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Quote1 Hold! Come No Further! You May Cross Yon Bridge Only After Hercules Has Done So! Quote2
Hercules' First Words

Appearing in "When Titans Clash!"

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Synopsis for "When Titans Clash!"

While traveling out to Jotunheim, Thor and Loki are searching for a path leading to the land of Olympus, home of the Olympian Gods when they happen upon some Frost Giants, which Thor easily defeats in combat. However, the battle causes the ground to rupture and Thor falls into the chasm and finds himself in a tunnel. Following it to its end he finds himself on Olympus.

After exploring a bit he seeks to cross a bridge but is halted by Hercules who demands that nobody cross the bridge until he has done so. Finding such a notion ridiculous as there is room for both men to cross the bridge, ignores the demand and begins crossing the bridge. This leads to the arrogant Hercules to begin attacking Thor who seeks to match his strength, and his weapon (a club) against Thor's hammer. Thor attempts to toss his hammer at Hercules but finds the Demi-God able to grab it in mid flight and toss it back at Thor.

The battle rages on, as both combatants match each others attacks it becomes clear that both men are equally matched. With no end to the battle in sight, they are stopped when they are struck by Zeus, ruler of the Olympian Gods. With Zeus calling the battle an end, the two strong men bow in honour of the request. Thor explains that he had come on a mission of peace, and both he and Hercules make it and declare each other friends before Zeus uses his power to return Thor to Jotunheim.

There he finds Loki inspecting the damage done during Thor's battle with the Frost Giants. When Thor questions where Loki was during the battle, the God of Mischief claims that he fled the battle to search for aid. Suddenly, before anything else can be said, the cavern to Olympus is suddenly filled with rock and a mountain is constructed in its place forcing the two Gods to seek cover. With the way to Olympus sealed, they decide to leave however Thor begins to wonder when, if ever, he may meet Hercules again.

Appearing in "Trapped by Loki, The God of Mischief"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #85

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  • Loki (First Modern Age appearance)

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  • a subway
  • a Pegasus-shaped sign animated by Loki

Synopsis for "Trapped by Loki, The God of Mischief"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #85

In the far off land of Asgard, home of the Asgardians, the trickster god Loki has spent time trapped in a tree, so put there by Odin until someone would shed a tear over him, thus freeing him from his prison. Having taken partial control over the tree, Loki causes a leaf to fall from its branches as the god Heimdall is walking past it. The leaf lands in Heimdall's eye causing him to shed a tear, unknowingly freeing Loki from his prison. Now free, Loki begins plotting revenge against his half-brother Thor, and uses his mystic link to Thor's hammer to track Thor to New York City on Earth.

Appearing on Earth, Loki takes on a mortal guise and goes to the hospital where Thor was putting on a show for sick children, but finds that Thor had just left. Unable to find Thor in the teeming millions of people, he decides to flush the Thunder God out by casting a spell that makes people in the streets turn into negative images thereby causing a panic. In his civilian guise of Donald Blake and out with his nurse Jane Foster, Thor spots the problem and slips away to transform himself into his godly form.

Using his Uru hammer's mystical properties, Thor manages to change the people back to normal. As he is being praised by the crowd, Thor is approached by his half-brother who reveals his true identity to him.

Part 2: The Vengeance of Loki

Seeking to take their battle to the sky, Loki is really setting up Thor for a trap, and easily hypnotizes his opponent. He commands Thor to hand over the hammer, which Thor refuses due to the will of his father Odin, try as he might Loki cannot get Thor to give up his hammer. Eventually Loki succeeds when he creates a mystical duplicate of Thor and tells his thrall to hand it over to the double, which Thor does willingly. Loki then commands that Thor go to the zoo and let all the animals loose.

What Loki doesn't account for is the fact that once Thor is away from his hammer for more than sixty seconds he reverts back into the form of Donald Blake. When this happens, Blake is free from Loki's control and manages to get past a group of people trying to lift Thor's hammer (unable to do so because they are unworthy of wielding it) changing himself back into Thor. With his plot foiled, Loki attempts to escape under the cover of a flock of birds, however Thor follows after the God of Mischief. This leads to a battle across the city where eventually Loki tries to escape on an animated statue of Pegasus.

