When the Fortress Keeper was a mere pup, he didn’t think much of the Thunder God.
A hero who looked like a hippie and droned on and on in faux Shakespearean English? Thanks, but no thanks.
This merry Marvel madman would rather read about cool characters like The Shroud!
With age, however, comes wisdom. This comic-book codger now has a strong appreciation for Thor’s nobility, strength and unparallelled ability to taunt super-villains using the Queen’s English.
(Of course, The Shroud is still cool too….but that’s another story.)
That said, some of those early Journey Into Mystery adventures are a bit … rough.
After Stan & Jack launched the character, the God of Thunder was shipped off to Joe Sinnott, Robert Bernstein, Larry Lieber and Al Hartley for a series of tales that were little more than pale Superman rip-offs.
(Some stories even ended with Don “Thor” Blake giving readers a knowing wink.)
So while the series would later scale unprecedented heights with such Lee/Kirby creations as Ego The Living Planet, in Journey Into Mystery # 95 Thor was saddled with Professor Zaxton and the “Demon Duplicators.”
(Although Zaxton was the only character wielding a duplicating machine, and while deranged was hardly “demonic.” Oh well….)
Our story opens with Zaxton sabotaging Blake’s android (!) and blackmailing the good doctor into developing a duplicating machine. At stake, the safety of nurse Jane Foster.
(Again? That’s the third time in a week!)
Blake tries to sneak off and transform into Thor, but proves to be a bit inept in the stealth department. Discovering our hero’s true identity, Zaxton creates an evil duplicate of the Thunder God.
At this point, Zaxton gets a bit “clone-happy” and makes multiple copies of Thor, Thor’s hammer, nearby buildings and airplanes.
(It might have been more productive to duplicate - for example - $100 bills or The Beatles but the Keeper didn’t write this #$%$^ story.)
Fortunately for the Odinson, it turns out that a counterfeit Uru hammer is about as useful as a crowbar in a knitting class.
The evil Thor (and the evil airplanes, evil buildings, evil cats and evil everything else) fade away with a trusty swing of the one, true magic hammer.
Our villain tries to escape by creating an evil duplicate of himself (who, since Zaxton is so inept and demonic, is presumably competent and virtuous).
Even though he can breach dimensional barriers with barely a thought, Thor conveniently can’t reach the Zaxton as the stumbling villain falls to his doom.
Since a “good” twin has been left behind, Thor decides its all for the best and goes about his merry way.
Hmmph, guess gods have a different moral code than mere humans…
Oh well, who cares? Mad scientists fall to their deaths all the time in comics. If super-heroes were held responsible for such acts, we’d have a Civil War on our hands …
Barring unforeseen delays, of course.
