Journey into Mystery #95

 "Great Scott! I'm seeing things!"

Another fairly throwaway Thor story here, courtesy of the pen of Robert Bernstein; this is a title that badly needs to be lifted out of its early rut. Nice start, though, with Odin summoning Thor to use his power over thunderstorms to deal with a drought in Asgard, something that would have been useful here in the English Midlands in recent weeks.

Sadly, we then proceed to move on to a rather generic little romp with our mad scientist du jour, one Professor Zaxton, a one off villain. Indeed, we know from the moment he sees Don Blake turn into Thor that he won't survive this issue. And so we get a simple little tale of a duplicating ray that creates doubles which, for some reason, have the opposite personality of the original. Neatly, though, Thor is able to defeat his evil duplicate, with its two hammers, because the duplicate is not worthy, which is a clever resolution.

Still... Don Blake is a physician. Could he really invent a super intelligent and invincible robot thingy? And there's a lot of exposition by thought bubble here. Still, I've read worse. 

Journey into Mystery #94

 "Out of my way, you flunky!"

Oh dear. This may well be the most terrible issue I've read in the Order so far. It's clear that Robert Bernstein isn't working out as the writer, and the title needs a major revamp at this point. It's a promising concept but has consistently failed to catch fire.

I mean, we begin with NASA firing a rocket into space which is powered by... a nuke. Yep, that would be the sort of rocket which tends to blow up on launch from time to time. Then again... Project Orion was actively being considered at around this time, so let's not blame the script for this, at least.

But the whole scene of the rocket losing control is just another excuse for Loki (still trapped on Asgard by the gods) to concoct an absurd escape plan which consists of having Thor get a bang on the head, giving him a contrived personality change which turns out to make him vehemently pro-Loki for no clear reason. Then again, of course it's absolutely possible to control how someone's personality changes by varying where and how you hit them on the head, right?

So Thor frees Loki, and rebels against a thankfully rather forgiving Odin, and it's fascinating just how undefined the All-Father's powers are at this early stage. We then move to an orgy of destruction, with several famous world landmarks being destroyed. But then the United Nations requests that Odin accede to Loki's inevitable blackmail... and it seems the delegates all accept the gods as being literally, well, gods, which... well!

And then we have a literal deus ex machina, we press a big red reset button, and that's it. The whole thing might as well have not happened. And, throughout the whole story, we only got a few panels with Thor as Thor.

Utterly, utterly awful. 

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. 

Journey into Mystery #92

 "Dr. Blake is very experienced in using a mallet!"

Another uneven Thor story here. The cover, for one thing, is misleading- the main threat is on Asgard where the sixty second rule apparently doesn't apply. We're told that Loki wants to force Thor to fight on Asgard, his territory, rather than Earth, which is more known to Thor- but surely it makes sense to exploit the sixty second rule?

We're introduced to two new Asgardian characters. One is Thor's mother, "Fricka" (er, interesting way of spelling "Frigga" there...) and Neri, her handmaiden. But then it's back to Earth for a recent plot point to be reused- yet again, a criminal forces Don Blake to operate and save his life. The crooks want to off him, but Blake effectively says "oh look, a squirrel" then becomes Thor and overpowers them. He then proceeds to tie them all to the operating table, which he literally throws to the police station....

This is probably not great post-op procedure, to put it mildly. And neither this sort of thing, nor the silliness with Thor helping with special effects for a B movie, are right for this title. Thor's world is too big for this sort of thing, which takes up far too much of the story.

Then Loki seems to rather easily summon Thor's hammer to smash his bonds, something he could have done at any time. We then rush to a rather perfunctory battle between them, livened only by the rather arresting sight of a giant Odin picking Thor up. There's no sixty second rule... but for some reason Thor still wants to make new hammers out of wood, rock and the like, which makes sense because, er...

This story is uneven in pace, concept, everything. Thor has a lot of promise, but we urgently need a change of direction and an injection of seriousness. 

Journey into Mystery #91

 "That brainless mortal!"

And so, alas, we come to another early Journey into Mystery from the pen of Larry "nepotism" Lieber. This is a fairly ho-hum example, but at least the plot is passable. Thor, up to this point, is hardly one of the stars in Marvel's firmament however.

Loki's back for a third time. Odin too, still not quite appearing in the form that will become familiar, either facially or in the fact that he's sporting- yes indeed- a horned helmet. And there are some nice emerging bits of lore- we have valkyries, Odin's personal magic item delivery service, although at this stage they look nothing like what they will eventually become. And, of course, from the pages of the Eddas, we have Thor's belt of strength.

And, yeah... the first couple of panels amused me, using said belt of strength as the most blatant example of the Chekhov's Gun trope in comic book history. Thor needing the macguffin to get out of a tight spot was bound to happen. As for the story overall, it's silly but fun. I liked how Loki's proxy carnival show villain was defeated because he mentally "short circuited" after fruitless attempts to magically wield Thor's Uru hammer. 

By the standards of Thor, this is one of the good ones. But we're still so very, very early.

