Monthly Archives: January 2007

Marvel was in the middle of Marvel’s “single issue stories” experiment, which wasn’t really playing to the strength of the whole Marvel way of doing things. Thor returns as Don Blake to his office, where he’s met by Jim North, Jane Foster’s new boss, who brings news that Jane has been kidnapped by Kronin Krask, who wants North to perform a forbidden operation for him. North has come to see if Don Blake can contact Thor to help.

Meanwhile, Odin takes a look around at where everyone is, using his Enchanti-Scan. The odd mix of mythical and high-tech in Asgard always confuses me…

It turns out that Krask wants North to perform a mind-transplant, and the body he wants for his mind is Thor, who he knew North would contact. Thor is captured and the mind-exchange is attempted, which leads to a battle of the embodied egos of Thor and Krask, which Thor wins, killing Krask in the process.

Not the greatest story (although with a few ideas that came together a bit better in some Fourth World stories). Bill Everett inks the 20-page story and cover, and that looks really nice.

Published 1970

A reprint of the cover and Captain America story from TALES OF SUSPENSE #80 [1966] in this issue, as Cap rescues an AIM agent who was blown out of the sky pursuing a traitor who is bringing the powerful Cosmic Cube to the Red Skull. SHIELD is able to help Cap quickly catch up to the AIM traitor, and they both land on the Skull’s island.

The Skull plays dirty, using the information that he was behind the WWII plan of Zemo that resulted in Bucky’s death, to distract Cap long enough for a sneak attack, giving him a chance to get possession of the Cube.

Great little story, although a bit jumpy in this form with two pages edited out for the sake of stingy 1970s page counts. It’s interesting how some of the descriptions of the power of the Cosmic Cube read like rough versions of the Anti-Life Equation. Don Heck handles the inking on the now 8-page story and cover, and that’s always a pleasing combination (Kirby must have thought so as well, since it wasn’t long after this that he hired Heck to ink the presentation pieces that led to the Fourth World books).

Published 1974