and the overseer warned the slaves to cling to their supports as Thor struggled with his injured shoulder.
• Loki clenched the hospital-bed railing when another tremor hit the mine, and Schiller remarked that someone was about to lose their patience.

Thor endured brutal abuse as a slave in Sakaar’s Red Ring Mine, while Schiller confronted Loki with the pain she felt at seeing her brother suffer. Prince Ashan recognized Thor as an Asgardian and arranged to heal him for a duel against another Asgardian at the Grandmaster’s tournament.

• Thor silently endured the mine’s dangers, starvation, and the jailer pulling an iron spike from his shoulder.
• Schiller told Loki she could not enjoy Thor’s suffering, and Loki accepted his offer to repair her body despite losing her divine power.
• Prince Ashan identified the weakened Thor as an Asgardian and ordered his wounds healed and his body fed for the upcoming dueling tournament.
• Prince Ashan planned to have Thor fight another Asgardian captured by the Grandmaster, then dress Thor in golden armor and display the duel to Sakaar.