Trapped by the Carbon-Copy Man!
by
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Al Hartley
On the planet Xarta, a father and son, named Ugarth and Zano, lead a fleet of spacefaring, barbarian type people to attack Earth. Ugarth declares this mission to be his last. Once successful, he will give complete reign over to his son. The soldiers are wary of defeat, but Ugarth reminds them of their special abilities to insure their victory.
On Earth, Donald Blake is pacing in his lab. He wants to tell Jane Foster how he feels about her, but cannot come to grips with his situation of being weak and his secret of being Thor. Slamming his cane down in frustration, he turns into Thor and finally decides to tell her the truth. The next day, as Don arrives at his practice, he begins to talk to Jane. Suddenly Odin appears, visible only to Don. He tells him that he strictly forbids his son to reveal his secret identity to any mortals. Crushed, Blake brushes off his conversation with Jane. He then makes an excuse to work away from her for the afternoon at a charity hospital. Jane watches him exit, wishing he would be more brave like her idol Thor.
As Doctor Blake walks outside, he notices some very strange happenings on the street. The commissioner has apparently ordered for cars to now drive exclusively on sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to walk in the gutter. Elsewhere in the city, posters are being displayed on buildings instead of on billboards, bridges have been painted in polka dots and it has been declared “trust people week;” forcing everyone to keep their doors unlocked. When Don has returned to his office that afternoon, he tells Jane that he now has a court summons. Apparently treating charity patients is now against the law.
Suddenly Jane Foster starts uncharacteristically arguing that it should be against the law. She says, if people are so poor, they don't deserve medical treatment. So enraged at her employer, Jane quits. This alerts Blake that something must be going on for Jane to act so out of character. The whole city seems to be going mad. He decides to seek out the mayor in order to get to the bottom of it. Slamming down his cane, Don changes into Thor and takes off for city hall.
When Thor arrives in mayor Harris’s office, the mayor immediately calls for the guards to take him away. Thor spins his hammer around before the guards can nab him and flies back out the window. Outside, Thor gets his bearings. He uses his hammer to activate a specific moment in his life that he can’t recall. At some point in the distant past, Odin had taught him the lesson that the simplest answer is usually the obvious answer. This makes Thor realize that since these people are acting weird and not themselves, they must not actually be themselves at all. With this in mind, Thor makes a search of the city.
As twilight falls, Thor finds a group of felled trees on the outskirts of town. Behind these trees, Thor discovers a spaceship in hiding. He realizes it must be from another planet, because it is made up of metals not native to Earth. Laying his hammer down to feel along the hull for a hidden door, Thor is suddenly seized in some kind of magnetic pull that forces him against the ship. With Mjolnir out of reach, Thor reverts back to the lame-legged form of Dr. Blake.
Two Xartans appear to capture Don Blake. They haul him into their ship, where the mayor and Jane Foster are also held prisoner. Ugarth shows the captives their power of changing shape into any being. Zano demonstrates, changing into an imposter of Don. He goes on to explain that their plan is to impersonate people in key positions throughout the nearby city, in order to keep everyone distracted by the ensuing chaos as the waiting Xartan armada invades the world. They will repeat this process until the entire world is conquered. The mayor and Jane protest that they will never succeed as long as Thor is around. Don concurs, agreeing to lead the aliens to Thor’s capture; leading to more protest from mayor Harris and Jane.
Outside of the spacecraft, Don leads the aliens away. When their back is turned, he reaches for the uru hammer and turns back into mighty Thor. The aliens approach the thunder god. Ugarth calls for the other humans to come out and bear witness as he defeats their champion. As Thor turns to fight, Zano shapeshifts into an angular being made out of ice. He encases Thor in a block of ice, blasted from his fingertips. Before he is completely frozen, Thor throws his hammer so that it boomerangs back and shatters the frozen prison.
Zano transforms into a roman style gladiator. He tosses a steel net over Thor, but he counters by blasting a bolt of lightning at the alien. Kneeling in agony, Zano admits defeat as Thor easily tears the net apart and Jane cheers him on.
Ugarth swears to avenge his son and confronts the Norse god. As a more seasoned warrior, he promises more of a challenge. Ugarth fades from their very eyes. Like the Invisible Girl, Ugarth starts striking Thor as he can't see him. Thor struggles to come up with a plan. While he is pummeled about, Jane and the mayor grow more anxious. Suddenly, Thor has it. He uses his hammer to summon a rainstorm down. Paying attention to the water droplets, Thor is able to make out the space that Ugarth inhabits.
