JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #115: POWER!!!

Published: April, 1965

While in Coronavirus lockdown, I spent more time at my computer, which led me to discover several musical artists on You Tube. Up for your consideration: Dan Vasc, a hard-rockin’ metal singer from Brazil who sometimes ends his videos with an enthusiastic commitment to “music that gives you POWER!!!”

Dan is the man! Now I can’t hear or even think the word “power” without giving it that extra burst of…well, POWER!!! When I realized this month’s Journey Into Mystery was all about POWER!!! I knew I had to introduce this theme by mentioning Dan Vasc.

But now that I’ve made my introduction, it’s time to bring this theme directly into the world of Thor, circa April, 1965.

POWER OF THE ABSORBING MAN
Let’s start with our villain, the Absorbing Man. I’ve learned enough about him by this time to know that, like a King Midas on steroids, he absorbs the characteristics of whatever he touches. But when he touches silk curtains to display his powers to the banker and his wife, I’m thinking… has he just foolishly given away the secret of how to defeat him? Now that we’ve seen this, wouldn’t it be too easy to lure him to the circus, offer him some delicious cotton candy, and then set a firehose on him? And why would a super-villain make a point of featuring himself in one of his most vulnerable states?

Perhaps “brainpower” is not one of those things he is able to absorb.

Actually, I’m not sure I understand all the mechanics of the Absorbing Man’s powers. For instance, when a cop decides to shoot him with a blast from a rifle grenade, I’m thinking “But surely that will only make him stronger!” Instead, it “stuns” him and knocks the existing power of heat and fire right out of him.

Really? How does this make sense? Is it the difference between matter and energy? Can Absorbing Man only absorb the characteristics of solid objects (iron, wood, silk, etc.) but not the characteristics of energy forces? If so, then how did he absorb, as Thor puts it, “an irresistible force of HEAT”? It looks like fire, but Thor says it’s “heat.” And in the next panel, Absorbing Man crows, “I’ve absorbed the power of HEAT!”

So which is it? Does he absorb matter, or energy…or both? Or, perhaps, only what is most convenient to the storyline at the moment?

CONVENIENT POWERS
So let’s talk a moment about convenience. One thing I’ve noticed in the short time I’ve been reading Marvel Comics, is that very often our superpowered characters will suddenly possess new powers at the very second such a power is needed.

In this story, Loki has an enchanted sword equal in power to Thor’s hammer (at least according to Loki). Have we seen this before? Seems new to me. But wait! As I move on to the accompanying Tales of Asgard story, “A Viper Among Us”, what do I find? Here, Loki is seen getting ready to use the “enchantment of my flashing sword” to undo the work of Thor’s hammer. Is it an accident that this magical sword suddenly appears later in this very same issue? It’s almost as if the writers anticipated my incredulity, and quickly wrote the enchanted sword in to the Asgardian past, as if to say, “See? Loki always had this sword!”

However, even if you overlook this quick and clever CYA, the question remains: if Loki has indeed possessed this sword since days of yore, why is he only now deciding to use it again? Wouldn’t it have come in handy when he faced Thor in Journey Into Mystery #’s 94 & 108, and Avengers #1?

Also in this story, we learn that Thor has the power to cause Jane to forget what happened when she was whisked away to Asgard. I know I’ve seen this amazing power before (Giant-Man uses a serum on Second-Story Sam; with his mighty mind power, Professor X wipes clean the Blob’s memories). How awfully convenient for a superhero whose #1 imperative is to keep his identity a secret! How convenient…and what a cheat.

And of course, in the middle of all this forgetting, I cannot forget Spock, in Requiem for Methuselah, when he conveniently touches the forehead of his sleeping/grieving Captain and utters that single word… “Forget.”

Spock used this power in a very un-Vulcan-like display of caring. Let’s at least give him credit for that. But Marvel superheroes so far only activate the “Forget” protocol in order to protect themselves.

I was going to suggest this would be an awesome power for us mere humans. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to simply forget the most horrible things that ever happened to you? In some ways, yes. Then I wonder if we would also forget the lessons learned by enduring those hardships. If we could rely on the human race to only use this power for personal convenience, that would be only half bad—let’s say, when a teenager prefers his parents forget that he stayed out way past his curfew. But human nature being what it is, power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely, I see way too much opportunity for exploitation and manipulation. Abuse of this power could cause the wielder to fashion an alternate perceived reality that is nothing but complimentary to himself, with very little in common with “real reality.”

The early writers of these Marvel Comics are teetering on the edge of abuse of this power, much too quickly and conveniently writing themselves out of a hole, rather than facing the stark reality of figuring out how their characters might deal with difficult situations.