Journey into Mystery #90

 "Arrest that costumed pest!"

This... may be the most inconsequential comic yet, more skippable Larry Lieber stuff, this time without even the art of Jack Kirby, even if on these stories he phones it in a bit, to make it better. Basically, it's neither good nor particularly interesting, and the Xartans (another alien race) will be making only token, novelty future appearances. In short... Thor, at this point, is not very good.

There's more of the tiresome love stand-off between Donald Blake and Jane, each afraid to declare their love to the other... although, this time, Odin officially orders Blake not to reveal his identity, which is unhelpful.

The baddies are, well, a precursor to the Zygons in Doctor Who in that their plan for world conquest involves an ability to impersonate people, as long as they hold the original person as prisoner. Their plan is bonkers, though- impersonate those in power, implement ridiculous laws, and they invade with their battle fleet in confusion!

This issue has the most bonkers ending yet. Thor throws the alien warlord into the sky, right into space so the battle fleet turns around and goes after him. As for the Xartans on Earth, it's the old Skrull cow trick again, getting them to turn into trees and, as trees, lose their sentience forever. Blimey, that's dark. 

But yeah, moving swiftly on... 

Journey into Mystery #89

 "A girl so beautiful would never marry a... a weakling like me."

This is, it has to be said, an entirely skippable issue, but the whole point of this exercise is to skip nothing and read every comic set in what will soon be the Marvel Universe for as long as I want to keep going- and, at the moment, I expect that to be, at least, the early '90s. After that, we'll see.

The story, concerning a bog standard thug and the complications of Thor's secret identity, is... forgettable. Thor should be about bigger things than this, but the series has yet to work it out. Hence this story, with yet another origin retelling and more focus on the deeply uninteresting love triangle between Donald Blake, Jane and, er, Thor.

Things worth noticing? Well, Thor literally steals from a mannequin shop, however much he may insist that he intends to pay later. Jane daydreams of life with Thor, said dreams  consisting mainly of household chores and... cutting Thor's hair short? Begone with thee, Delilah! We men with long luscious locks want nothing to do with your sort.

Interestingly, Odin recognises Blake as his son. And... Thor now officially has ventriloquism powers! But ultimately... my fellow completists aside, you can skip this one.

Journey into Mystery #88

 "The Sun is melting my convertible!"

Let's start by briefly running through the plot, shall we, and marvelling at its bonkersness as we often do?

So... after the events of issue #85, Loki is returned to an Asgard that now shows some hint of how superbly Jack Kirby will one day render it. He's grounded by Odin, but spies on Thor, essentially by reading last issue in an almost metatextual touch(!), and learns all about Donald Blake and the sixty second rule. He then tricks Thor and seals away his hammer, forcing him to remain as Blake while Loki gets to all sorts of magical mischief in New York. Unfortunately for Loki, though, Blake has a cunning plan involving a suspiciously realistic plastic dummy of Thor and what can only be described as ventriloquism superpowers.

So far, so bonkers. But there are a few things about this issue to make us ponder. One is that, at long last, they've finally settled on a surname for Jane Foster. We also have an intriguing contradiction as to the ongoing question of which is the true self- Thor or Blake? Loki describes Thor as "his accursed true self", yet Blake refers to himself as "my normal self". And then there's Loki- at this point they're still leaning heavily into the "god of mischief" side.

Thor is still, like much of what will soon become the Marvel Universe, working out what it wants to be, issue by issue. And that's fascinating.

Journey into Mystery #87

 "Imbecile! You will pay for this blundering!"

This is... well, it's an utterly inconsequential placeholder with Thor versus, you guessed it, Soviet communists. Eminently skippable, as there are no wider implications as to Marvel lore and there only so many ways one can comment on the use of communists as crude, one note cartoon villains. 

So we get another outing for the Donald Blake / Jane /Thor ironic love triangle. We also get strong indicators, once again, that Thor is basically just Donald Blake wielding the powers of the ancient thunder god. Although, despite the strong early indications that this is the case, with Don being the one who decides to use himself as bait to investigate the scientists disappearing behind the Iron Curtain, we end with Thor asking Odin to destroy the Soviet fortress in what must be the most literally deus ex machina scene yet.

We do, it must be said, have a pit of sharks, which is splendid. But, unless you happen to be a fellow completist, this is eminently skippable. 

Journey into Mystery #86

 "I'm happy to play a part in keeping the free world strong and secure against the forces of tyranny."

Yes indeed, those are Thor's words as he happily helps the US military test out a "cobalt bomb". Welcome to 1962, folks. 

This is, I suppose, a pleasingly early introduction of a lasting villain, albeit a fairly minor one, so a welcome relief from all these one-off alien and communist baddies we seem to be getting at the moment. But, I mean, it's not actually very good. Basically, the year 2262 is some kind of generic peaceful utopia but Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man, is an evil scientist with a lust for war and conquest as his only personality trait. He travels back to 1962 (and yes, it's explicitly 1962 here, and I'll be commenting on the "Marvel Time" theory as we go) to nick the cobalt bomb, uses it to conquer the Earth of 2262, but Thor time travels to stop him, after a few ho-hum set pieces. That's it. Not much cop, really.

