At this point in Marvel 616 stories, Thor is without doubt the mightiest of heroes. Perhaps The Hulk could give him a run for his money but that’s debatable. The closest comparison you can make is Thor is as close as you get to Superman in the Marvel comics at this point. He’s super strong, he can fly (with the assistance of his hammer), he can even call down lightning and thunder.
Because of this immense power level, it’s been somewhat frustrating to see stories where Thor bashes communists over and over and goes after bad guys who break into banks and things like that. Those are the types of crimes that seem better suited for Spider-Man and Ant-Man to deal with.
But there has been one standout in the Journey Into Mystery stories. Every time Loki shows up, we get a story that feels more worthy of the god of thunder. The relationship between the two cannot be overstated in the history of Marvel 616. Without Loki’s blind ambition, and Thor’s determination to stop him, we wouldn’t have teams like The Avengers and The Defenders. Those stories are still a ways off but this issue lays more of the groundwork to get us there.
While Thor uses his strength and character to stop evil, he is quite susceptible to the machinations of his evil half-brother. The way we get there in this story is a bit silly but it’s still nice to see this conflict brewing, adding more of the necessary tension needed to expand this universe.
From the cover you can see Loki is able to get Thor on his side in this issue but how does he get there? Let’s dive into the issue and find out.
The issue starts out with a bit of a teaser panel with Thor showing Loki how he can topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa with his little finger.
We then move into the main story where a U.S. bomb testing site in the pacific ocean is launching a test missile. This particular missile is armed with a nuclear warhead which will explode in space. For the moment we’ll ignore the ramifications of this idea but needless to say, this missile is important.
We move to the control room where they are alerted to the fact the missile has started to fly wild. This is a real problem. In the control room they try to hit the self destruct button but it’s non-functional. Thankfully, the people of earth have one person who can help.
Thinking fast, the men in the control room send out an s.o.s. to Thor. The message goes out worldwide. Apparently, Thor doesn’t have super hearing. But luckily, Dr. Donald Blake is listening to the radio in his office. His nurse and love interest, Jane Foster is off for the day, so the good doctor immediately changes to Thor.
The god of thunder rushes to… the phone. The message didn’t say why the Pentagon needed Thor but apparently they take calls and over the land line, they give Thor the position of the missile. Good thing that was not a prank caller.
Thor tosses his hammer and launches himself into space to stop the missile.
Up to this point, this was feeling like a story where Thor would yet again end up fighting communists but it takes a nice turn as we get to see the real bad guy in the next panel. The last we saw Loki, he was imprisoned and bound for his wrongdoing. But Loki’s strength is not in his body but in his mind and magic.
It turns out, Loki has manipulated the missile all the way from his prison. And he counted on Thor’s sense of responsibility to the human race in order to enact his plans. Thor, as anyone might predict, tosses his hammer to destroy the missile. This provides an opportunity for the god of mischief to distract Thor. Loki sends the image of a dragon to Thor, causing him to turn his head at just the right moment. This effort causes Loki to pass out but it also does something to Thor. Mjolnir is flying back and because Thor has his head turned, it hits him just right.
Apparently Asgardians have a chromosomatic gland which can change personalities. I bet you can guess where this is headed. Loki mentally contacts Thor who immediately heads to the bifrost bridge and knocks Heimdall out. Heimdall obviously knows this is unusual behavior so he goes directly to Odin.
In the meantime, Loki is able to convince Thor that it’s Odin who bound Loki when in fact it was Thor. Thor breaks Loki’s chains and frees the villain. Odin and the other gods of Asgard confront Thor but he is too far gone to be convinced of Loki’s wrongdoing. It even goes so far that Thor hits Odin. Loki is smart enough to realize that his wits combined with the strength of Thor are still not enough to overcome all of the Asgardian gods. Instead, he cooks up a scheme to threaten Earth until Odin lets Loki and Thor rule Asgard.
As Thor and Loki storm off to Earth, Odin realizes he needs to ponder over what has happened. Odin’s strength is undoubtedly in his wisdom.
On Earth, Thor and Loki go on a spree of destruction, toppling landmarks, causing earthquakes, moving monuments, and generally proving to be the immense threat they could be. And we do, indeed, see Thor topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Loki, for his part, causes fear and chaos by sending around illusions that make everyone run for their lives.
Finally, a group of people who Thor describes as, “strangely garbed” show up waving the white flag of surrender. These people explain they are a special committee from the United Nations. They say they are scholars who study the ancient Norse legends and are confused as to why the Asgardians are behaving this way. The scholars ask Loki and Thor to come to the U.N. building so they can send a request to Odin to let humanity surrender to Thor and Loki.
The two Asgardians are taken into the building. They ask Thor how they can contact Odin and Thor replies, “It will require a signal… and the most fitting signal of all will be the destruction of the U. N. emblem which stands behind me!”
Thor then tosses his hammer at the symbol which opens up a trap door. The hammer stays in the air as Thor falls and Loki is able to tell someone is controlling it. Sure enough, the hammer conks Thor right on the noggin again where his chromosomatic gland is.
Turns out, Odin and company had some tricks up their own sleeves. They faked being the U.N. representatives to cure Thor. Thor tosses his hammer at Loki and says, “Though you are my brother in name, my brother in fact, you shall always be my enemy in spirit!” If Thor wasn’t cross with Loki before, he sure is now.
The god of thunder then goes on to ask the people of Earth to forgive him. He also promises the gods of Asgard will repair all the damage that was done to the planet. And Odin says he will remove the memory of these events from the minds of men. Loki is taken back to Asgard and imprisoned once more.
But we end with a panel here that sets us up for a lot of the future of Marvel 616. It both teases us that further adventures are to come, and assures us that Thor will be triumphant. It’s the basic relationship of Thor and Loki for decades to come.
Not only that, this hints at what an epic level threat Loki could be. If even the strongest of the heroes on Earth may not be able to defeat Loki, what can be done? There’s an answer for that but it won’t come until we get the Avengers together.
All in all, this is a great issue not only for Thor and Loki but for the history of Marvel 616. Things are slowly starting to heat up, threats are getting bigger, and heroes are going to need to come together.
Next up on the reading list we’ll be getting micro again as we check in with Ant-Man in the pages of Tales to Astonish #45!
P.S. Want to check this issue out for yourself? You can find it in Thor Masterworks Volume 1 by clicking the image below or on Marvel Unlimited!
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