Appearing in "Defying the Magic of... Mad Merlin!"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Thor ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- Dr. Donald Blake
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- ⏴ Mad Merlin ⏵ (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- ⏴ President John F Kennedy
- Caroline Kennedy (First appearance)
- King Arthur (Only in flashback)
- U.S. Army
- Metropolitan Police Department
- F.B.I. (Mentioned)
- Odin (Invoked)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Asgardians (Main story and flashback)
Locations:
- Sol (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- North America (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- East River (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Main story and flashback)
- East Side Bus Terminal (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Donald Blake's Medical Practice
- New York Museum
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- Cape D'Or missile base (First appearance)
- Washington, D.C.
- Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial (First appearance)
- Pennsylvania Avenue
- a police station
- Potomac River (Referenced)
- Virginia
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- Europe (Only in flashback)
- North America (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Asgard
Items:
- Mjolnir (Main story and flashback)
Synopsis for "Defying the Magic of... Mad Merlin!"
Thor overhears a shore crew state that they are unloading the sarcophagus of the legendary Merlin. He wonders what it would be like if Merlin were alive today. Then entering his office window, Thor returns to his identity of Dr. Don Blake. He emerges from his office to be scolded by his nurse Jane Foster because he has been ignoring his patients for over an hour. He could not tell her he was busy saving a bus load of people who fell off a bridge into the river.
At the museum, Merlin's sarcophagus is opened to reveal his body still in perfect condition. As soon as the workers leave, Merlin awakens and recalls how he used to use his mutant powers of telepathy, levitation and teleportation to fake magic. Reading a newspaper he learns of a missile test at Cape D'or and uses his powers to send the missile off course.
Alerted by a radio broadcast, Thor arrives and corrects the missile's course. He then goes to Asgard to see if the imprisoned Loki is behind the mishap. Loki reveals that Merlin is the one responsible. Thor heads to the museum to check out Loki's claim.
But Merlin has teleported himself to Washington DC, where he enters the White House to try to take the country from President Kennedy. Thor arrives, and a battle follows with Merlin using the Washington Monument as a super-lance and animating the statue from the Lincoln Memorial.
Their powers evenly matched, Thor decides to take a gamble. He strikes his hammer, returning to the form of Blake. He then convinces Merlin that he is a shape shifter and able to became thousands of more powerful forms. He orders Merlin to return to his sarcophagus for another 1000 years.
Later, in the operating room, Jane comments that when it comes to the operating table, Dr Blake is a magician.
Appearing in "Call Her Medusa"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "Call Her Medusa"
- Synopsis not yet written
Appearing in "Frederick Fenton's Future"
Featured Characters:
- Frederick Fenton
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth-63996
Synopsis for "Frederick Fenton's Future"
This story has basically the same plot as "The Last Man on Earth" in Amazing Adult Fantasy Vol 1 7 just swapping a time machine for a bomb shelter as the 'mechanism of isolation'. The protagonist thinks to himself that he can simply reset the time machine to a period before humanity left Earth, but then realizes in the post-industrial ruins there is no electricity, and so he sets out to build an electrical generator in the years he has left to him.
Notes
- Sequence 1 Defying the Magic of... Mad Merlin! plot by Lee, script by Bernstein (credited as R. Berns).
- Despite his claims in the issue, the "Merlin" featured here is later revealed not to be the legendary wizard who served in Arthur's court. He is instead a mutated human who later reappears under the name Maha Yogi. He possesses a fragment of the Bloodgem, which grants the wearer immortality. The real Merlin first appeared in Young Allies #11.