Hey everyone, welcome back to another week of comic book heaven in Ye Olde School Cafe’! In this edition, we’ll keep diving further into Essential Thor volume one. Last week, we saw a lame Dr. Donald Blake on vacation in Europe make the discovery of a lifetime. He found a stick that, when struck against something, changed him into the Mighty Thor! Once he figured out how to use this new power, he fought off an alien invasion, and afterwards was seen making his way home.
Now, at this point Dr. Blake finds himself back in the states, but not for long. He almost immediately takes a job overseas to help the military, who has a shortage of doctors. On the boat ride over, he and Jane Foster are making conversation, but it only lasts a few minutes as one of the other passengers spots jet fighters heading in to deliver a punishing attack to everyone. It’s those terrible Russians, but Thor easily dispatches them. We then see the Russian ground forces try and stop Thor once they hit the dock. Again, Thor uses his super strength to stop them with relative ease. As Thor turns around, though, he sees that they’ve captured Jane, so he agrees to leave. He quickly changes back into Dr. Blake, and is taken hostage as well. It doesn’t take long for Dr. Blake to outwit them, then change back into Thor and put an end to them. The leader, The Executioner, actually gets shot by his own men while trying to betray them to save himself.
In issue #85, we see the emergence of the foe that would be his arch-nemesis and plague him forever. That’s right, Loki, Thor’s half-brother comes to Midgard, and he’s not coming for a family reunion. We see Loki trapped in a tree, which is where he was banished by Odin many years ago for his crimes against Asgard. Loki knows that he needs someone to shed a tear, and he will be released. As mighty Heimdall walks by, Loki uses his magical powers to cause one of the nearby trees’ leaves to fall off and poke Heimdall in the eye, causing a tear to be shed. This unleashes the lord of mischief, and he heads right for his brother in Midgard.
We next see Dr. Blake and Jane Foster walking down the street. They are surprised when a group of people begin shouting and run to investigate. Both of them are stunned to see that a few people are being magically attacked by an unknown force. Dr. Blake quickly makes a hasty exit and changes into Thor. Thor uses the magical properties in his hammer to reverse the spell on the people and all is well. A man from the crowd congratulates him, then reveals that he is actually Loki in disguise. Loki then challenges Thor to combat and Thor accepts. While this is going on, Jane comments to herself about how “dashing and romantic” Loki seems (Yeah, they make her out to be very desperate for a man for seemingly no reason). The two gods then travel to the top of a nearby building to start their battle.
As Thor is arriving at the top of the building, Loki hypnotizes him using his vast powers, and also causes the sun to reflect off of Thor’s hammer. He tries to make Thor throw it away, but it just returns to him anyway. Loki then decides to conjure up an image of Thor, and he tells the real Thor to give it the hammer. He does, then he reverts back to Dr. Blake a minute later. Once the change happens, though, it snaps him out of the hypnotized state, and Dr. Blake goes right for his hammer that is lying in the street. He sees two men trying to lift it but not getting anywhere. He grabs it, and the men laugh at him because he appears to be just some lame older guy. Immediately he’s transformed into Thor, and he heads right for Loki.
Loki heads into a theatre, and Thor chases after him inside. Loki uses his magic to thrust a curtain around Thor to escape. As Thor then closes in on Loki, Loki throws two humans onto the nearby railroad tracks. Thor quickly jumps on the tracks and stops the train from running them down. Again, Loki tries to escape, but Thor sees him flying away on a winged horse. Thor wants to use his hammer, but the crowd is too dense to swing it around and fly. Loki starts to smash everything in his reach, and Thor then realizes that he must take action. He sees a bunch of old pipes lying in a construction zone close by. He grabs one of the huge pieces and hurls it at Loki. It knocks him off the winged steed and he falls into the river. Thor jumps in after him, then once they come out of the water, Thor takes Loki to the top of the Empire State Building. Once there, he ties his hammer around Loki with some rope, and then hurls him towards Asgard. Loki is then dropped down right in front of Odin, and the hammer returns to Thor seconds later!
I hope you enjoyed this week’s look at the Mighty Thor’s beginnings, but be back next week for another look and we’ll see the first time Thor’s father, the all-father Odin, makes an appearance! And don’t forget, Thor is in theaters starting next Friday, May 6th!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net