Featuring: Thor
Release: May 2, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: J. Sinnott
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Thor vol. 1.
Robert Bernstein has become a more frequent scripter of late. And Joe Sinnott has basically become the regular Thor penciller over Kirby, who only returns to the title intermittently. In general, Sinnott will not do a lot of full art for Marvel. But he spends decades as one of their most reliable finishers.
I think the above cover reference is the first time I’ve seen them use the phrase “Marvel Age of Comics”. But as I’m often reading reprints, I may be missing some internal notes. Anyways, that’s what I’ve been calling these tales, differentiating them from the comics the company published in decades prior, the “Marvel Age”. Now, the cover suggests they are just ushering it in. I’ve been describing comics thusly going back to Fantastic Four #1 two years earlier. Before the word “Marvel” was really anywhere to be seen. When there was just a discreet “MC” on the covers. This is part of a new marketing push. A similar phrase will show up on other covers and in house ads over the next month or so.
Still no particular evidence Thor ties in with any of these other stories. Not until the Avengers form. And again, we see everybody acting like Thor is the only superhero out there. When a missile loses control, everyone on earth seems to agree Thor must be tracked down. Nobody seems to consider contacting Iron Man or the Fantastic Four.
In their first encounter, Loki hypnotized Thor pretty easily. This time he has a much more convoluted plot. He manipulates a complicated series of events to ultimately get Thor to turn his head so his hammer hits him in the chromosomatic gland. And getting hit in that particular gland hard enough changes one from good to evil. Of course, Odin resolves the situation by hitting him again in the same spot.
My biology is rusty, but a google search for “chromosomatic gland” only turns up references to this comic, so I’m guessing it’s not a real thing. Maybe only Asgardians have it.
In the end, Odin strikes the issue’s events from the memories of everybody on earth. This does not sound very noble. Seems more like he wants to cover up his people’s failings.
Loki and Thor go on a rampage and destroy various earth monuments. Odin and the other Norse gods fix everything before issue’s end. In addition to causing thunderstorms, earthquakes and a volcanic eruption, Thor destroys: the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, a pyramid, the Gold Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Meanwhile, Loki: turns a whale into a sea serpent, makes the Sphinx attack Cairo, moves the Empire State Building, and awakens dinosaurs in museums.
Personal note: Coincidentally, I write this in the lounge at the Pisa airport just an hour or so after visiting the tower Thor seeks to topple. Here are my fingers.
Technically, by “this”, I mean the original draft of this post, which was written about 2 weeks before this post appeared, to give you a hint of how on top of my backlog I am.
Loki was introduced in issue 85 and has shown up in 5 of the 10 issues since. Nobody else yet has quite so regular an archenemesis. Dr. Doom is close, but it takes 13 issues before he’s shown up 5 times to menace the FF.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 34/100
Characters:
- Dr. Don Blake/Thor
- Loki
- Heimdall
- Odin
Story notes:
- U.S. bomb testing site in Pacific Ocean.
- Nuclear missile set to explode in space loses control; turns out it was due to Loki.
- World-wide message for Thor sent around earth.
- Loki uses “remote control magic”.
- Loki caused Thor to turn his head so that his hammer hit the chromosomatic gland; this changed Thor from good to bad.
- Loki notes earth and mankind are close to Odin’s heart.
- Odin notes Thor is his favorite son, noblest of all Norse Gods.
- Gods of Asgard repair all Thor’s damage.
- Odin strikes events from memory of men.
#79 story in reading order
Next: Sgt. Fury #2
Previous: Strange Tales #110, Story C