Or what about this convenient power: Thor makes a plot-intensifying move “By my powers over nature’s elements.” What? Does he indeed have power over all of nature’s elements? I understand he is the “Thunder God” who can bring up thunder, lightning and violent weather, but are the writers overstepping here as well? Sometimes, it seems like there’s nothing Thor can’t do.

For instance, in the end, he spins his hammer at “cyclotronic speed” so he can “transmute the elements themselves” to create helium…which causes the Absorbing Man to float away into a prison of the upper atmosphere. Wow. Who knew he could do that? Well, I guess we do, now. But I wonder if I’ll ever see this “cyclotronic speed” again.

COPS
And now we come to the cops…who have some power, to be sure, but nowhere near as much as Thor or the Absorbing Man. Let’s face it: they are out of their league in this one. And we know this early on, when one of the cops commands, “If we find him, follow Plan G.” Ummm…G is the 7th letter of the alphabet. If you’re already contemplating Plan G, you obviously don’t have a clue what you should be doing.

Cops want to be in charge, of course, but here we get mixed messages. When Thor first arrives on the scene, he tells them, “You must let me battle him first.” But one cop responds, “We don’t need ANYBODY to do our job for us!” Then, almost as an afterthought, he graciously adds, “You can JOIN us, if you want to!” However, two pages later, when Thor yells out that he takes command “in the name of the Avengers!” now a cop (same one, or different? It’s hard to tell…) heartily agrees “The Avengers have A-1 priority ratings! Thor out-ranks us!” and Thor is permitted to do his superhero thing. So…this is not really making a lot of sense, is it? At this point, the cops were probably well past Plan W, and at last (wisely) decided to share some of their self-perceived “power” with an actual super-powered superhero.

TOUGH BANKER DUDE
In this tale, there are also examples of people who have little or no POWER!!! When Creel breaks into his house, suit-and-tie banker John, in an effort to appear strong and commanding in front of his wife, boldly proclaims that he will give Creel a FULL FIVE MINUTES to leave…and THEN he’s going to call the police! Ooooh! I’ll bet that had the Absorbing Man shaking in his boots. John does in fact get off one good punch, which helps the situation for all of about five seconds. He doesn’t accomplish much as far as the storyline goes, but at least in the end, his wife is proud of him because he proved that he was “an Avenger in Spirit, and in Heart!”

POWER OF THE PRESS
In the previous issue, we met Harris Hobbs, a reporter hot on the trail of the Absorbing Man. When Hobbs’ tangling with the super-villain threatens to put him in the obituaries, Thor saves him, and Hobbs lives to tell the cops about the Absorbing Man. And honestly, that is all a member of the press is required to do: TELL.

The cops think he’s “a nut,” but good ol’ Hobbs continues to keep himself right in the thick of the action. This is where Thor finds him, and instructs Hobbs to lure the Absorbing Man out of the house, so an actual superhero can fight him.

Having been present for all of it, Hobbs finally decides this whole business is so fantastic, he can only sell his story to a science-fiction magazine. But he thanks Thor for opening his eyes to the fact that superheroes are not just conceited, costumed showoffs. He is now convinced that they do indeed possess…POWER!!!

I don’t know if we’re going to see Hobbs again, and I don’t know if he sells this story to a sci-fi mag or Affiliated Press, but unlike J. Jonah Jameson, superheroes now have at least one member of the Fourth Estate on their side.

PARENTAL POWER
Early in the story, Odin has to interrupt his throne-sitting to fly in and stop the sibling rivalry between Thor and Loki from getting out of hand. His broad shoulders, glaring eyes and proclamations of “SO!” and “Silence!” leave no doubt that dear old dad is NOT pleased. The power of the pissed-off parent sets in motion what seems to be a major event for the next issue—Trial of the Gods.

THE POWER OF GOOD OVER EVIL
“A Viper in Our Midst!”
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Vince Colletta
Letters: Artie Simek

In the accompanying Tale of Asgard, Loki rescues a storm giant, with an eye on calling in the favor when he is ready to overthrow Asgard. Loki is clever enough to conceive a plan to amass the enemies of Asgard to use as his own private army, but he is not wise enough to realize that when push comes to shove, Evil will always put its own interest first. As long as the interests of your evil cohorts coincide with yours, there’s a chance your unholy alliance might work out. But don’t count on their making any sacrifices for you. A house divided cannot stand. And there is no honor among thieves. Or for that matter, among any breed of villain, be they earthly or Asgardian.

I predict that Loki’s plan is doomed to fail, because he is so petty, his mind so twisted, that he fails to realize that real POWER!!! (the kind that comes in all caps and bold, with three exclamation points) exerts itself most powerfully when people are united FOR something, not against it.