Marvel Compass #10

Journey Into Mystery #83

 “By the beard of Odin, what have a stumbled onto?!!" -The old man

The Stone Men From Saturn 

by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby, Inking by Joe Sinnott, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
On the coast of Norway, a man with a cane is enjoying his vacation from the United States. He is a doctor, and his name is Don Blake. As he is walks around the wilderness, he is unaware of a spacecraft landing silently behind him. The beings leave their craft, to explore the area they have just landed. They appear to be made out of stone, and claim to come from Saturn.

The Stone Men start to pull down trees and leap from tall cliffs without injury, showing off their mighty strength to each other. An old man notices them and runs back to his village. At the village, nobody believes a word he says, but Don Blake overhears him and decides to check it out the next day.

Exploring the area the old man described, Don attempts to spy on the Stone Men quietly. He accidentally steps on a twig. breaking it loud enough to draw the aliens’ attention. They start to chase the doctor, when he loses his cane for his crippled leg, and is forced to hide inside of a nearby cave.

Deep inside the cave, Don searches for another exit. There is one, but a massive boulder is blocking it. Don decides to give up, resting against a slab of stone, waiting for the Stone Men to come get him. As he crouches down in wait, he accidentally triggers a lever on the wall, making it turn around to reveal another chamber.

When Donald Blake enters the chamber, he sees a staff there waiting for him. He picks it up to use as a lever to move the boulder blocking his exit. As he struggles to budge the massive rock, he smacks it against the side of the stone. A blinding transformation of thunder occurs, as doctor Donald Blake starts to transform into the Norse thunder god, Thor. He looks down at an inscription upon the staff, which is now a massive hammer. “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of... THOR”

As the mighty Thor, he is able to pick the boulder blocking his exit out of the way. Outside, he drops his hammer and ponders on the best way to go about civilization as he is. After a minute of thinking, he turns back into Don Blake, and realizes he must keep holding onto the hammer within a minute or he will revert back to his human form. Turning back into Thor, he starts testing his strength, much like the Stone Men had before. He can split trees in half, call down a raging storm, and turn back into Donald Blake depending on the sequence that his stamps the hammer, which turns back into a staff when he turns human again. Satisfied, Blake goes in search of the invading Stone Men.

While the previous events were happening, a NATO air base has become aware of the invaders’ incoming fleet. They send a squadron of jets up to meet them, but they are frightened away when a huge grey dragon comes out of nowhere. This is a trick by the Stone Men, their ships are able to cast 3D illusions. The NATO men start shooting missiles at the spacecraft to no avail, they are easily stopped by their atomic force fields. Don Blake sees what is happening, transforms into Thor, and flies off.

Landing over a ridge, Thor brings the attack to the Stone Men as they begin to land. They shoot a steel cage down around Thor, but he manages to break out of it. They attempt to shoot Thor, but he manages to knock all of their guns out of their hands when he throws his hammer. They send a giant robot, which Thor smashes apart with one swing of his weapon. In panic the Stone Men begin to flee from earth, back to Saturn, scared that there are more like him.

More NATO forces arrive, curious as to why the aliens all fled. All they see is a man walking away from the scene with a limp leg and a cane.

Bearings

• Thor will appear again in Journey Into Mystery #84

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Yay Thor! I like Thor, some people have trouble getting past his dialogue, but I think it’s just part of the Marvel song.

• Thor is a bit middling in the early days, but once Jack Kirby gets ahold of him more firmly, and they start doing Tales of Asgard, I think Thor is the most consistently good series in the 60‘s for Marvel.

Quotes

“I’m helpless without my cane.” -Donald Blake

“Perhaps by using this as a lever, I can move the boulder!” -Donald Blake

“I can feel my body bursting with power-- Power such as I’ve never known!” -Thor

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.