Sloppy Story Telling: A Review of Journey Into Mystery #95

Story I Read: The Mighty Thor "The Demon Duplicators" (Journey Into Mystery#95 Aug 1963)

The astounding thing I have discovered as I journey through the Silver Age Marvel comics is the bipolar nature of the quality of these stories. Those of you who read my last review of Tales of Suspense know that that story was wildly terrible because of it’s disregard for furthering the development of Tony Stark. This story of Thor follows that model. 

In a former article about Thor I noted his similarities to DC’s Superman. One of the major issues with that Kryptonian has always been his power and the fact that the balance between him and his villains is often tipped extraordinarily in his favour. This is because of his vast powers and the villain’s mortality. Thor suffers the same issue.  Contemporary comics heroes, like Iron Man and Spider-man, often fight mortals who use their own ingenuity. Thor on the other hand needs a threat that is equal to his abilities, which are supernatural, meaning he needs an equally supernatural threat. Of course, this need is amply balanced by Loki, but his adopted brother cannot always be the antagonist. We can all agree it would get boring. 

Stan Lee in this story answers this conundrum by creating a great villain who is Thor himself. Well, not Thor himself but an equal evil duplicate. This I have no problem with. I find it interesting as it opens: up the question how do you defeat your exact equal? A fascinating and frightening idea. The problem I have with this story is how the duplicate comes about.

I understand in this early period of the Marvel Universe it was still unclear to the creatives if they wanted to establish a world in which all the hero’s share or individual worlds following their own streams. It therefore makes sense that canonicity in geographic location and macrocosmic influence are uncertain. However canonicity of character should at least be adhered to. It has been established in many former Thor stories that Dr. Don Blake (Thor’s absurd and unclear alter-ego) is a mild mannered General Practitioner MD. In this story Stan Lee establishes him as an MD who also invented an android and is preparing to announce the invention of artificial intelligence. This comes out of left field. Since when did the good doctor have an interest in AI? Where did he get his knowledge of “advanced robotic engineering?” Most importantly why is he suddenly at the forefront of this field. This makes absolutely no sense and is purely something created just to explain the connection between Don and Zaxton. I am sure in the next Thor, none of this will ever be mentioned and Dr. Blake will go back to treating patients quietly. 

This lack of thought is further shown in the reason for Thor’s presence at the

Apparently This Android Was Created by Blake

demonstration. He’s only there to open a safe. I kid you not. He is a glorified stage hand. 

Though the battle between Thor and his duplicate is thoroughly entertaining as most battles in Thor are, the narrative conveniences and disregard for canon really make one wonder why any of this happened in the first place. 

There are some clear changes going in the conception of the god as well. Don only occupies 3 panels. The creatives are clearly tired of that human drama and create a convenient Asgardian weather trauma just to cameo them in for entertainment. The soap opera with Jane is also given the back seat treatment. Thor saves her in one panel out of nowhere however we are not given a back story nor the location of her entrapment. She’s an after thought. It is sloppiness like this that cheapens the really exciting moments. That’s what I can say of my Marvel experience thus far. Sloppy. 

This story is 2 out of 5. An exciting story mired by the sloppiness in narrative and the inexplicable convenient malleability of the Dr. Don Blake character.  

A Review of The Human Torch’s Story in Strange Tales #111- “Fighting To The Death With Asbestos Man.”

When looking at the solo adventures of The Human Torch in Strange Tales I am always struck by the haste in their construction. It is obvious in the early days of the establishment of the Marvel Universe Stan Lee wanted to capitalize on the possibilities of having a teenage hero and cranked out countless unfocused stories. The speed in the development is obvious in the disregard in canon. It would be ideal way look at Torch as a rough draft for Spider-Man but it cannot really be done. In the early period there was triple the development on Storm, who had both the Fantastic Four issues and the solo adventures, and there was little examples for Pete who only had his own solo adventures.

Accepting that Torch doesn’t work on his own, as evidenced by the more and more prevalent cameos of the other 3 Fantastic members in the solo stories, let’s dive into the story at hand offered in Strange Tales # 111. 

Today's Story. 

The first thing that strikes me about this story is the brilliance of the villain. Up until around this point, in the Silver Age comics, little focus had been given to the villain’s motives. Often they had been reduced to a simple melodramatic thought process of:  “let’s kill the hero because he is good and I am not.” Orson Kasloff, on the other hand, is one of the first truly human villains. A good third of the story is devoted to the sad thoughts of a scientist who feels disrespected by his employer and this makes his need to destroy Torch that more believable. When he attempts to rob said employer it predictably blows up in his face as he does not expect the alarm to go off. I will admit I chuckled at this. 

