Trapped by Loki, the God of Mischief!/The Vengeance of Loki!/
Release: August 2, 1962
Cover: October 1962
12 cents
Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1. The credits above come from the collection. I see no credits within the comic itself.
This is a pretty exciting story for me. I like the character of Thor, but what excites me most is the mythological world surrounding him. The first 2 issues told of a man in Thor’s body battling aliens and Commies. Now we finally get to Asgard.
“Beyond our segment of time and space, there exists Asgard, the citadel of the Norse gods, which is connected to earth by a rainbow bridge called the Bifrost!”
That’s cool. We meet Heimdall, Warder of Bifrost, get a glimpse of Tyr and Balder, and also get our first glimpse of Odin, Lord of the Norse Gods and father to Thor.
The story is this. Loki, God of Mischief, had been trapped in a tree ages ago by Thor. He was cursed to remain in the tree until his plight causes someone to shed a tear. This strikes me as having a very classical sensibility, about curses and riddles and semantics. I guessed the tale of Loki in the tree may not have originated here, but I can’t confirm that with googling. If Stan and Jack came up with this riddle, it’s fairly clever of them. Anyways, over the centuries trapped in the tree, he learned to control the tree somewhat, and thus was able to make a leaf fall off and hit Heimdall in the eye.
His plight => control of tree => hitting Heimdall in eye with leaf => Heimdall shedding tear.
Clever.
Loki’s motives include mischief, discord, and revenge for being trapped in the tree by his ancient enemy, Thor. If Thor has any sibling-like relationship to Loki, it is not mentioned in this issue.
Science time. Loki turns people “negative”. Fortunately, Thor’s hammer emits anti-matter particles when spun really fast, and anti-matter particles reverse atoms and can turn the “negative” people “positive”. I’ll confess it all went a little over my had. Thankfully Dr. Blake (or Thor) has a better grasp of physics than I do.
Don Blake’s nurse again appears in this issue. She is not named, but we know from last issue that her name is Jane Nelson. She is very excited to have witnessed the epic battle between Thor and Loki. She describes Loki as dashing and romantic.
So, who is this guy? Is he Don Blake in Thor’s body? Or is he Thor? Loki seems to think he is Thor. Why seek vengeance against somebody in Thor’s body? Odin refers to him as his eldest son, not just some mortal doctor with Thor’s powers. You’d think Odin would be able to tell the difference. Yet, this “Thor” mostly thinks and talks like Don Blake. He didn’t remember Loki, and only knows of him from legend. On the other hand, he did know Loki’s magic doesn’t work underwater. An obscure fact to recall from a high school class.
But what happened at the end? Mostly, it reads like Stan and Jack ran out of pages and needed to wrap things up. Thor throws his hammer to Asgard with Loki attached. If he is Dr. Blake, how does he know where Asgard is? He also notes the riskiness of the move. His hammer will return to him, standing atop the building. But if it takes more than 60 seconds it will come to Don Blake, not Thor… and probably kill him. So not only does Dr. Blake know how to throw the hammer to Asgard, he seems confident it can get there and back in 60 seconds. So confident he is willing to bet his life on it. Why not just carry Loki to Asgard with the hammer? Seems safer. Unless there’s some reason you can’t go to Asgard…
One very interesting line is from Loki: we learn Thor has not been in Asgard in ages and that no one knows where he is. A minor point that forces us to think about just what is going on. A man finding a mystical object which gives him the powers of a mythological figure… that’s not a story that necessarily needs much more explanation. But to learn that figure is an actual person, whose friends and father and nemesis are still around and looking for him… that raises questions. What happened to Thor? Was he somehow trapped in that cane, so that is now the real Thor somehow melded with Don Blake? Or is it just what the inscription said– Don Blake has Thor’s powers, but the real Thor is still out there somewhere. Or perhaps the real Thor is dead. There is some mystery here.
Rating: ★★★½, 61/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I’m pretty excited we got to see Asgard and meet some other gods, however briefly. And the scene with Loki escaping the tree is quite good.
Characters
- Loki
- Don Blake/Thor
- Heimdall
- Jane Nelson
- Odin
- Balder
- Tyr
Story notes:
- Loki trapped in tree in remote part of Asgard for ages; also described as centuries.
- Loki hated by all
- Thor has not been in Asgard for ages. No one knows where he is
- Thor’s hammer made of uru, the magic mineral
- Loki has mental link with Thor’s hammer
- Loki refers to Thor’s hammer as his “uru hammer”
- Thor entertaining children in hospital
- Loki thinks Don Blake is Thor
- Rotating hammer fast emits anti-matter particles
- Loki describes himself as the god Thor imprisoned and Thor’s eternal enemy. No mention of being brothers.
- Thor only knows Loki from legend
- Jane finds Loki dashing and romantic, and thinks he has a lovely name
- By will of Odin, the magic hammer can never be wrested from Thor
- Loki hypnotizes Thor pretty easily
- People try to lift Thor’s hammer to no avail; they can lift the handle, though.
- Thor knows Loki’s magic is useless in water
- Odin describes Thor as eldest son, lord of thunder
- How does Thor throw his hammer to Asgard?
#23 story in reading order
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