Review of Journey Into Mystery #95

Thor faces his ultimate adversary in this issue as he must face off against himself. Professor Zaxton, who seemed to be a good guy in the beginning of the story turns out to be power hungry as he uses a duplicator ray to create a copy of Thor but not only does Thor have to face a duplicate, Zaxton gives the copy 2 hammers.

Issue: Journey into Mystery #95

Name: The Demon Duplicator

Published: 1963 by Marvel Comics.

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Joe Sinnott
Script: Robert Bernstein
Letterer: Sam Rosen

Characters:

The Good: Thor, Odin, Heimdall, Jane Foster
The Bad: Professor Zaxton

My Reading:

While most of the action in this issue takes place on Earth, this issue actually starts in Asgard. Thor’s been called home by Odin to see if he can help out with the drought they’ve been having. Of course this is an easy thing for Thor as he simply bangs his hammer on the ground a couple times and a thunderstorm appears.

Heading back to Earth, Thor heads to a demonstration of an android Dr. Blake invented. Professor Zaxton is helping Dr. Blake (since he can’t be Thor and Don Blake at the same time) by running the demo. He shows how smart the android is…375 I.Q….and how strong he is…able to withstand a blow from Thor’s hammer, but then he messes something up and the Android explodes. So much for the demo…

Heading back to his office, Dr. Blake is unable to find Jane but instead, Professor Zaxton is there. He’s got a duplicating machine that can make copies of any inanimate thing but he wants Dr. Blake’s help in upgrading it to be able to copy human beings. The professor apparently has Jane hostage and forces Dr. Blake to help him and soon, Zaxton is making replications of cats. But as soon as he is able, Blake sneaks into another room to turn into Thor…utoh…Professor Zaxton saw him…and he shoots the hero with his duplicating device.

Now there are 2 Thors and one is an evil clone. And then Zaxton does something crazy – he creates a duplicate of the clone’s hammer so now he’s got 2 hammers. This is not looking good for the good Thor. They fight and while Zaxton keeps making duplicates of things to hinder the heroic Asgardian, Thor finally realizes that this evil clone can’t wield the true power of Thor since he is evil and not worthy. With that knowledge, Thor takes out the clone but as he heads to confront Professor Zaxton, the villain accidentally zaps himself with the duplicator creating a ‘good’ clone and then he falls off the building to his death.

Thor finds Jane Forster and rescues her and then heads to Asgard to turn off the thunderstorm so there’s no flooding. Quite a busy issue.

What did I learn:

• Dr. Don Blake needs to chose his science and business partners better.
• This villain would rather wait for a chance encounter where he finds out Dr. Blake is Thor to use his duplicator rather than duplicating the super android or Thor during the demonstration.

My Thoughts:

This issue isn’t very good and I suppose the main point of it was to reiterate the inscription on Thor’s Hammer. Only someone worthy can wield the power of Thor.

Other than that, we’re blindsided by the fact that Dr. Blake is not only a general practitioner of medicine, but he somehow creates androids on the side. Along with that, Professor Zaxton is demonstrating a super power android but doesn’t use his duplicating device on it instead of waiting until he just happens to see Blake turn into Thor.

Finally, I wonder if the ‘good’ clone of the evil villain, Zaxton, will keep Thor’s secret identity? Just a whole lotta problems with this issue.

My Rating: C-

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 245.2 | Comics – Marvel 1963 – Journey Into Mystery #95