Journey Into Mystery #86

November 1962
Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber
Artist: Jack Kirby

"On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man"

I'm not positive if I mentioned it previously or not, but Journey Into Mystery is my favorite of these early series.  There is something incredibly imaginative, exciting, and fun in these stories.  This matches the magic of Fantastic Four much more than Hulk or Tales to Astonish.  The Iron Man stories which will begin in Tales of Suspense roughly half a year later come close, but in November of '63, JiM wins my heart.

In this story, Stan and Jack introduce the readers to another great Thor villain: Zarrko the Tomorrow Man.  The issue begins three centuries into the future, a time of great peace and prosperity.  Zarrko is bored and abhors his fellow man. (this is a concept that somewhat gets recycled for Kang later). 

Zarrko has invented a time machine, which he desires to use to go back into the past to a time when mighty weapons existed; in his time, scientists devote themselves to civilization not war.  Zarrko zeroes in on the 20th century.  He arrives on a weapon testing ground where Thor happens to be helping the US army test some new weapons.  Zarrko quickly steals something called the C-Bomb and escapes back into the future. 

Thor flies off to the top of a mountain range, whereupon he calls upon his father, the all-seeing Odin.  Thor pleads with Odin to send him into the future so that he may bring Zarrko to justice and recover the stolen weapon.  Thor arrives in the future to discover he is one month behind Zarrko.  The madman has used the threat of the C-Bomb to rule over the hapless people of 2262. 

Thor confronts Zarrko in his stronghold.  After a brief battle (in which Thor loses his hammer for almost sixty seconds, threatening to turn back into Blake - a recurring problem), our hero defeats the villain.  Zarrko manages to suffer memory loss and can no longer recall who he is.  Thor leaves the future people to imprison the defeated tyrant and returns to the present with the C-Bomb.

Later that day, nurse Jane Foster tells Dr. Blake of the adventures of Thor that she read in the paper.  Jane secretly wishes that Blake could be more like the mighty Thor.