Vengeance Itself
Thor visits Doctor Strange to learn what has been causing him to fall weak lately and elsewhere the mastermind of Acts of Vengeance stands revealed and Hercules must battle Ulik the Troll. Within Me Dwells a Monster is an issue of Thor written by Tom DeFalco and pencilled by Ron Frenz.
Straight away I will say I have absolutely no love for any comic book where the protagonist or a member of the cast goes on a journey of self discovery within their own subconscious to learn of the true evil that lurks within. And that, my friends, is exactly what this issue is. With the help of Doctor Strange, Thor enters his own subconscious and battles a representation of himself which turns out to be his half-brother Loki in disguise! With this, Thor learns Loki had imbued Thor with some of his power during War of the Gods which has in effect began causing him to have spats of weakness. Also, he some how deduces that Loki is also the mastermind of the Acts of Vengeance. A scarily correct random guess since on the next page it is revealed Loki is indeed our mysterious benefactor.
Meanwhile, Ulik the Troll is sent to attack Thor and Hercules. Hercules decides to fight Ulik himself because Hercules has been having frequent confidence issues after his battle with the High Evolutionary all the way back in the Evolutionary War. The whole Herc/Thor dynamic is actually a pretty entertaining aspect of this period of Thor's book, with the two being roommates and BFFs and stuff. While Herc rarely stands alone as his own character, he works good as a foil and comic relief to other characters. Sadly, the Herc/Ulik plot isn't resolved this issue and is concluded next issue which isn't a direct tie-in to Acts of Vengeance. I may review it when I am done with the 30+ tie-ins still to go!
This issue isn't very exciting. The whole vision quest within oneself is a thing that seems done to mother-loving death in a comic book and honestly here it's nothing special at all. You might get a kick out of seeing Thor battling himself in his battle armor, but other than a neat visual there, this is really nothing to write home about at all. The revelation that Loki is behind the Acts of Vengeance (if you hadn't guessed by some obvious clues already) is about the only truly worthwhile thing one can take from this, although the Herc plot had potential it's a shame to not see it resolved in this issue.