Journey Into Mystery #88

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Cover Date: January 1963

Plot Overview: Loki wanders Asgard planning his revenge on Thor. Loki spies on Thor from afar and learns his secret identity of Don Blake. Loki sneaks to Earth and puts Jane Foster under a spell and then challenges Thor to a battle. They meet in Center Park to do battle. Thor throws his Hammer and just then Jane Foster arrives. Loki turns a tree into a tiger and Thor is forced to battle the tiger instead of grabbing the Hammer.

Loki puts a force field around the Hammer and Thor reverts back to Don Blake. Loki declares his victory and then wanders the world playing various pranks. He turns people blank and also turns a city into candy. Meanwhile, Don Blake devises a plan to get his Hammer back.

The newspapers declare that Thor vows to defeat Loki so Loki goes to check up on the Hammer. When he arrives, Thor is waiting for him. Loki drops the barrier and suddenly Blake grabs the Hammer. He reveals that it was just a dummy that he was hiding behind. Blake becomes Thor and Loki turns into a pigeon to try and escape. Thor grabs a bags of peanuts because if there's one thing pigeons love it's peanuts! Loki reveals himself and Thor captures him. Thor returns Loki to Asgard and Odin hopes that Loki never surpasses Thor in power as the issue ends.

My Take: This was a quick little read. I thought the overall concept was better than Loki's original appearance. You got to see him as more of a trickster and I feel like he outsmarted Thor in a more plausible way this time. The sad part is, I think Loki is now a more developed character than Thor is. Thor to me is still a bland one dimensional character.

I really liked the art to this issue. It seemed really colorful compared to some of the other books around it. There also seemed to be a ton of detail added to the backgrounds. Asgard is really a nice addition art wise as it's an excuse to add as much color as possible to the book. Asgard also really sets this book apart from the other Marvel titles.

I have to complain again though, the splash page is a real waste. This was a 13 page story and yet again an entire page was wasted on a splash teaser for the other 12 pages. I really wish they would make that page part of the story or just start with a standard page. I want more story.

I did enjoy this story a lot. I've said it a lot lately but it remains true. This wasn't an all-time classic or a game changer in anyway. It was just a fun little read that filled 10 minutes of my life. I enjoyed it for the fun little adventure that it was. Stan Lee really seems to be getting the pacing down for this shorter anthology stories at this point.

Overall I'd give this **1/2 out of *****

Notes: There wasn't anything too notable in this issue.

Next Issue: Incredible Hulk #5

Posted in: Heimdall,Jane Foster,Journey Into Mystery,Loki,Odin,Thor