Writers: Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein
Artist: Joe Sinnott
"The Day Loki Stole Thor's Magic Hammer"
Stan's scripter on Tales of Suspense joins him for this issue of Journey Into Mystery, as Thor's most common foe returns once again. I'll be honest in that I didn't notice the scripting change until I jotted down the credits.
Our tale begins high up in Asgard, where Loki is bound by chains to a large rock. The mischief-maker plots and plans, vowing vengeance upon Thor and all of Asgard. Meanwhile, on planet Earth, Dr. Donald Blake sends nurse Foster on a quick errand. The moment she leaves, Blake is accosted by three mobsters; they demand that he use his skills to save their fellow who caught a few bullets (not the first time that this has happened to Blake). Blake agrees to help and then tricks the men into believing that Thor is in the other room. While the men are distracted, Blake quickly changes into Thor and soundly defeats the mobsters. (He actually binds the men to the same gurney as the injured man and then hurtles the gurney through the air whereupon it lands at the police station, in what may be one of my favorite sequences in these early issues).
A week later, at a Norwegian sea port, Thor is assisting a film crew in the production of a movie. The movie features Thor fighting a mystical sea creature in the thrall of Loki. Loki watches Thor while he 'acts', at first angry at the indignity, until he devises a plan (naturally) to use the script against Thor. In one scene, in which Thor flings his hammer, Loki somehow diverts the hammer up into Asgard to free Loki from his chains.
Loki retains the hammer in Asgard (kinda, it lays with the fallen chains), while Thor is distraught at the disappearance of his hammer down on Earth. As he is wont to do in this era, Thor calls to the allfather Odin for help. Thor returns to Asgard with his father (note that while in Asgard the sixty-second lapse between Thor and his hammer does not cause him to revert to Blake). Odin tells Thor that he must search all of Asgard until he finds his hammer. Thor proceeds to do so. Eventually, Thor comes upon what appears to be enchanted woods. He battles the trees and mysterious creatures, even fashioning a new hammer out of stone. During the battle, Thor comes to the realization that Loki must have magicked his hammer into releasing the villain. Thor finds the fallen chains and his hammer laying amongst them.
Defeated, Loki is once again bound and Thor returns to Earth.
Next: Thor battles a new villain, the Radioactive Man!
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