He channels the lightning into the anomaly, just as Nicholas Fury is carrying Captain America back through it. Donal then changes to Thor, and asks what they want him to do. He was afraid that Thor would never want to turn back into Donal, but Susan asks him to let Thor decide. It was discovered that Thor was needed to harness the lightning in order to fix the rip in time, but Donal didn't want to do it. It was a 'mighty secret', for if it was revealed the other gods walked the Earth, it might bring down the Church, but Donal enjoyed being Thor, and felt that he is damned for it. 200 years later, Hugh de Payns discovered it beneath the Temple. Pilgrims had brought the staff to Jerusalem from the Northlands, when the days of the old gods were done. He tells them that he is Thor of the Thunders. The Four from the Fantastick are freed from Doom's dungeons, and look up into the sudden rainstorm and see Thor holding the Witchbreed's ship, carrying it down safely.

As Doom's guards approached, Donal slams the stick to the ground, which brings a blinding flash of lightning. It had been brought to Jerusalem by the Norsemen 800 years earlier. On the way, he was captured with Matthew Murdoch by Count Otto von Doom, (who wanted the artifact), but escaped and went to the cart to retrieve his stick, which was the real artifact. He was bound for Trieste, and then to England, to bring the artifact to Stephen Strange. His mortal form was that of an Old Man, named Donal, from the Order of the Templars, that was charged to transport a powerful artifact from Jerusalem, hidden in a cart pulled by a donkey, and packed with battered furniture, chairs, and pots.

Gaiman 1602