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.

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!

Thank The gods Tis Thor's Day!- Journey Into Mystery # 83

As the good folks at Marvel Comics began to crank out a line of superhero comics, one question was hanging at the backs of their minds: "How can you top Superman?" I mean, for any hero to be more powerful than Superman he'd have to be... well, a god.

Enter The Mighty Thor, Norse god of thunder, hero of legend, scion of Asgard, user of leave-in conditioner.

While on a walking tour of Norway, "lame Doctor Donald Blake" (I LOVE how they describe him like that. He has a severe limp and walks with a cane, but it always makes him sound like he's a sub-standard physician.) is witness to a terrifying invasion by Stone Men from Saturn.

Seeking shelter in a nearby cave, Dr. Blake finds himself trapped in a cave-in. After stumbling through the dark, looking for an alternate exit, Don finds an old, gnarled walking stick laying on a stone slab. Don tries to use the stick as a lever to pry away a large rock blocking a potential exit, and in his struggles bangs the stick against the stone. Suddenly, lightning crashes within the cave and frail Dr.Blake is transformed into Thor.


The stick, it seems was the mighty hammer of Thor, Mjolnir, in disguise. Inscribed on the head of the mystical hammer are the words "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR".

Using his new-found super strength, Thor hefts the boulder out of the way of the exit and leaves the cave. Setting his hammer down, Thor discovers that, after sixty seconds away from the magic of the hammer, he reverts to Donald Blake. He soon discovers that the hammer returns to his hand when thrown, is indestructible and can control the weather.

Thor quickly routs the alien invaders and transforms back into Lame Doctor Donald Blake.


The Hammer turns back into a walking stick. The story ends with the promise of further Thor adventures to come.

For anyone familiar with this comic from its later incarnations, I would like to note a few points of interest. Firstly, it seems pretty obvious (to me, anyway) that at this stage of the comic, Doctor Don Blake is really Doctor Don Blake and he only summons the power of Thor. The Hammer Mjolnir sort of functions like an Aladdin's lamp. Secondly, that being said, Thor reminds me very much of Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel, who was secretly young Billy Batson. Batson would say the magic word "Shazam!" and transform into the super hero Captain Marvel.

Next Thor's Day will be a Hallowe'en-related post, but after that, I will pick up with Journey Into Mystery #84.