Biography of Thor, 1965

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The following is a biography of Thor for the year of 1965, in which Thor faced the vaunted Trial of the Gods against Loki, resulting in a sequence of events that saw him face the powerful Absorbing Man and Destroyer. Thor spent so much time away from Midgard that he was presumed to have left the Avengers, and upon returning found that they had moved on without him.

Biography

Thor's attempted confession

After Thor assisted the forces of Asgard in a battle against Jotunheim, Odin implored him to give up his human life and remain in Asgard as its prince. Thor refused, unwilling to give up his unfinished business on Earth. Frustrated with the tension between the two sides of his life, Thor decided to give up his immortality and marry Jane Foster. With that in mind, he returned to Jane in his office as Don Blake, and told her outright that he was living a double life as Thor. Jane naturally thought he was delusional, so Donald attempted to demonstrate his transformation, but it failed: he knew that Odin must have disabled his powers. Moments later, the Grey Gargoyle stormed through the office window, having been recovered from the Hudson River earlier that day. Gargoyle naturally sought Thor, and needed Blake's information to find him. Don and Jane fled through the streets, but were quickly at the mercy of the Gargoyle. The two became separated, and as Don lay on the ground in an alley, he was visited by a mysterious helmeted being who granted him 30 seconds of Thor's power. Thor emerged and used a blast of electricity to fuse the limbs of the Grey Gargoyle's stone form against his torso, preventing him from moving. Though Thor became Blake once again moments later, he felt the Asgardian power return to him fully soon after. The being who'd saved him was fellow Asgardian Honir, on clandestine orders from Odin. Odin had decided that he couldn't bear to see Thor fall as a result of his order—he restored his power to him, hoping that he would reconsider wedding Jane. Indeed, when Don and Jane regrouped, Don played along with Jane's belief that he had briefly gone mad, as he found himself unwilling to give up his powers as Thor entirely.[1]

Leaving the Avengers

Early in the year, the Avengers foiled the malicious plans of the Mole Man[2] and Count Nefaria.[3] In the latter adventure, the Wasp was critically injured when a stray bullet from a Maggia henchman punctured her lung. Through a complex series of events, the Avengers managed to secure the help of Dr. Hjarmal Svenson, who was able to operate on Wasp in time and save her life.[4] Some time later, Baron Zemo gathered a rearranged version of the Masters of Evil, springing Black Knight and Melter out of prison to fight side-by-side with Enchantress and Executioner. The Avengers fended them off, and Zemo apparently killed himself accidentally when Captain America trailed him to South America. Black Knight and Melter were returned to prison, but the Asgardians escaped capture.

Thor would soon find himself occupied with personal business. During his absence, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the Avengers, worn out from the constant fighting. In their stead, they recruited reformed villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. Thor was also quietly phased out of the team, as he remained occupied with Asgardian concerns. Captain America returned to the U.S. and became the new leader of the team effective immediately.[5][6]

The Trial of the Gods

One day, Don Blake spoke with a reporter named Harris Hobbs who claimed to be chasing a lead on a dangerous superhuman in a swamp in rural New York. Arriving there, Thor indeed found a menacing man wielding a ball and chain. The man was capable of "absorbing" and taking on the properties of any material on contact, earning him the blunt moniker of Absorbing Man. Moreover, he could also take on the abilities of those close to him. Thus, when Thor tried to strike him with his hammer, Absorbing Man's ball and chain simply turned to uru—when Thor tried to blast him away with a whirlwind, Absorbing Man duplicated the feat. Hobbs suddenly arrived and tried to attack Absorbing Man with dynamite, but simply gave the latter an opportunity to flee. Thor pursued his foe, and the two predictably fought to a stalemate until Thor was suddenly enveloped by Bifrost. Suddenly arriving in Asgard, Thor was met by the noble Balder, who informed him that Loki had kidnapped Jane Foster. Thor correctly deduced that Loki had given Absorbing Man his powers as a distraction. With that, Thor set out to face and take down his malicious brother.[7]