Some potentially interesting things, though. Zarrko has "Earth's only time machine", so either Doctor Doom's time platform has been forgotten or this isn't all quite meant to be a shared universe yet. Thor summons Odin so he can time travel, our first extended look at the All-Father... and appears, at this point, to be the actual Thor of Norse legend. Is he just Don Blake with Thor's powers? Is he actually Thor? Is this a case of dissociative identity disorder? Things are getting confusing. Donald Blake certainly pops up at the end, and the sixty second rule is in play...

Not a great comic, then, but arguably an important one. 

Journey into Mystery #85

 "Well, eh, it's all in your point of view!"

After last issue being a fairly dull story about Communists while setting up the dynamic further between Donald Blake and Jane Nelson(?), this time things are pretty damn good. And seem to be heralding a significant change in the status quo.

Thus far, Thor has just seemed to be Blake inheriting the powers and form of the ancient Norse god, with no suggestion that the Thor we see here literally has the mind of the actual deity. I don't think that unambiguously changes here by any means, but things start to blur.

And that's right from the start. Because we suddenly see the rainbow bridge of Asgard, where the booming heavens roar. And we behold with breathless wonder... a tree. Loki has been trapped there for a very long time by Odin, and naturally the consequences of this in terms of mental health are just handwaved away, as this is ruled by the logic of myth. But he plays a clever trick on a freshly introduced Heimdall, and he's off to Earth for revenge on Thor... whom he seems to believe is his actual stepbrother.

And... the contest between them is very wacky but huge fun. Loki turns three New Yorkers into, er, negatives. Thor resolves this by using his hammer (said for the first time to be made of uru) to create. er, "anti-matter particles", which in no way smells like a one-off power just made up for plot convenience. Loki hypnotises Thor, but he's saved by the hammer's sixty second rule. And... well, Thor, or Blake as Thor, whichever he is, says Loki is "According to the ancient legends, the most cunning and wicked of all the gods". So... does he know of Loki only by legend? Does Thor, at this point, have only the mind and memories of Blake? At this stage, I still think so.

We end with Loki (water is his weakness, apparently) returned to Asgard, with cameos from Odin, Balder and Tyr. This is a rather good issue, and the world of Thor suddenly feels much bigger.

Journey into Mystery #84

 "We will test your courage as you face my firing squad!"

After Thor gets an exciting debut... well, this second instalment is very ho-hum. And I rather suspect that this noticeable downturn in quality may be down to the fact that the script is not by Stan Lee but wholly by his younger brother: nepotism is not the most solid of hiring practices. But we'll see, over time, if Larry Lieber does in fact get to impress me.

The plot is very silly. A fictional Latin American country called San Diablo is facing civil war between two factions, one of them a bunch of commies and the other pro-American supporters of democracy because those are, of course, the only two ideologies that could possibly exist in 1962. There's a very silly communist villain, the Executioner, whose USP is his penchant for sending people to the firing squad at the drop of a hat.

This is a very perilous situation, but nevertheless an American medical mission is somehow sent to help, all volunteer doctors and nurses who agree to head towards what must surely be certain death as the Executioner wants them dead. That'll do for the plot: let's just say that Thor saves the day.

There are some interesting bits of lore, though. Again there's no suggestion that this is the actual Norse god Thor. It's revealed that Donald Blake was holidaying in Norway last issue, and that he's a doctor. He and his nurse, Jane Nelson (not Foster?) both fancy each other, but neither will ever reveal it through lack of confidence. Yes, that trope. But, oh irony of ironies... Jane comes to fancy Thor more.

Still, this is frankly a bit rubbish. They can't all be good, I suppose, but this is still early days.

Journey into Mystery #83

 "Well, it's a cinch that skinny gent isn't Earth's secret weapon!"

At first, it seemed this issue (or, rather, short 13 page story) was going to be very silly indeed. I mean, the Stone Men from Saturn? Evoking the Toad Men from Incredible Hulk #2, with their "atomic" force fields and Easter Island faces?

And yet... with allowances made for the fact that this is fairly early in the Silver Age, I find this to be a rather good comic. Yes, it's annoying that Donald Blake is described as being on vacation in "Europe", as though our diverse continent were an undifferentiated mass, and it's very silly Blake should fail to see the alien ship just behind him. Beyond that, though, this is all good stuff. The costume design and initial splash page are particularly good.

Fascinating, after finding the cane, which becomes the hammer (unnamed at this point, at least in the comic), Blake still remains himself as he explores and discovers the powers he's been given by the hammer. There's no indication that he's literally the Norse god in question, simply a worthy man who's discovered an artifact giving him the powers of Thor, whom we would naturally infer at this point was a figure from the deep past. Indeed, as he turns back into Blake after spending sixty seconds not touching the hammer, there's more than a whiff here of Bruce Banner and the Hulk.

But this is all good fun, with the exposition around Thor's powers and the way he defeats the, er, Stone Men from Saturn. A solid start.