Prisoner of the Reds
by
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
Scientists from around the United States have been mysteriously defecting to the Soviets. With no more than a letter explaining their absence to their loved ones. Having seen the news report on this, Donald Blake determines to get to the bottom of these disappearances. As he makes plans to contact an old Colonel friend of his, Jane Foster shows up to give him allergy and vitamin pills for his trip to Washington. On the plane ride, Blake wishes he could tell Jane he loves her, but fears she will always only see him as a weak man.
Inside Colonel Edward Harrison of the U.S. Intelligence's office, Don Blake reveals his plan. Blake says he will set himself up as bait, claiming he has discovered a new biological weapon. When the Reds come, he'll discover how they are stealing the scientists. What he really plans on doing is when the Soviets show up, he'll turn into Thor, but he's not going to reveal his secret identity to the Colonel. The Colonel agrees. After leaving, Don turns into Thor to fly back to his office in New York.
Days later, a Soviet agent reads the headline "Doctor Develops New Virus For Germ Warfare!" on a newspaper. The agent arrives at the lab of Don Blake disguised as a photographer. He claims to be working for a magazine. As he raises his camera to take a photo, a gas suddenly bursts in Don's face. The gas puts the doctor in a trance-like state, leaving him subject to the communist agent's commands. He orders Blake to write a farewell note in his office, before making him board a plane to Russia.
Hours later in Russia, Don Blake finds himself imprisoned along with all of the other American scientists who had "defected". As Blake comes to from the gas, he ponders how he is going to maintain his secret identity with all of these scientists around. Luckily at that moment, the guards have decided to divide the men up to prevent any unity that may form. After being put into a cell alone, Blake strikes his cane into the ground and transforms into the Norse god of thunder, Thor.
The mighty Thor attacks the Reds. In his cell, Thor spins Mjolnir around until it creates a great shockwave that shatters the stone walls of his captivity. The Russians watch in awe as he breaks free. Before they can fire at him, Thor rubs his hands against the head of his hammer, in order to emit bright sparks from the friction, which blinds the soviet men. Before he can go further, the soviets spring a trap door from under Thor's feet. He falls down into a pool of water filled with deadly sharks. Thor escapes by creating a whirlpool to stun the sharks before he flies back up.
Rising back to the surface, Thor confronts the men who triggered the shark trap. Before he can attack, they threaten to self-destruct the entire fortress which will kill everyone, including the scientists. Thor relinquishes his fight and lets himself become captive. The Soviets restrain him in electrically treated chains. These thick, bulky, treated chains are enough to keep Thor captive as the guards figure out how to lift Thor's hammer.
After 60 seconds have passed, the guards have left Thor alone and he undergoes his transformation back into Don Blake. This makes him small enough and skinny enough to slip through the restraints and grab his cane back off the floor. Stamping it down, he becomes Thor again. He immediately goes to set the scientists free before the Soviets know what is going on. He uses Mjolnir to create an underground tunnel for the scientists to escape from to the outside. Thor returns inside the fortress to confront the rest of the Reds.
Rounding a corner, Thor runs right into the Soviets. He slams his hammer into the ground and prays to his all-mighty father Odin to send a storm to destroy this stone building. Thor's pleas are answered as a raging wind and rain pound down on the stone fortress. Lightning crashes into the building, forcing walls and towers to collapse under their power. The Soviets argue among themselves as they emerge from the ruins. Thor lets them go believing they will punish themselves.
After the storm ends, Don Blake meets up with his fellow scientists. He tells them that Thor had rescued him and he's just now catching up. Sneaking through the Russian underground, Don leads the scientists to a ship headed back to the States as they all praise Thor. Back in his lab, Don tells Jane of his adventure. Jane expresses her gratitude and love of Thor as Don looks on wishing he could tell her the truth.
Notes:
I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. This is about the most basic commie plot you can get. It's got a soviet spy, strange disappearances, hypnotizing gas, man-eating sharks and bumbling Soviet soldiers, but it isn't terrible. I like this one better than most of the Ant-Man ones so far. I think mainly due to Thor being a much grander figure than Ant-Man. There's some tiny character beats with Don Blake and Jane Foster, but they aren't anything we haven't seen before. I like that there isn't some "boss" commie, it's just some regular Soviet soldiers who get beat.
The best part is when Thor is calling on Odin to storm up the fortress. I wish there were more panels detailing that than Thor dropping into a pit of sharks.
I'm a bit disappointed they got out of Russia so fast. If they had started doing story arcs at this point, seeing Don Blake leading the scientists out of communist country and maintaining his secret identity could be an interesting story on its own.
List Notes:
I'm placing it right between Journey into Mystery 86 and Tales to Astonish 36. It reminds me a lot of the Comrade X story in Ant-Man, but doesn't have some of the more interesting stuff going on when Thor fought Zarrko in the previous issue of JIM.
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 Mystery (Thor) #85
- Fantastic Four #9
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #83
- Fantastic Four #2
- Fantastic Four #8
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #86
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #87
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #36
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #35
- Incredible Hulk #4a
- Strange Tales (Human Torch) #103
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #84
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #27
- Strange Tales (Human Torch) #102
- Fantastic Four #3
- Incredible Hulk #2
- Fantastic Four #7
- Incredible Hulk #4b
- Tales to Astonish #37
- Incredible Hulk #3
- Strange Tales (Human Torch) #101
Next Issue: Ant-Man gets his very own arch-enemy.
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