Thank The Gods 'Tis Thor's Day! Journey Into Mystery #85

We are treated this issue to the first appearance of Asgard, home of the Norse gods.

Verily, 'tis a trippy place!


As well as the first appearance of Thor's rival, enemy and half-brother, Loki- the god of Mischief.

Loki has been imprisoned by the gods in a tree for ages, as punishment for some past misdeed. Loki blames Thor for his plight, and plots to free himself. The only catch is, Loki must remain within the tree until someone "sheds a tear for Loki". Loki knows no-one will weep for him intentionally, so he wills the tree to shed a leaf just as Heimdall, guardian of the rainbow bridge passes by. The leaf pokes Heimdall in the eye, causing his eye to weep and Loki is freed!

Loki then heads to Earth to seek his vengeance on Thor. There's a lot of trickery involved, including Loki hypnotizing Thor into giving his hammer to a duplicate of himself and a scene where Loki rides around on a bunch of pigeons. A person on the street who witnesses Loki's arrival on the backs of a flock of pigeons declares that it "must be an advertising stunt". What could anyone possibly be advertising with a dude in an operatic Viking superhero getup riding a flock of pigeons?

Loki causes all kinds of trouble, including making Thor save several citizens from being run over by a train. A train Loki pushed them in front of. (Kinda pedestrian for the trickster god of Norse myth) Thor finally catches back up to Loki and ties him to his hammer, which he flings back to Asgard, where Loki is once again imprisoned.

Jane Foster finds the whole clash of gods in downtown Manhattan to be "romantic", hinting that she is becoming more and more attracted to the dashing Thor. And subsequently less dazzled by her shy employer.


ACK! I forgot! For more issue-by-issue coverage of Silver Age Marvel- tune in to "Fantastic Four Fridays" over at one of my favorite blogs- Silver Age Comics.