From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"Like so many others before you with new-found powers, you talk about them too much, Cobra!"

- - Thor, page 7

"For honor, for glory, for Asgard!" had yet to be invented as the ultimate Asgardian battlecry.

Thor and Tales of Asgard
from Journey Into Mystery #98
November 1963 • 18 pages

Publication Date: September 3, 1963

Letters Page: No letters page was published in this issue

I: Feature Story: "Challenged by the Human Cobra!"

Pages: 13

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Don Heck
Inks: Don Heck
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Human Cobra/Klaus, Professor Shecktor

Villain/Origin: Human Cobra/Klaus

Guest Appearance: Jane Foster, Dr. Bruce "Basil" Andrews, Professor Shecktor, Odin

Death: Professor Shecktor

Gadgets & Technology: Human Cobra: cobra darts, cobra gas, cobra cord

Synopsis: Thor is furious he has been denied the love of Jane Foster by Odin. He is called by Odin for a personal audience where he reaffirms his edict, but Thor doesn't like it any better this time. In his mortal identity, Dr. Don Blake decides to take his mind off things with a trip to India. While Blake flies across the ocean for his vacation, world-famous reptile expert Professor Shecktor is hard at work in his lab, little knowing that his assistant Klaus is bent on destroying him to take credit for his work. He puts into action a plan in which both men are bitten by a poisonous cobra, but only Klaus allows himself the antidote; he denies the antidote to Shecktor, setting him up for certain death.

When he arrives in Bombay, Dr. Blake overhears men talking about Professor Shecktor being gravely ill from a snakebite. Blake turns into Thor to check on the man who used to be his teacher, and finds him bedridden. Among Shecktor's last words is a warning that Klaus has been bitten by a radioactive cobra that has endowed him with terrible powers, and that he is using them for evil. Thor sets out to find this human cobra and stop him before he can commit crimes.

He flies back to America where he tracks down the Human Cobra trying to extort a chemical plant corporation in order to create mass amounts of cobra serum to raise a cobra army under his command. Thor crashes through the window and the fight is on. The Cobra tries to shoot Thor with "cobra darts" that shoot from his wrist. Thor is too quick for them, so the next attack is with capsules of "cobra gas," which Thor pushes away with his whirlwind hammer. The Human Cobra is able to wrap Thor up with his "cobra cord" and fling him out the window. Clumsily, Thor has dropped his hammer, but works it to his advantage after he turns into Dr. Don Blake and is able to wriggle free from the cord.

Blake wanders back into the room, past the Cobra who cannot figure out where Thor went. