Thank The gods Tis Thor's Day!- Journey Into Mystery # 84

As promised, Thor returns. And so does "Lame Doctor Donald Blake"...to America.

We get to see what things are like for Dr. Blake when he's not vacationing in Northern Europe. Seems like he's a kindly, caring physician who still makes house calls. Also his nurse, Jane Foster (In this issue, she's referred to as Jane Nelson- maybe they lost the notes from this issue going forward?) is desperately in love with him. Or, she wants to be, but thinks he's coldly indifferent to her. Oh Jane ! How wrong you are!

See, Don Blake is madly in love with Jane, but he's afraid she would reject him because he's "a cripple". Yeah, Don, what girl could possibly look past that limp of yours to see the handsome, young doctor who can afford a private practice in Manhattan?

Showing that Thor is not the only hero in this comic, Dr. Blake volunteers to go to the war-torn Central American nation of San Diablo (Saint Devil?? Yeah, THAT's likely) to provide medical relief. Before Don and Jane can even arrive, however, their ship is attacked by Commie jet fighters who want to stop the "Yankee doctors" from providing aid and comfort to the Democratic forces. If you were having any doubts, yes, this WAS scripted by Larry Lieber.

Don transforms into Thor and smashes the Commie jets. He then changes to his "rightful self " of Don Blake under water -See? I told you two weeks ago he wasn't supposed to really be Thor!- and calls for help from the ship. After Don is rescued, Jane begins to think about how handsome that Thor guy was.

When the medical team from the U.S. finally arrives in San Diablo, they are once again targeted by the Communist forces of "The Executioner".

Note: this Executioner is just a beret-wearing Che Guevara look-alike, not the Asgardian of the same name from later Thor comics.

Commie guerrillas attack the medical convoy, only to be stopped by a violent thunderstorm summoned by Dr. Blake and his magic stick. Once the weather clears and the convoy resumes, the commies send in tanks.

Blake once again changes to Thor and smashes up the entire tank squad, only to learn that Jane Foster was captured in the melee. Jane is taken back to Commie headquarters where Comrade Executioner tries to put the moves on her. He is interrupted by news that his men have caught another Yankee- Dr. Don Blake. The Executioner takes Blake's stick and orders him shot as a spy, but Jane says she'll do anything if Blake is set free. The Executioner says he will let Blake go if Jane will marry him (if that's not a euphemism, I don't know what is).

Blake challenges the Executioner to a one-on-0ne fight, then tricks him into tossing away the magic cane, which Don catches and immediately transforms to Thor.

Thor mops the floor with the Commies and the Executioner is caught by his own men trying to make off with all their funds (in big, Scrooge McDuck-style bags with "$" on them!) and meets his fate at the hands of his own death squad. All the Commies have an immediate conversion to Democratic ideals and Don and Jane get to treat the sick and injured.

We close with Jane asking Don where he went when Thor showed up. Don tells her he hid behind the execution wall, planting the seed in Jane's mind that she wishes Don was more like Thor. Dames!

Iron Man Makes His Debut - Tales of Suspense #89

When Iron Man first debuted in Tales of Suspense #89, two things about the story were remarkable. One, Iron Man looks like a guy made out of Iron. Two, it was topical. Tony Stark finds himself kidnapped in Vietnam, the prisoner of a band of "Red guerrillas". Doubtless, if DC had done a story like this in 1963, the protagonist would have been the prisoner of purple gorillas. Also, the technology behind Iron Man's amazing suit of armor is based in the real world. Sort of. Seems that Stan Lee and his brother, Larry Lieber, are very excited about that new technological breakthrough, the transistor.

From Wikipedia:

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be much more than the controlling (input) power, the transistor provides amplification of a signal.

The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is used in radio, telephone, computer and other electronic systems. The transistor is often cited as being one of the greatest achievements in the 20th century, and some consider it one of the most important technological breakthroughs in human history. Some transistors are packaged individually but most are found in integrated circuits.

In fact, they're so excited about transistors, that they mention them 12 times within the 12 pages of this story. Transistors were a revolutionary piece of technology at the time, replacing the much larger and more fragile vacuum tubes and making it possible for teenagers to irritate people at the beach with portable radios.

It should be noted, however, that attaching a transistor to a big horseshoe magnet will not make it fling peoples' rifles away.

The artwork by the much unappreciated Don Heck, is gorgeous.

Anyway, If you haven't already seen the movie, Tony Stark is a weapons manufacturer/inventor who goes to Vietnam to test out some new transistorized small arms he's developed for the U.S. Army. He's wounded and captured by Communist insurgents. The Commies want him to build them some weapons before he dies of the shrapnel he took in the chest.

With the aid of a captured scientist, Stark builds the Iron Man armor from scrap iron and transistors, including the chest piece which keeps the shrapnel from reaching his heart. Transforming himself into the cybernetic superhero Iron Man, Stark defeats the Reds and acquires a new mission in life.