Spider-Man wasn’t the only Marvel hero getting started this month. In fact June 1962 was a big month for Marvel on the newsstand with The Mighty Thor debuting in Journey into Mystery #83. I can’t call this one a great origin story, it’s on the lame side (heh heh).
Frail, handicapped Doctor Donald Blake is vacationing in Norway when orange rocky aliens (maybe cousins of The Thing?) invade Earth and land in the forest Blake is exploring. He tries to get away but falls into a cave and becomes trapped. Finding a stick in a chamber, he tries to use it to escape and in frustration strikes it against a rock transforming himself into Thor.
In this early story, it’s clear the writers haven’t figured out everything yet. For example, Donald Blake is clearly the person and Thor is just a “vessel” without Thor’s memories, etc. Donald-in-Thor-form sits down to contemplate what should he do next – wander around the world as a mythological god?
About half of the 13-page story is about Don learning the rules of the hammer: He can summon thunder and storms. The hammer can be thrown and it returns to him. If he lets go of the hammer for more than 1 minute, he reverts back to his gimpy ol’ Doctor form.
But hm, what else are we forgetting? Oh yeah, he’s really strong and, oh what the heck, he can fly by flinging his hammer into the sky and holding on.
Wait, weren’t there some aliens? A couple pages of scaring those guys off the planet and that’s pretty much it, in this first story.
Thor doesn’t stay so boring, this character eventually provides a nice playground for mythological exploration and world-building with a robust supporting cast. I’m looking forward to exploring that in the next several months worth of reading.