The Tomorrow Man

Artur Zarrko had a dream. A dream that one day, his peaceful world would be no more. It was disgusting. Humanity, against all odds, had put its chaotic and warlike past behind itself. In the 23rd century, peace reigned supreme. The world was a utopia where they had destroyed even the plans for weapons. It almost worked out, too, if not for one outlier of a sociopath.

The Peaceful Problem

The problem, though, was that even though Artur Zarrko had the desire to shatter the peaceful world he was born into and subjugate his fellow people with his army of robot servants...he was deeply uncreative. You see, he was a product of his time. No one had ever heard of a weapon in that age. Only Artur had the faintest idea of the potential of a world where warfare was rampant. So, he put his peaceful super-science to work. If he couldn't think up a weapon, he would go to a time when the world was up to its neck in weapons. A time when a handful of humans could destroy all life on earth. That's right, our time. He whipped up a time cube, as you do, and hopped in.

Well, close enough, 1962. He dialed his time viewfinder back until he saw mushroom clouds and then let it run forward a bit, until the Cold War. According to Wikipedia, 1962 was about the time the US had its most nuclear warheads, so that was when Artur Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man stopped.

Showing a profound lack of understanding regarding bombs and what they do - and you can't blame him: He grew up in a different time when people were peaceful and nice. He materialized on a test range in the Nevada desert where, fresh from downing some missiles, the mighty Thor was standing by the witness the test of the Cobalt bomb, the C-bomb, as the comic calls it...but I'm not calling it that.

The Tomorrow Man demonstrated his deep, deep ignorance when he hugged a bomb that was seconds away from detonating and pulled it with him into the time stream. Thor, though, was a close second when he threw his hammer at the bomb. Lucky enough for both of them, Thor missed and Artur Zarrko zapped back to the 23rd century in his time cube.

Back to the Future

Thor's hammer had made a bit of contact with the ship, though, and pulled a chunk of metal away from it. Based on his knowledge of drinking and hitting stuff, Thor deduced that this metal wasn't from 1962. He didn't know where it was from, but he knew how to find out. He was going to talk to dad.

Now, in this, Odin isn't as muted as he is in the MCU. Thor went to a mountaintop and Odin's face took up the entirety of the sky. Thor showed him the metal and begged to be sent to the time this metal had originated from. Odin said, duh, didn't Thor remember. Thor only needed to spin around in circles so fast that he broke through into the fourth dimension: time. And that's what he did. Speeding ahead to the 23rd century, Thor found...tyranny.

Artur had done it. He had used that one atomic bomb to hold the whole world hostage. How did he explain to a world that no longer understood even the concept of a weapon that he would blow them up with the one bomb that he had if they didn't make him king. They did, and they hated him for it.

A likely-very dizzy Thor time twirled on the scene and learned of this low-rent dystopian future, and so he made his way to the citadel.

Bombs Away

A lot of stuff happened after that. Thor was pushed into another dimension but made his way out with his super breath. He lost his hammer to a giant robot and, for this Thor, if he went 60 seconds without touching his hammer he would revert to his alter ego of Donald Blake, mild-mannered physician. He got it back, though, and chased a fleeing Artur Zarrko, bomb aboard his futuristic hovercraft, into the sky.

Taking a very mature and healthy, "if I can't have it, no one can" view of the world, Artur Zarrko was going to drop the bomb on the city. Racing him to make the worst decision of the day, Thor called up a storm to disorient the ship, so it would...drop the bomb. He caught it, the ship crashed, and Artur Zarrko, the tomorrow man, suffered a massive concussion, but the good kind! The kind that takes away your memory and all evil inclinations.

Thor waves to the people of tomorrow, again free, and twirls around to travel back in time despite having a perfectly good time cube at his disposal.

The book ends with Thor depositing the bomb back where it belongs...in our time...so people can use it in tests to make bigger, worse bombs. It's like we've learned nothing here.

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