Thor attacked Loki in his stronghold, and the two fought at length while Jane stood by and soon fainted from fright. Eventually, Odin arrived and put a stop to the combat, declaring that Thor and Loki would undergo the Trial of the Gods to settle their rivalry. Thor asked for 48 hours to return Jane to Earth and finish his battle with the Absorbing Man, which Odin granted him, despite Loki's protests. Thor returned the unconscious Jane to his office in New York, magically wiping her recent memory to spare her the trauma. He tracked down Absorbing Man to a house in the suburbs, and the two again fought to a standstill until Thor got the idea to blast him with helium. The resulting contact caused him to turn to gas and float into the atmosphere and safely into space. With this challenging foe defeated, Thor returned to Asgard to face Odin's judgment.[8]

Odin declared that Thor and Loki would be dropped in the dangerous realm of Skornheim, unarmed, and the first to return to Asgard would be declared the victor.[note 1] With that, Odin teleported the two to the barren, frightening land of Skornheim. Loki employed a set of magical Norn Stones, which he had smuggled past Odin's gaze, to make his way through the realm's various dangers, while Thor was left with his raw power and wits. To amplify his advantage, Loki showed Thor a magical projection of Don Blake's office, where Enchantress and Executioner were "visiting" Jane Foster by Loki's request. Loki assured Thor that they wouldn't harm her, but this tactic nonetheless accomplished the goal of taking Thor's mind off of the trial. The two were soon attacked by a large being named Yagg: Loki fled, leaving Thor to defeat the foe using his bare hands and the surrounding rocky terrain. This distraction allowed Loki to get a significant lead over Thor, using the stones to creep his way through unbearable heat and killer plants. Thor's might and will allowed him to catch up, but Loki nonetheless crossed one last fiery gap and made his way through the dimensional portal back to Asgard, winning the trial. While this took place, Balder learned of Enchantress and Executioner accosting Jane Foster. He notified Odin, who agreed that this was Loki's doing. Balder came to Earth and confronted Enchantress and Executioner as they dragged Foster through the streets of New York.[9]

Thor followed Loki through the portal, and Loki magically threw the bag of Norn Stones far off to Midgard, ditching the evidence that could prove he had cheated to win. The two were soon summoned to Odin's throne room to report the results of their trial, where Thor testified truthfully as to what Loki had done. Odin gave Thor twenty-four hours to go to Earth and retrieve the stones to prove Loki's deception. Thor, again fully equipped with his hammer, arrived in New York, where he found Balder fighting Enchantress and Executioner. The evil Asgardians fled upon Thor's arrival, leaving him to speak with Balder. Balder had magically wiped the memory of these events from the minds of Jane and other nearby humans, and returned Jane safely to the office. Thor readily presented Balder with his eternal gratitude. Now fully focused on his task, Thor used the uru enchantments of his hammer to find the Norn Stones. He was led to a lookout point in Vietnam, where communist Viet Cong soldiers shot him down with a mortar shell.

Thor was knocked unconscious and woke up some time later in a hut. The villagers there believed him to be an answer to their prayers to protect them from the Viet Cong. Thor was torn between finding the stones and helping the villagers that had helped him, but soon detected through his hammer that the stones were very close by. He made his way through the nearby thick brush, and transformed into Don Blake because his bulky costume was getting in the way. Suddenly, Viet Cong soldiers set upon Blake and captured him: in truth, they had been magically influenced by Loki from afar, allowing them to strike Thor at his most vulnerable. They took Blake captive, and a Viet Cong commander interrogated him. Blake didn't budge, until the family who'd saved him were brought in: the commander said that they would be killed until Blake answered his questions. As it turned out, the commander was an estranged member of that very family, and this unexpected relationship gave Blake a distraction necessary to slip away and turn into Thor. Mjölnir reacted intensely to the Norn Stones' proximity, and Thor found them in a nearby cavern filled with artillery shells. Thor immediately knew that Loki had deliberately placed the stones here to keep him from retrieving them. Thor grabbed the stones and began to flee from the base. Elsewhere, the commander had killed his mother and brother in a fit of rage, causing his young sister to flee in terror. Thor grabbed the girl for protection, and the commander was overcome with guilt and remorse. Thor flew away with the girl, and the commander detonated the base's supply, killing himself and causing a significant blow to the Viet Cong war effort.[10]

