Journey Into Mystery #86

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Cover Date: November 1962

Plot Overview: The future was become a peaceful place except for one man. He is a scientist named Zarrko. He's built a time machine and heads back to the past to find a destructive weapon to conquer the future with. Meanwhile in 1962, Thor is helping the U.S. military test a new weapon called a cobalt bomb. Zarrko appears, grabs the bomb and heads back to the future.

Thor calls upon Odin for help. Odin instructs Thor to tape a piece of Zarrko's time machine to the hammer and swing it really hard and he'll appear in the future. Thor makes his way to the future and learns that Zarrko has become a dictator in the future. Zarrko spies his arrival and sends his security to apprehend Thor. Thor makes short work of the guards and makes his way to Zarrko. Zarrko springs a trap but Thor reveals that it was an imposter Thor that came in first.

Zarrko fails to send Thor to another dimension and then sends an army of robots after him. The robots grab the Hammer and it's a race against time. Thor pulls out a water pipe and floods the room to disable the robots. Thor regains the Hammer as Zarrko makes his escape in a ship. Thor summons up a great storm and Zarrko loses control of the ship.

Thor grabs the bombs as Zarrko's ship crashes. The authorities arrive and Zarrko has lost his memory. The doctors mention that he'll never regain his memories. Thor returns to the present and hands the bomb over to the U.S. military. The issue ends with Jane Foster wishing Blake wasn't so boring and Blake comments that some people read about the news while others make it.

My Take: I'm going to shake things up a bit here and go with the bad stuff first. For starters I hate when these 13 page titles have a splash preview page. I understand why they do it but a page is valuable real estate in an anthology feature. Some of these stories feel really rushed and a page would help to flesh it out more.

The story of this issue was really annoying too. Zarrko is a scientist in the future, he can build a time machine and he needs to go 300 years into the past to get a weapon? Really? He can't build his own bomb and take over the future? That is a picture perfect example of the ridiculous stories that would pop up in Silver Age titles like this.

Speaking of that. This issue really shows the dichotomy that Marvel is at this point in their history. On one hand you have groundbreaking things going on like all of the character development in the Fantastic Four and a teenage hero in Spider-Man. On the other hand you have books with ridiculous plots like this one and the whole Tales To Astonish Ant-Man stuff. In fairness to Marvel, they've been doing superheroes for exactly a year at this point. It's understandable that they haven't quite found their voice yet.

Onto the positives of this issue. It was a quick read and it was a fun read despite the plot holes. Keeping Asgard as a constant for Thor is a real positive too as it distinguishes the book from everyone else. This issue showed that Thor isn't just a dumb ox, he can be clever and strategic when he wants to be. I feel they really developed the Thor side of the equation this time. Hopefully he starts acting more like an Asgardian soon and drops Don Blake's personality being in control as Thor.

I'd give this issue ** out of *****

Notes: This issue is the first appearance of Zarrko. Zarrko pops up from time to time to bother Thor and sometimes the Fantastic Four. I would qualify him as a C list villain in the Marvel Universe though.

Next Issue: Incredible Hulk #4

Posted in: Jane Foster,Journey Into Mystery,Odin,Thor,Zarrko