Fone vs. Love and Thor vs. Radiation

First Look for January 19, 2018

Today, Fone has found the love of his life, in Bone #2, and she’s not a Bone at all, but a real girl. Thorn, the girl who knows everything (according to Ted the bug), has enthralled our protagonist and it seems just her presence is bringing Spring to the valley. No more snow dumping on his head and while she doesn’t believe he’s seen a dragon, Fone doesn’t really care. On the other side of my first look, I actually learned some history from Journey Into Mystery #93. After reading the issue, I looked up on Wikipedia about the Sino-Indian War and while there’s no indication Thor fought with a Radio-Active Man in that conflict, it was interesting to see the Red Chinese as the bad guys instead of the proverbial “commies”.

Bone #2

Out From Boneville, Thorn by Jeff Smith. Published by Cartoon Books, 1991.

Winter has fully come to the valley and Fone Bone has worked hard to get by without his cousins. He’s made friends though and they’ve been a great help for a solo adventurer. Miz Possum was particularly helpful, always checking to make sure he had plenty of blankets and food, and all she asked in return was he watch the children while she visits Miz Hedgehog. Of course the baby possums get into trouble and even have a run in with the rat monsters we saw in last issue, but between Fone’s wit and the Great Dragon’s intimidation, the rats were sent scurrying into the snow. No one believes Fone saw a dragon but he’s sure of it this time and he’s even got scorch marks to prove it, but Miz Possum and Miz Hedgehog just chuckle and encourage him to keep up the good stories for the kids.

As he heads to a hot spring to clean up before enthralling the children with tales of his latest adventure, he meets Thorn…and instantly falls in love. While she knows Ted the bug and has dealt with the rat monsters in the past, she too doesn’t believe Fone’s tale of the dragon helping him, and she hasn’t seen his cousins either. Further, while Ted claimed she knew everything, she sadly knows nothing about Boneville. Regardless, she promises to help him find his cousins and hand in hand, they stroll through the wood to grandmother’s house.

You can find first looks at other issues in this title linked in my January Reading List.
I rate this issue a A-.

Journey into Mystery #93

The Mysterious Radio-Active Man! by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Jack Kirby. Published by Marvel Comics, 1963.

This issue actually shows Thor getting involved in world crises as there actually was a Sino-Indian conflict that occurred in 1962 and since it took place at the exact same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis, neither side had to deal with interference from the U.S. or Soviet Union. Apparently they had to deal with Thor though. And while he helped the “Hindus” out in this issue, the Chinese kinda won the war in the real world.

In the issue it’s interesting to note that Thor is facing off against Red China rather than just the “Commies” in this one. In any case, after stopping the aggression of the Red Chinese invaders, Peking (yes…not Beijing) demands its scientists come up with a way to defeat Thor. One scientist, Chen Lu, declares he’ll take up the challenge and heads back to his robot maintained and radiation infused lab to become Radio-Active Man. With the power of radiation, he’s able to make Thor’s hammer bounce off him, melt bullets, and hypnotize Thor. And Thor shows a new ability to shoot lightening bolts from his hands but to no effect on Radio-Active Man.

In the end, hypnotized, Thor throws away his hammer and we get the now typical 60 second countdown before Thor becomes Dr. Blake. Once transformed, he breaks out of the hypnotism and escapes. The saving grace of this issue is the struggle that weak, fragile Dr. Blake has to engage in to retrieve the hammer. Kirby does a good job of depicting this scene and Stan fills in the dialog so that between the two I really got the feeling Blake was having trouble under water. Anyway, he does get the hammer and shoots Radio-Active Man back to Red China with a tornado.

Not the best issue but I did learn about the Sino-Indian war so I’ll add that to my rating.

You can find first looks at other issues in this title linked in my January Reading List.

I rate this issue a B.