Featuring: Thor
Release: May 4, 1965
Cover: July 1965
12 cents
A story steeped in splendor by: Stan Lee
Artwork bathed in beauty by: Jack Kirby
Inking dipped in drama by: Vince Colletta
Lettering couched in clichés by: Artie Simek
16 pages
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| Journey Into Mystery #117, Story B | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B |
| Journey Into Mystery #117, Story B | Journey Into Mystery | Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B |
We are now 2 months ahead of everything else in our Thor reading because it’s all just flowing together. Thor still hasn’t returned to Asgard with the Norn Stones that will prove Loki cheated in the Trial of the Gods.
He is still flying with Kim, whose entire family was recently killed by her Communist brother.
In the early (generally awful) Thor stories (#83-100), the villains were pretty lame. Loki was the only real stand-out. A couple others, like Radioactive Man, had potential. When Kirby became the primary artist and the stories started to improve, we got some better villains: Executioner, Enchantress, and Grey Gargoyle.
Now that the series is kicking into high gear, we are getting great villains. We recently met Absorbing Man and now get introduced to the Destroyer.
The issue introduces a hunter, who is a significant character that isn’t actually named. We’ll just keep calling him “A hunter”. It’s possible Stan means for his official name to be, “The Hunter”. Hard to tell sometimes.
It’s not obvious to me where this story is supposed to take place. Thor has left Vietnam and presumably flown not too far. All we know for sure is he’s in a jungle. Then we need to guess what culture Kirby is trying to depict with the hunter’s servants. India, maybe?
Thor gets taken down pretty easily with an anesthetic shell from the hunter. He was similarly knocked unconscious by a Viet Cong mortar shell. I like to think of Thor as a bit more powerful than that. My general impression is you should need specialized weaponry or godlike powers to hurt Thor, but that is not what these last two issues have depicted. Perhaps gas is a particular weakness of Thor’s.
Loki’s latest scheme is complicated. He manipulates this hunter into unearthing an ancient temple, there to awaken a weapon which will destroy Thor.
The temple is the Temple of Darkness, which was built and concealed long ago by Odin. It houses the Destroyer. The Destroyer was meant to be awakened in a time of mankind’s great need to fight the enemies that emperil the Earth.
Loki has seen to it that the Destroyer has been prematurely awakened, and convinced Thor is whom he is meant to destroy.
We’ve met over 200 villains and 40 heroes in our reading. Stan and crew have mostly done a good job coming up with unique names. Only a couple exceptions. Thor fought a Communist named Executioner before we met the Asgardian villain with that name. There was an evil Dr. Strange before we met the more famous hero. Both the Fantastic Four and Giant-Man have fought different villains named the Wrecker; the more famous villain of that name is still to come.
Human Torch fought the Destroyer in his first solo adventure. This is the second villain with that name, and the far more famous of the two. This Destroyer even made it into the Thor film. The other Destroyer has not yet made it to the screen.
Before the Human Torch villain, Marvel had a 1940s hero named the Destroyer. We’ll take the opportunity to meet him once we finish this issue.
The Destroyer by himself is lifeless. He needs to take the mind (and perhaps soul) of another to function at all. The hunter awakens him and the Destroyer takes the hunter’s mind. The hunter is frozen motionless while his mind occupies the Destroyer. The being is now a weird amalgamation. Sometimes it seems like his mind of that of the hunter, and sometimes it seems like he is the Destroyer, driven to fulfill his programming.
He refers to the hunter’s body as “his mortal body”. But then talks about how he was created to destroy.
The Destroyer is capable of lifting Thor’s hammer. Modern comics have introduced the idea that one must be worthy to lift Thor’s hammer, but that idea is not yet present in Thor stories. Quite the opposite: they’ve been entirely clear that the hammer is very heavy and only the very strong can lift it. So Hulk would stand a better chance than Captain America. The Destroyer is powered by Odin so of course powerful enough. Though the hunter is not a worthy person, and the Destroyer is just a machine.
The comic is pretty clear that the Destroyer is extremely powerful, moreso than Thor. The power of Odin. Thor doesn’t stand a chance.
We pause the battle to look to Asgard. We see in Loki fears recently echoed by Enchantress and Executioner: that they’re really not supposed to do any harm for fear of Odin’s wrath. They cause trouble, but they don’t kill humans and they don’t kill Thor.
The Asgardians say:
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape; you don’t spit into the wind; you don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Odin.
Loki is thus concerned that his latest scheme will be too successful and that Thor will die and he will get in trouble with Odin. So he decides to save Thor.
Loki doesn’t have the power to stop the Destroyer any more than Thor does. Only Odin is strong enough.
But Odin is taking a nap. In the first of what will become an oddly common trope in Thor stories, Odin needs his beauty rest. Later comics will call this the Odinsleep. It is here referred to as the Sleep of Life. Odin must sleep one full day once each year in order to maintain his immortality.
I need something similar, but basically every week, just to maintain my mortal self.
Odin’s guards will not let him be awakened and put Loki in the Dungeon of No-Escape for trying. The Dungeon of No-Escape? Really? I guess I should give Stan a break; it’s hard to keep naming things.
We then reach the climactic scene in the battle. The Destroyer lives up to his name and breaks Thor’s hammer. That’s pretty intense. We always thought the hammer was this all-powerful thing. And it is. But this is the Destroyer.
Thor is now in the Destroyer’s sights. This is the end.
We obviously want closure on this pretty soon, as this is quite the cliffhanger. But we’ve got two things first. First, we must finish this comic, which also features a back-up story set in ancient Asgard, this one continuing the Odinsword Saga.
Then I want to peek back over 20 years to meet Marvel’s original Destroyer.
Then we’ll come back here to see how this story resolves itself next issue.
Rating: ★★★½, 68/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 3. It is also available on Kindle.
Characters:
- Thor
- Kim
- Loki
- A hunter
- The Destroyer
- Odin
Story notes:
- The hunter finds treasures magically planted by Loki; ancient Norse relics: a sword; a helmet.
- Mountain shatters to reveal hidden temple in the Plateau of Silence.
- Temple of Darkness built by Odin ages ago to house the Destroyer.
- The hunter’s body is motionless, as his mind now occupies the form of the Destroyer through the mystic transfer.
- Odin placed the Destroyer on Earth to fight for Earth when needed. Because of the schemes of Loki, he has been awakened too soon, and with an evil host.
- Destroyer can also lift Thor’s hammer.
- Destroyer created to destroy first thing he saw; only a dread menace to Earth should have awakened him.
- Loki is afraid to kill Thor for he fear’s Odin’s punishment.
- Odin sleeps the “Sleep of Life”, a full day of sleep needed each year to maintain immortality.
- Destroyer fires a bolt of limitless force, which breaks Thor’s hammer.
- Destroyer’s bolts transmute elements.
| Previous | #344 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Journey Into Mystery #117, Story B | Reading order | Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B |
| Journey Into Mystery #117, Story B | Journey Into Mystery | Journey Into Mystery #118, Story B |
