From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"Thor- hear me! This bucket is filled with hot rivets! Unless you let me go free and keep me safe from the cops, I'll dump 'em on the crowd!"

- - the tactical genius Thug Thatcher, page 12

Larry Lieber, dropping some Robert Burns on the kids!

Thor from Journey Into Mystery #89
February 1963 • 13 pages

Publication Date: December 3, 1962

Letters Page: No letters page was published in this issue

I: Feature Story: "The Thunder God and the Thug!"

Pages: 13

Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Roy Holloway

First Appearance: Thug Thatcher, Max, Vince, Ruby

Villain: Thug Thatcher and his gang (Max and Vince)

Guest Appearance: Jane Foster, Ruby

Cameo Appearance: Odin

Synopsis: Thor, worried that as he flies to the office of Dr. Don Blake he will be spotted by patients inside, flies into a lower floor window and uses a Thor mannequin dummy to throw across the skyline to divert their attention. Then, as they watch the Thor dummy fly across the sky, he walks into the office as Dr. Don Blake. Jane Foster wishes to herself that Dr. Blake would show her some kind of romantic attention, but she also daydreams about Thor, hoping that one day she could polish his hammer, iron his cloak and cut his hair for him (oh, brother! -- Gormuu)

Downstairs, an armored paddy wagon is carrying mobster Thug Thatcher to prison for selling sub-standard steel in an attempt to muscle in on the industry. His boys knock over the paddy wagon to rescue him, but the police are on the scene and fire back. A shootout erupts, all underneath the window of Blake's office. Since Jane is around, he can't change into Thor. Thug Thatcher is hit by a bullet, and his gang kidnaps Dr. Blake to provide surgical help to the mob boss, while leaving Jane Foster behind tied to a chair.

They take him into Thatcher's hideout, where Blake heals Thatcher's wound. Unfortunately for Blake, Thatcher orders his boys to dispose of him, since he worries they will reveal his hideout to the police. Seperated from his cane, Blake calls out to Odin for help, and Odin sends a lightning bolt down to knock the cane over to Blake, and he turns into Thor. He easily rounds up the whole Thatcher gang, while Thatcher grabs his moll named Ruby and makes a getaway. They head to find Blake at his office, only to find Jane Foster still tied up, and Thor coming to save her. Thor throws his voice across the room to distract Thug Thatcher, then he unties Jane and whisks her away out of harm's way. Once she is safe, he returns to find the villainous mobster.

His girl Ruby tries to talk him into surrendering, but Thatcher tries to escape at a construction site by climbing high up the steel structure to get away from the cops. He fires down with his pistol, with Thor trying to bring him down with bolts of lightning. Thatcher threatens to throw a molten-hot bucket of rivets down on the crowd, but before he can, a steel girder breaks from underneath his feet, sending him falling into Thor's arms. Thor turns him over to the police, and the crowd realizes the ironic justice of Thug Thatcher being done in by faulty steelwork. Thor erases all memories of Thatcher from the mind of his girlfriend Ruby.

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Thor and Tales of Asgard from
Journey Into Mystery #83-100

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

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