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Appearing in "Turning Point"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #11

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Synopsis for "Turning Point"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #11

When Peter hears that Doctor Octopus is about to be released from prison, he goes to the warden to petition against his release. The warden tells Spider-Man that Octopus served his time and tells him to get out before he has him arrested. Knowing that Octopus will probably go back to a life of crime, Peter develops a Spider-Tracer device which will allow him to track Octopus wherever he goes. When he tags the car coming to pick up Octopus, Spider-Man is shocked to find Betty Brant driving. He also finds that she dropped a map to Philadelphia from the car when she picked up Octopus.

As it turns out, Betty's trouble involves her brother Bennett, who is the lawyer for crime boss Blackie Gaxton. He also owes Gaxton a large gambling debt. In order to clear this debt, Betty has agreed to help Bennett follow through with Gaxton's plan: Use Dr. Octopus to free him from prison.

When Peter travels to Philadelphia, he tracks down Betty and tells her how he feels. Meanwhile, Dr. Octopus frees Gaxton, and they take Betty and Bennett as hostages as they escape by boat. Spider-Man arrives to capture both, but during the altercation Spider-Man sprains his ankle and Bennett is shot by a bullet fired by Blackie that was meant for his sister.

Betty blames Spider-Man for her brother's death, and Spider-Man battles Dr. Octopus around the ship, but Octopus escapes. The police arrive and arrest Blackie and his gang. Later, having changed back to Peter Parker, he learns from Betty that she hopes to never see Spider-Man again, because she couldn't bear being reminded of her brother's death. This hampers Peter's plans of revealing his secret identity to her.

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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.

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