Thor finally stops Loki when he manages to trap him in a pipe, knocking him off his horse and into the bay. Quickly capturing Loki, Thor takes him to the top of the Empire State Building where he uses his hammer to hurl Loki back to Asgard before Odin for punishment. After his hammer is returned to him, Thor reverts back to his Donald Blake guise and reunites with Jane Foster, who is once more gushing over Thor's exploits.

Appearing in "The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #93

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  • Chinese tanks
  • a Chinese submarine

Synopsis for "The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #93

Dr. Donald Blake has traveled to India to lend his medical expertise in a war torn region of the country. When the area he is in is bombarded with missile attacks, Blake runs for cover and changes into Thor to deal with the threat. Thor makes short work of the Chinese invaders, destroying their missiles and smashing up their tanks. With the humanitarian effort's vehicles destroyed in the attack, Thor rigs the enemy tanks for their use to get their patients out of the region. Thor then goes back and forces the Chinese army back with a raging thunder storm.

When word of Thor's involvement reaches the Communist Chinese leaders in Peking, China, they demand from their scientists to come up with a means to stop the Thunder God. Scientist Chen Lu steps up and offers his expertise in radiation to come up with a means of destroying Thor and crushing the United States and other democracies. Retiring to his private lab, Lu begins experimenting with bombarding himself with various doses of radiation and soon is transformed into the a radioactive power-house and rechristens himself the Radioactive Man. He then appears before his superiors who decide to secretly transport him into America to attack the United States.

Smuggled into US waters by submarine, the Radioactive Man is launched by specially prepared torpedo into New York, where he begins his attack on the people there. He proves too powerful for local law enforcement and announces his challenge to Thor. The Thunder God however is stuck in surgery in his civilian guise of Donald Blake and has to finish an operation before he can act in his godly identity.

Thor's powers prove ineffectual against the Radioactive Man, who uses his powers to hypnotize Thor. He then commands the Thunder God to throw his hammer away, and is furious when Thor throws it away really far. Seeking out the hammer for his own possession, the Radioactive Man leaves the hypnotized Thor unattended so that he is not around to see him revert back into Donald Blake after the 60 second time limit runs out. Like in the past, when Thor reverts back to Blake, any hypnosis he was under is broken. When the Radioactive Man returns, Don manages to send him off on a wild goose chase.

Returning to his office, Blake builds a device that allows him to track the location of his hammer, and finds that it has landed at the bottom of the Hudson River. Recovering his hammer, Blake transforms into Thor once more and tracks down the Radioactive Man. Catching his foe off guard, Thor creates a tornado that flings the Radioactive Man back to China where he crashes in the remote mountains and is seemingly destroyed in a nuclear explosion.

Appearing in "The Demon Duplicators!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #95

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Synopsis for "The Demon Duplicators!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #95

Odin has summoned his son Thor to Asgard because they are having a drought. Using his enchanted hammer, Thor caused it to begin to rain, then promises to return in a week to stop the rain. He waves to Heimdall, guardian of the Rainbow Bridge between Asgard and Earth as he passes.

Back on earth, Thor heads for a scientist convention where Professor Zaxton is demonstrating an android that Thor's other Identity, Dr Don Blake, helped to invent. The large green android is designed to have double the intelligence of a normal human, with an IQ of 375. It demonstrates this ability by solving another professor's equation in seconds. Its plastic skin is resistant enough to withstand blows from Thor's hammer. Zaxton explains that an army of such androids would be invincible.

But a mistake at the controls by Zaxton cause the android to short-circuit. It is about to explode, turning its indestructible plastic skin into deadly shrapnel. Thor quickly attaches the android to his hammer, and flings him high into the sky where he can explode without endangering anyone.

Thor transforms to his identity as Dr Blake, and upon returning to office finds his nurse Jane Foster missing and Professor Zaxton waiting for him. Zaxton demonstrates a machine he has designed which duplicates anything it is aimed at. Zaxton wants Blake to help him adapt the machine to duplicate humans. When Blake refuses, Zaxton reveals that he is holding Jane hostage and threatens to harm her. Blake decides to play along until he can transform back to Thor.

