Journey into Mystery #113
February 1965
"A World Gone Mad!"
In this one, the Grey Gargoyle returns. And I had to flip through it first to remember what happens.
This is not an issue that I've read repeatedly since I was a kid. I first read this one 10 to 15 years ago when I bought the Marvel Masterworks volume that contains Journey into Mystery #111 to #120. Which I mostly bought because I really wanted to read the beginning of the cosmic, continued stories, which basically start with Loki's creation of the Absorbing Man, and Thor's battle with his adopted brother and Crusher Creel, and then the examination of the Asgardian legal system in the Trial of the Gods and then the saga of the Norn Stones and the first appearance of the Destroyer.
#114 is the next one of those stepping-stone issues that I mention earlier in this thread.
And #112 is one of the best issues of Thor ever!
Poor #113 is wedged in between these two stories. There's nothing wrong with it. If it had appeared before #112, I probably would like it just as much as #107, or any other of the Kirby stories inked by Chic Stone. But it's between the Hulk/Thor fight and the Absorbing Man! It's just a matter of bad timing for poor Paul Duvall.
It starts with Odin and Thor and the legions of Asgard jumping off the Sky Ship to attack the Demon Men of Jotunheim. We aren't told much about this adventure. One wonders if there some is kind of cover-up going on. The captions tell us not to trouble our pretty little heads about what is actually going on in this adventure. Just enjoy this Kirby/Stone art!
After the battle, Odin commends Thor for his warrioriness, and he suggests that it is now time for Thor to stop spending so much time on Earth to return to Asgard on a permanent basis. Thor hesitates. Odin has a tantrum! It's that mortal girl, isn't it? JANE FOSTER! GRR!
Thor returns to Earth and turns to Don Blake. He decides he really has to choose. And if he's going to choose Jane, then it's time to treat her like an equal and not like a silly child. So he's going to tell Jane that he's secretly Thor!
So he goes to the office, and he takes Jane aside, and he tells her he has something to tell her!
"You see, Jane, I'm Thor!"
Cut to: A nearby museum. Some archaeologists are standing around while a technician gets the rest of the mud off a mysterious stone statue that was found in the harbor. But it's not a statue! It's the Grey Gargoyle! He's been in a state of suspended animation for some months after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Don Blake (not Thor) back in Journey into Mystery #107. He wakes up and turns everyone to stone and runs off chortling. He had the sense to pay the rent on his New York apartment for a full year, so he goes in through a window, just in time for a flashback about his origin and his earlier encounter with Thor.
And now our attention turns to Asgard, where Odin is still BIG MAD at Thor for his obsession with this mortal girl. Odin finally decides to deprive Thor of his godly powers. If he wants to stay on Earth, among the mortals, and court this mortal woman, then Thor too shall be a mortal!
And thus, Odin takes Thor's power away just as Don Blake is about to strike his stick on the floor to turn into the thunder god. And he hits the stick on the floor ... and nothing happens.
Well, boy howdy, does he look silly! He tries again and still doesn't turn into Thor. Jane Foster realizes that this comic has gone into full Nurse Romance Comics mode and she now has to deal with the delusions of her doctor boyfriend. She tells him he has to get some rest and he has to learn to rid himself of this strange obsession with being Thor. Don Thorsplains to Jane that it was probably Odin! Yeah, Odin. He could TOTALLY take the Thor powers away if he's in the mood. That's probably what happened.
Jane doesn't have a lot of time to be dubious because ... the Grey Gargoyle attacks! He knows that there is some connection between Don Blake and Thor so he attacks the office with the idea that he's going to threaten Blake and make him reveal where Thor can be found. So he chases Dr. Blake and Nurse Foster around for five pages. They don't do such a bad job of evading him. (Yeah, Blake is pretty awesome. He doesn't even really need Thor a lot of the time. I'm under the impression that somebody at Marvel had noticed that it was getting very silly that Thor has to ask Odin for help against guys like the Cobra and Hyde. So in order to make it a little more sporting, they paired the Grey Gargoyle with ... Dr. Blake!)
Up in Asgard, the gods look down and start to plan a way to help Blake because they know he's Thor, but Loki puts a stop to it. Except one. A mysterious figure shoots a blinding arrow at the Grey Gargoyle when he's just about to get Blake and, while he's blind, Don and Jane manage to evade him temporarily.
But the Gargoyle catches up to them again. Just as he's about to get rough with Dr. Blake, a glowing hand reaches out from an alley and gives him back his Thor powers for thirty seconds. That's fair. If he can't whoop the Grey Gargoyle in thirty seconds, then he's not worthy. So they mix it up for a few panels on a New York street and Thor somehow melts the Grey Gargoyle so that his body is like a blob of molten rock and his head is on top of the melted slag and he's yelling: "Oh! Poop! I can't move my hands or legs! What have you done!"
And Thor says: "I have somehow melted your lower body and your legs or something and you can not move, you base villain!"
The god who helped him ascends to Asgard and reports to Odin. He is Honir the Hunter, and he was doing the bidding of Odin, who could not bear to see his son harmed by some C-list Marvel super-villain.
Back on Earth, Blake explains to Jane that Thor has defeated the villain. Also, he's no longer coping with mental-health issues. He won't be going around and pretending to be Thor again. Jane is relieved. She loved her Don the way he is.
Commentary: Not bad! Not bad at all! It's too bad it gets lost in the shuffle a bit because it's between #112 and #114.
I guess I should call it a GET JANE FOSTER! episode because the Grey Gargoyle is chasing Dr. Blake and Jane, but it's a shared experience, and it makes a lot more sense than usual. The more I think about it, it would have been cool as an ongoing storyline for three or four issues! Don and Jane on the run from one of the villains from the earlier stories, and Don can't change to Thor because of some Asgardian enchantment.
Tales of Asgard: "The Boyhood of Loki!": This one I remember! Loki and Thor are about ten years old, I guess. And they're wearing the most adorable little monogrammed outfits, like they are at camp or something. They are watching some kind of armed combat competition, and Loki is getting a little annoyed at how Thor is always right about who is going to win, so they make a bet and Loki uses a spell taught to him by the Norn witch so he can win.
The other warriors know a spell when they see one, so they start scolding Loki for interfering with the tournament. Thor speaks up, defending his adopted brother, and says if they punish Loki, then they must also punish Thor! So the grown-up Asgardians grumble and let them go.
Thor is so noble! Loki is about ready to puke!
They frolic off to ride horses for a while, and Thor suggests they race each other (he's so competitive) and Loki is sick to his stomach about being beaten by Thor all the time.
Being gods, they live a very long time. It's not hard to see why Loki was most heartily sick of it after a while.
If it ain't Thor reviews by our very own Asgardian nerds 
