Today, we look at Thor facing off against the Marvel version of the Groonk.

It's our yearly Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar! Every day until Christmas Eve, you can click on the current day's Advent Calendar post and it will show the Advent Calendar with the door for that given day opened and you can see what the "treat" for that day will be! You can click here to see the previous Advent Calendar entries. This year, the theme is a Very Dope 90s Christmas! Each day will be a Christmas comic book story from the 1990s, possibly ones that have a specific 1990s bent to it (depends on whether I can come up with 24 of them).

This year's Advent Calendar, of Grunge Santa Claus giving out 90s present, like a Tamagotchi, while posing with four superheroes with the most-90s costumes around, is by Nick Perks.

And now, (a bit late) Day 22 will be opened (once opened, the door will feature a panel from the featured story)...

Today, we look at 1991's "How the Groonk Stole Christmas" from Thor #444 by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom.

Something that I think often gets overlooked about Tom DeFalco's big early 1990s runs (Fantastic Four and Thor) is how much of a COLLABORATOR he was on those series. In both cases, the artists on the books, Paul Ryan and Ron Frenz, respectively, were full partners with DeFalco on the plotting of the series and I think that that is both admirable and also important for people to note, as Ryan and Frenz don't get nearly the credit that they deserve for those runs. Also, for what it is worth, even the finisher in the early part of the run, Brett Breeding, was actually the guy who came up with the idea of Steve Rogers wielding Thor's hammer, so that's worth noting, as well. That's a true full collaboration.

Anyhow, as you may or may not know, early in the DeFalco/Frenz run, they introduced an architect named Eric Masterson (aa Thor was working as a construction worker at the time, using the secret identity of Sigurd Jarlson). Eric was a good guy and became friends with Thor. Eric was injured intervening in a supervillain fight, but continued to help Thor out when he could. Eventually, Eric briefly lifted Mjolnir during a fight where he was badly injured and Thor begged Odin to help him save Eric's life. Odin's response was to merge Thor and Eric together, so we had a sort of Billy Batson/Captain Marvel (or Rick Jones/Captain Marvel, if you prefer) going for a while.

However, Thor then decided that, upon the conclusion of one of Loki's deadlier schemes, he would just kill Loki. Heimdall had been filling in for Odin at the time as the head of Asgard and he exiled Thor for killing Loki. Eric obviously remained behind and he discovered that he could still turn into Thor, but Thor was no longer there to control the body, so Eric was in full control of both his body AND Thor's body. So Eric decided to make a go of it as the new Thor (getting a sort of 1990s upgraded look to Thor's costume in the process) while still looking for the original Thor.

DeFalco and Frenz had previously had an acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man together and their Thor run had a lot of that classic Peter Parker feel to it, especially with Eric as the "everyman" who had Parker luck while not even being a Parker!

The issue opens with Eric's apartment trashed and his executive assistant, Susan (who, Silver Age style, loved Eric from afar), was badly injured during a recent supervillain fight and was now in a coma. So things were looking bad, but it was still Christmas, so Eric spent nearly a grand (this is 1991, people, so WOW) on a toy for his son (who was now living with Eric's ex-wife and her new boyfriend, a professional football player)...

I love the comic book tradition of coming up with real-sounding toy names for fake "hot" toys in the comic.

The interpersonal drama was always a big part of these issues (also a hallmark of classic Spider-Man stories) and the relationship between Eric and his son were a big part of both this series and the follow-up sequel series, Thunderstrike (Eric got to remain a superhero when Thor eventually DID return)...

Some mystery person is robbing people of Christmas presents (always just a single present, though, and it seems that they're chosen at random, as they rarely pick the most expensive present). Thor tracks the thief down and it is...the Groonk?!?!

Of course, in the Marvel Universe, the Grinch would be a giant mutant with laser beams for eyes, right?

However, Thor discovers a big twist. The Groonk was basically a Morlock, a mutant living in the tunnels below New York City when he was befriended by a group of homeless people. One of the kids, Cindy, has a Christmas book and the Groonk decided to try to create the holiday as he saw in the book and his limited understanding led to him stealing presents...

In the end, Thor couldn't bring himself to arrest the Groonk, so he let him go. He would then run into Captain America, who both A. invited Eric to live at Avengers Mansion rent-free while he was between apartments but also B. to make sure that he was making good decisions.

While visiting Susan at the hospital, she came out of her coma, which was awesome. Eric then returned to his trashed apartment to discover that his friends had decided to throw him a party in his apartment, as he was getting kicked out anyways, so why not celebrate on the way out?

Man, it is STRIKING just how many cast members DeFalco and Frenz not only introduced in the series, but kept having them show up throughout their run on this book and the follow-up, Thunderstrike. Impressive stuff by them.