Thor Odinson (Earth-616) and Thor Odinson (Demon Duplicate) (Earth-616) from Journey Into Mystery Vol 1 95 0001

Zaxton's Duplicator creates an evil Demon Duplicate of Thor

Working through the night, Blake is able to adapt the duplicator to work on living beings. While the professor is testing it on an alley cat, Blake is able to learn that Jane is locked in the professor's basement, and manages to transform to Thor, planning to rescue her. But Zaxton has witnessed the transformation, and now uses the machine to duplicate Thor. Only he gives the duplicate Thor a second enchanted hammer, making him twice as strong as the real Thor.

Fleeing through the windows of Blake's office, Thor leads the duplicate outside where they have room to battle. As the duplicate closes on Thor, Thor uses his magic hammer to create a lightning bolt which strikes the duplicate's uru hammer, knocking him unconscious. But before Thor can finish off the duplicate with a hammer throw, Zaxton makes a temporary third Thor to block the hammer throw and saves the duplicate.

Realizing that his duplicate is in trouble, Zaxton blocks Thor by duplicating a dozen airplanes in between Thor and the duplicate, forcing Thor to chance his course and place him at the mercy of the duplicate.

The duplicate tosses both his hammers, striking Thor in the chest. But the blows have no effect. Looking at the hammers, and the inscription on them that says "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he is worthy, shall possess the power of Thor", Thor realizes the duplicate is not worthy of the power, and so does not possess any of it. While he looks like Thor, he has none of Thor's power. A single blow from Thor's hammer causes the duplicate to disappear.

Meanwhile Professor Zaxton panics, and tries to flee from Thor by making a duplicate of himself. But in the process, he drops the duplicator over the edge of the parapet on which he is standing. Reaching for the machine, Zaxton loses his balance and falls to this death. The duplicator is also destroyed by the fall. But the duplicate Zaxton, who has an opposite personality without a streak of villainy, still lives. He will take over Zaxton's work, only for good instead of evil. Thor then rescues Jane, explaining that Zaxton has reformed and is sorry for what he did.

With a week having passed, Thor returns to Asgard where he ends the rain that he created.

Appearing in "The Lava Man"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #97

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  • Jet Fighter

Synopsis for "The Lava Man"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Journey Into Mystery #97

After saving a jet pilot, Thor returns to his office as Dr. Don Blake to speak to his nurse Jane Foster. He wants to confess his love for her, but realizes he can not unless he also reveals his identity as Thor. So he goes to Odin asking permission, and it is denied.

As news of the approaching Lava Man spreads through the city, Loki (watching from Asgard) laughs because it was he who released the volcanic creature.

Meanwhile, Jane informs Blake that she is leaving and taking a job elsewhere. She can not remain where her feelings are rejected. Forbidden by Odin, Blake is unable to stop her.

As the Lava Man finally reaches the city, he claims the city for his Lava Men tribe. But Thor appears ready to stop him. The Lava Man melts his way into the tunnels underground, and causes geyser eruptions all around Thor. But the Thunder God uses his thrown hammer to drive the Lava Man back above ground. The Lava Man encases Thor in lava, but he is able to break free by summoning a lightning blast from his hammer.

When the Lava Man converts himself to a pillar of stone to try to crush Thor, Thor conjures a whirlwind with his hammer and sweeps the Lava Man to a distanct volcano and drops him in. He then seals the top to imprison the Lava Man and end his threat.

Back at his office as Blake, he finds Jane and her new employer, Dr. Bruce Andrews, waiting for him. She is angry that while the Lava Man was menacing the area, Blake had not even bothered to check on her safety. She leaves with Dr. Andrews, as Blake laments that Thor must live out his days alone.

Notes

  • Includes a pin-up of Asgard. This rendition denotes primarily the major city of Asgard proper, noting the Temple of Titans, Yggasdral, the Warlock's Haven, the Dome of Combat, the Monument to the Unknown Warrior, a Museum of Weaponry, the Hall of Heroes, and finally a Bust of Odin.
  • As revealed in Thor Annual Vol 1 8, story one is a tale of a much younger Thor from "when the Eternal Realm was young".
  • credits for Story 1:
    • Mighty Story By: Stan Lee
    • Majestic Art By: Jack Kirby
    • Masterful Inking By: Vince Colletta
    • Mostly Lettered By: Sam Rosen

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