Trapped by Loki, the God of Mischief!
And now we leave Midgard for the first time. In another dimension just above Earth, across a bridge of rainbow named Bifrost lays the realm of the Norse gods, Asgard. In a particular remote section of Asgard there rests a tree. Inside this tree is the imprisoned trickster god Loki. Loki claims to have been imprisoned within the tree for centuries. The only way out is if his plight causes somebody to cry for him. It just so happen that Heimdall, Warden of Bifrost, walks beneath the tree. Loki uses his enchanted will to cause a leaf to fall from the tree. The leaf floats into Heimdall's eye, thus causing the tears Loki needs to escape. Once free, Loki promises revenge on the one who imprisoned him, Thor.
Loki uses a mental link he has developed with Thor's hammer in order to find him. He spies the thunder god at a hospital entertaining a room of sick kids. Bounding down Bifrost, Loki changes his appearance of horned hood and tunic to the suit and tie look of modern times. He reaches the hospital, but just misses Thor. So he uses his magic to draw Thor out. He invokes a spell that causes a group of people around him to appear as film negatives. The ensuing chaos is witnessed by Jane Foster and Don Blake, who races off to secretly stamp his cane and turn into mighty Thor. Returning to the negative men, Thor spins his hammer fast enough to cause anti-matter particles to disrupt the negative energy around them and turn them back to normal. As the crowd gathers to thank Thor, the disguised Loki reveals himself before him.
Thor barely recalls Loki from his past while Jane Foster looks on in awe. Suddenly Loki uses his powers to float on top of a carpet as he challenges Thor to battle. Thor follows the trickster god up into the air with his whirling hammer. Above the mortals, Loki uses an enchantment to hypnotize the god of thunder. Loki guides Thor to Central Park where he commands Thor to toss Mjolnir into a nearby lake. The hammer swiftly returns to its wielder as Loki remembers it always returns to him. To overcome this obstacle, Loki uses more magic to create a duplicate of Thor. He then commands the god of thunder to hand his hammer over to the fake Thor. At which point the image of Thor dissipates and Mjolnir lands solidly on the ground.
Under Loki's hypnotic spell, Thor is commanded to free all the animals from a nearby zoo. Meanwhile, people in the park are trying desperately to lift up Thor's hammer. Before Thor can go through with Loki's instructions, the 60 seconds of not having Mjolnir in his possession triggers a different enchantment that supersedes Loki's. Now in the form of Don Blake, the physician is no longer under Loki's thrall and he goes to retrieve his hammer.
In a blinding flash, Don Blake stamps Mjolnir to turn back into Thor. Seeing Thor free of his spell, Loki summons all of the pigeons in the area to float underneath him like a cloud of birds to drift him up into the sky. Thor spins his hammer and takes off after Loki. He chases him down to a theater where Loki taunts him from the stage. As Thor prepares to confront him, Loki makes the curtains drop entangling Thor. Loki flees in the confusion.
Thor chases Loki down into a subway tunnel. Loki starts shoving people in front of an oncoming train to keep Thor busy by rescuing all of them. Outside Loki mounts a display of a Pegasus for a gasoline company. Using his enchantments, the Pegasus comes to life and whisks Loki through the sky.
Notes:
This is the first appearance of Loki, Thor's main antagonist throughout his run. A great, conniving villain to under cut Thor's incredible brawn. In this issue and in these early years of Loki, his trickery isn't as malevolent as it becomes later. Except for the part where he shoved folks into an oncoming train.
This is also the first appearance of Odin, but we only see him briefly for one panel. He realizes Thor is active on earth again. Also the first appearance of Heimdall who guards Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge that connects Midgard (earth) to the Asgardian realm. A few others are with Odin, but they don't really have much to say to give them a proper presence. This is also the first time we see that not just anybody can lift up Thor's hammer.
My favorite of Loki's magic in this issue is the negative people enchantment. It looks really interesting visually. It reminds me of Elenor Rigby from the Yellow Submarine. In fact as I go through the panels, I'm noticing a lot of interesting use of shadow which hasn't been much of a style in this infant Marvel Universe.
There is a possible error when Thor turns into Blake after Loki makes him drop the hammer, Mjolnir remains as Mjolnir instead of changing back to the gnarled cane. I guess it could be explained that Loki's specific interference caused this, or Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Larry Leiber just forgot.
The List
- Amazing Fantasy (Spider-Man) #15
- Fantastic Four #1
- Fantastic Four #4
- Incredible Hulk #1
- Fantastic Four #5
- Amazing Adult Fantasy (X-Men) #14
- Fantastic Four #6
- Journey into Mysetry (Thor) #85
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #83
- Fantastic Four #2
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #35
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #84
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #27
- Fantastic Four #3
- Incredible Hulk #2
- Incredible Hulk #3
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