Journey into Mystery #93

 "The penalty for failure is death! Am I understood?"

This issue is, I supposed, best known for introducing Radioactive Man, a so-so recurring villain, although not really one who will remain particularly associated with Thor. But my impression upon reading is that it perfectly encapsulates why these early Thor stories feel so misjudged. 

Thor is the god of thunder, with awesome levels of power, and from the fantastical (and, already, trippy) place that is the Asgard of Norse myth. And yet the comic has him used either fighting Earthbound crime or- as here- fighting in the Cold War. The text at the very beginning describes him as "Mighty Thor, protector of democracy" and has him literally fighting for India versus Red China in the very real Sino-Indian War of October-November 1962, which must have been raging when the script was being written. This is... how they're choosing to use Thor? And lets not get into how Indians are described as "the Hindus" and the depiction of Chinese people is sprinkled with more than a little racism.

We see Mao himself obsessed with destroying Thor. Scientists must find a way, or die. Fortunately for him, one such scientist, Chen Lu, has an idea. Which is... to bombard himself with radioactivity, which definitely gives him enormous power and in no way kills him horribly... er, don't try this at home, kids. As for immunising yourself for months against radioactivity... yeah, don't try that either. Ah, communism and radioactivity... you can tell it's the early '60s.

And so to New York, and an amusing little confrontation between Thor and a seemingly invulnerable Lu, in which both of them basically have whatever powers the script wants them to have at any given time. At one point, interestingly, Thor is hypnotised and told to throw away his hammer... and when, after sixty seconds, he's Don Blake again, he's no longer under Lu's power, as it was Thor who was mesmerised, not Blake. Evidence that the two of them are separate individuals with a timeshare in existence, as opposed to one person with two identities? This continues to be a fascinating question. And I like the sheer peril of Don Blake having to do a death-defying river dive in order to retrieve the hammer... yeah, let's just handwave away the existence of the bends, shall we?

And then, after Thor seemed helpless against Lu earlier, we get a literal deus ex machina ending... in which, er, Thor literally nukes China. I have no words. This issue is utterly, utterly glorious in its bonkersness.