The invincible Destroyer

Thor left the girl with American forces nearby, and stopped in the jungle to ensure that all of the stones were present in the pouch he retrieved. But Loki remained vigilant from Asgard, and magically influenced a nearby hunter to knock Thor out with a sleep dart. While Thor was unconscious, Loki persuaded the hunter to travel further into the jungle nearby, where Loki revealed the long-buried Temple of Darkness. The hunter traveled inside, where he found the Destroyer, a humanoid mechanical construct sealed away by Odin long ago to protect Midgard if need be. The inert Destroyer transferred the hunter's consciousness into its frame, granting itself life. Thor awoke in the hunter's camp and tracked him down, arriving to find him standing motionless near the activated Destroyer. Thor knew the incredible power of the Destroyer: the construct was even able to lift Mjölnir, as Odin had made it "all-powerful." The Destroyer was designed to attack the first thing it saw upon awaking, as "only some dread menace to Earth could have found" it. Even knowing that the battle was hopeless, Thor fought valiantly until a blast of energy from the Destroyer's fingers incredibly cut a large piece off of Mjölnir.[11]

Suddenly, Thor was surprised to find that his molecular structure had changed such that he had become physically transparent. Though the Destroyer was able to adapt his attack to hit Thor anyway, Thor used his upper hand to escape safely as his body returned to normal. He fled the Destroyer throughout the Temple of Darkness, but eventually decided to stand his ground and fight, as fruitless as it was sure to be. He returned to the motionless body of the hunter whose brain had activated the Destroyer and used it as a human shield, attempting to reason with the mind inside the machine. The Destroyer seemed unfazed by this impediment, and Odin commanded his son from Asgard to stand aside while he handled the construct. Odin had been under his annual Odinsleep until Loki and the Norn Queen had awakened him: Loki had been the one to alter Thor's physical makeup, having realized that his brother's death would likely mean his own at the hands of a wrathful Odin. Thor refused his father's help and stood his ground, as the Destroyer found that it could not bring itself to destroy its human form. It acknowledged Thor's victory and transferred the hunter's mind back to his body. Once Thor had put him down, the malicious mortal attempted to rejoin with the Destroyer, but Thor stopped him, grabbed him, and left the temple, destroying and sealing it so that no one could stumble upon it again. Examining Mjölnir, Thor found that though he could still fly with it, it was uncontrollable. He still had the piece of it that the Destroyer had broken off, and could have it repaired in a powerful forge. Using the Norn Stone of levitation, Thor returned to the United States.[12]

Absorbing Man returns

Thor traveled to Pittsburgh, where he solidified his hammer in one piece once more, fully repairing its functionality. He tested its flight by traveling to a nearby forest, where he examined the Norn Stones in preparation for bringing them to Odin. In doing so, one of the stones fell from their pouch, and Thor flew away oblivious. He traveled to Asgard, where Odin was thoroughly convinced by Thor's evidence of Loki's treachery in the Trial of the Gods. As a result, Loki was sentenced to servitude under royal sorcerer Ularic. Thor remained in Asgard for some weeks, but grew tired of the ceaseless "quietude." He requested Odin's permission to return to Earth, and his father readily granted it. Returning to Don Blake's office, Thor found evidence to suggest that Jane Foster had disappeared. He traveled to the Avengers' headquarters seeking assistance, but was surprised to find the team's new members—Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch—in place of his expected allies. To Thor's confusion, he had been phased out of the group during his extended absence. The former villains, new to their reformation, remained brash in their newfound heroism, and Thor proudly left without asking their help. As he sought a way to find Jane, Thor witnessed a strange elastic bubble fall out of the sky and land in the streets of Manhattan, out of which emerged the Absorbing Man.[13]

Absorbing Man again proved to be an extremely formidable foe, even demonstrating his newly discovered ability to essentially combine his transfigured body with other objects of the same material and thereby grow himself to gigantic size.[14] The two fought through the city, and Thor soon learned that even though Absorbing Man could match his raw power perfectly, he could not absorb his speed, wit, and valor, and this difference gave Thor the edge in battle. Just as Absorbing Man began to seem desperate, he was pulled away by a beam of light that Thor recognized as an attractor beam belonging to Ularic: Loki had secretly usurped Ularic by placing him in suspended animation and brought about the return of the Absorbing Man in another attempt to defeat his brother. Before Thor could properly respond to Absorbing Man's disappearance, an explosion went off in a nearby building, and he saw Jane Foster yelling desperately for help from the window. By the time Thor entered the window, the fire was out and Jane was unconscious from the smoke. He pounded his hammer to transform into Don Blake and give her medical assistance, and at that moment a man hiding in the darkness took a photo of him. It was Harris Hobbs, the reporter who had covered Thor's first encounter with the Absorbing Man: he had kidnapped Jane precisely to draw Thor's attention and prove his secret identity. Blake agreed to meet with Hobbs that afternoon after he took Jane to safety. Don took her to the hospital, and the two reunited as she awoke in her bed. Jane was overjoyed to see him, and pleaded with him not to disappear for so long again. Don visited Hobbs at their assigned meeting place in the forest as Thor, with no intent of negotiating: he used Thor's cosmic powers to intimidate Hobbs into letting go of the story he was so eager to break. The terrified Hobbs agreed, but asked for the favor of seeing Asgard, even if it meant he would have his memory erased afterward. Perhaps feeling generous, Thor agreed.[15]