Long story short Kasloff becomes Asbestos Man and all the time spent on establishing Kasloff; the man, goes up in flames in the nauseating arrogance of Torch’s snap vendetta. When the villain challenges the flaming teenager Johnny haphazardly flies to battle and is easily defeated. Again, Torch’s powers are wildly pliable, suddenly he’s too weak to combat a man in an asbestos suit when in an earlier publication he burnt so hot that he melted through an asbestos lined wall. Perhaps this is Stan Lee’s way of equalizing the earlier wild creativity of the Marvel heroes.

This disregard or fluidity in character development is also present in Sue Storm who makes yet again another aimless cameo. This time playing John’s spirit guide. Sue is looking more and more matronly in every issue. Perhaps Stan is wishing he actually made her into Johnny’s mother rather then sister. The wild sexism and disrespectful way the creatives treat Sue is better suited to full other article but I just need to mention banality of her in this issue. 

One of the greatest aspects of this story is it’s art. Inked by Dick Ayers this story is beautiful. No longer are there the empty blue backgrounds of the Jack Kirby drawn  comics thus far. Background detail is present. The contouring on Kasloff’s face or the fire veins (for what else do we call those dark lines on Torch) are fluid and ably move when Torch does. The New York presented here is gritty and even evokes the detail neo-Noireish renderings of Gotham in DC’s Batman. Marvel is truly coming into its own over the DC behemoth.

When looking at this story as whole it is easily a 3 out of 5 story mainly for the time spent on the detail of a new villain and the environment he exists in. The negatives exist in the rather shoddy writing that peaks its head on many occasions. Ably obvious in this rather cheap redundant piece of dialogue spouted by Kasloff early on ““What is all the excitement about? Why is everyone so excited??” 

Changes are afoot but there are still many obstacles. 

P.S. Think of all the cancer Kasloff will suffer because of his alter-ego. 

Kasloff, the man who will most likely die of cancer. 

Review of Journey Into Mystery #94

"This is a review of The Mighty Thor's Story-  Journey Into Mystery #94 that I wrote for The Marvel Comic Wiki." 

Once again that old trickster brother:Loki attempts to beguile Thor. Interestingly Loki’s plot                           at hand is not one that attempts to unseat him as the proper heir to Asgard but to gain Thor as an ally to Loki’s plans. 

Journey Into Mystery #94 (July 1963)

Though the science behind Thor’s loss of memory and personality change is quite hilarious it begs to the question the true two dimensionality of the Early Silver Aged heroes. Thor’s character, unlike his Silver Age counter parts the Fantastic Four and Anthony Stark, still remains basic in that he is a god who wishes to protect humanity. Essentially he is the Jesus figure that DC had reveled upon for so long with Superman.  There is nothing to him other then valor and responsibility. Loki is again the vice figure who wants chaos and revenge. Evil for the sake of evil and in this story he does his job admirably. He is actually quite wry in his sense of humour about the whole thing. An aspect of his developing personality that comes to the forefront in later characterizations.  This story begins to shine light on the shear power of the Asgardians and that they are a frightening possible threat to Earth. If death was allowed in this comic writing period bloody humans would litter the landscape. Alas, only tomfoolery occurs. 

Even though the story is quite simple and light this story does alot to set up Loki as something more then the ultimate foil to Thor. There is desperation and dare I say loneliness here. Loki needs a partner in crime. It could be read that Loki is attempting to besmirch Thor and ruin his golden boy image but I prefer to read it as a need to be vindicated by his own kind. Thor vindicates him in his confused amnesiac way as  being rightfully an equal. Something he has not done until this story. This is bittersweet in its own way. 

As for Dr.Don Blake and the alter-ego blah blah blah I can see that Stan Lee may be getting tired of that. This has to be least page time Thor’s alter-ego gets and Jane does not even appear. Perhaps he see’s his error in following the Superman model and perhaps there is more to this character?

The inking is really quite entertaining and sleek in this one. The images of the landmarks being blasted into the sky and the museum Dinosaurs being animated are classic Silver Age melodramatic images.  

All these positives aside, it is a shame that Odin wipes the action from the consciousness of Earth. If this were a later publication, something would be made of the disregard and threatening power of the Asgardians versus Midgardians. 

Overall, out of 5 stars, Journy Into Mystery #94: Thor and Loki attack the human race”  is a 3. It has a great sense of humour and begins to expand upon the relationship of Loki and Thor but the ending is simple and ultmitately empty.