Pinpointing Ugarth, Thor takes up the steel net and wraps it around the Xartan leader. Secured in the net, Ugarth is flung around Thor’s head like his hammer. Thor lets go, slinging Ugarth out into space, right past the Xartan armada. The entire fleet retreats to rescue their leader.
Back on Earth, Jane and mayor Harris congratulate Thor on rescuing them. They wonder what to do about the remaining aliens. Thor has an idea. They will keep them here on earth as hostages to insure the Xartans will never invade again. Thor orders Zano to retrieve all of his agents still disguised in the city. Once that is done, Thor commands all of the aliens to take the form of trees. The thunder god explains that once the Xartans take on a form, they take on their entire traits. Meaning that now that they are trees, they cannot think to become anything else.
With the threat neutralized, Jane and the mayor praise Thor yet again. Before he leaves, Thor explains that Don Blake’s seeming betrayal was actually beneficial to them, so they shouldn't be mad at him. The two of them take him at his word. Soon after, Don returns to his office with Jane. She explains to him what Thor said about his help, but assumes he meant he just wanted Don out of his way. Don turns to the audience with a smug look, saying, “we can’t all be as brave as Thor.”
Notes
This is the first time Thor is told by Odin that he is forbidden to reveal his secret identity to anybody. The first in a series of forbiddings.
Jane Foster continues her idolization of Thor.
Don Blake almost reveals his secret to Jane as well as his feelings for her.
Thor’s hammer has the power to recall past events, even if Thor has forgotten them.
Review & Rank
Why do Ugarth and his race care so much about earth? There is no explanation given beyond them wanting to conquer. The plot reason they attack Earth is because it is Thor’s book and he lives on Earth and if they attacked some other planet we wouldn’t have much of a Thor story. They try to add an additional layer to their personalities with Ugarth & Zano’s father/son dynamic, but they are still very bland, boring enemies. It would be a little better if they could have juxtaposed their relationship with that of Odin and Thor’s, but there is none of that.
I had trouble with Thor’s memory hammer. I guess it makes sense if Thor can’t recall specific events from his past just yet with him still being within a year of being reactivated. The explanation still seems a bit convoluted and it doesn’t really come across well in the narration boxes.
This is the worst art we have seen so far in these early Marvel issues. Al Hartley is a perfectly capable artist, who worked mostly in the romance/teen genre. I’m not trying to blame him at all because he does a few panels that show he knows what he’s doing (specifically during the Thor/gladiator fight sequence,) I just think his style really clashes with Thor. Don Blake and Thor look really cartoonish and off-model this whole issue. Jane isn’t too bad. The Xartans are just very generic humanoid aliens, there’s nothing that stands out about them to make them memorable at all. It might be fine if this were a humor or teen series, but it isn’t. The last panel of Don Blake looking right into the “camera” is so off putting, I just want to punch him in his stupid smug face.
This issue isn’t helped by Stan & Larry Lieber completely recycling a plot that was done so much better in Fantastic Four #2; Just replace Xartans with Skrulls and trees with cows. It also really feels like a story that they had sitting around and just tacked Thor onto it to make it a superhero comic.
I am giving this issue of Journey into Mystery the lowest rank so far in the entire list. It’s so convoluted. Nothing of value happens this issue. The one somewhat noteworthy thing happens in a cartoonish, off-model panel of Odin, when he should be one of the most dramatic figures of them all. The thing that tips it over for me to make it worse than Strange Tales #101 is the art and the really poor expositions. The explanation of Thor’s hammer memory is really confusing and comes across as silly. It really seems like a leap in logic to me from Thor remembering Odin’s moral, that “the simplest explanation is the obvious explanation,” to realizing that everyone is an imposter.
If I had written this, I would have waited until after Jane Foster had been replaced for Don Blake to then try to reveal his secret to her, and then Odin interferes to forbid him and reveal that Jane had been replaced instead of this memory nonsense. It would juxtapose the father/son dynamic a little bit with the villains’. Bottom of the barrel for Thor and Marvel so far.
Next Issue: We say goodbye to the Incredible Hulk’s own title for awhile.