Thor took Hobbs along Bifrost, and the human was stricken with awe at the colorful glory of Asgard. Thor noticed that Heimdall wasn't present at the entrance—a strange occurrence indeed, and proof that something was amiss. Thor went to Odin's throne room, and along the way learned from his fellow Asgardians that Loki had initiated a coup using the Absorbing Man as his pawn. Thor hastily entered the throne room and indeed found Odin fighting Absorbing Man in vain. Thor informed his father of the villain's unique power, and Loki demanded that Odin hand rule over to him. Odin seemingly submitted, handing Loki his ceremonial scepter. Loki insisted that Absorbing Man kneel before him, but Creel had grown attached to his own potential for power, and tried to take the scepter himself. The two soon found that their hands were magically sealed to the scepter: this was naturally Odin's doing, and he sent the scepter along with the two of them flying into space, to hurtle through the void indefinitely until it pleased Odin to stop them. Harris Hobbs had been knocked unconscious in the battle, and upon awakening remained aghast at seeing Odin and the others. Thor led him safely back to Earth and granted him forgetfulness as arranged.[16]

Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Full article: Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Thor attended the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four, as did a number of other renowned heroes. Doctor Doom attempted to sabotage the wedding by using his "emotion machine" to encourage (or coerce) a veritable army of other villains to attack the Baxter Building. Thor flew around the vicinity scouting for problems, and found one in the form of the Super-Skrull flying an alien spacecraft. Thor blasted it down with Mjölnir, but the powerful Super-Skrull quickly recovered. The two wound up on opposing sides of a full-blown battle for the Baxter Building. In the end, Reed Richards used a device provided by Uatu to transport all of the villains back slightly in time and wipe their memories of these events. Reed and Sue Storm were thus successfully and peacefully married.[17]

Notes

  1. ↑ Thor did not turn to Don Blake upon losing Mjölnir on this occasion. Presumably Odin's magic accounted for this.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Journey into Mystery #113a: "A World Gone Mad!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  2. ↑ The Avengers #12: "This Hostage Earth!" (January 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (w), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  3. ↑ The Avengers #13: "The Castle of Count Nefaria!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  4. ↑ The Avengers #14: "Even Avengers Can Die!" (March 1965) Ivie, Larry, Larry Lieber, and Stan Lee (w), Kirby, Jack (art), Heck, Don (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let), Lee, Stan (ed).
  5. ↑ The Avengers #15: "Now, by My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!" (April 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (art), Heck, Don (p), Demeo, Mickey (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  6. ↑ The Avengers #16: "The Old Order Changeth!" (May 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  7. ↑ Journey into Mystery #114a: "The Stronger I Am, the Sooner I Die!" (March 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  8. ↑ Journey into Mystery #115a: "The Vengeance of the Thunder God." (April 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ray, Frankie (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  9. ↑ Journey into Mystery #116a: "The Trial of the Gods!" (May 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  10. ↑ Journey into Mystery #117a: "Into the Blaze of Battle!" (June 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  11. ↑ Journey into Mystery #118a: "To Kill a Thunder God!" (July 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  12. ↑ Journey into Mystery #119a: "The Day of the Destroyer!" (August 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  13. ↑ Journey into Mystery #120a: "With My Hammer in Hand...!" (September 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  14. ↑ Journey into Mystery #121a: "The Power! The Passion! The Pride!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  15. ↑ Journey into Mystery #122a: "Where Mortals Fear to Tread!" (November 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  16. ↑ Journey into Mystery #123a: "While a Universe Trembles!" (December 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  17. ↑ Fantastic Four Annual #3a: "Bedlam at the Baxter Building!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
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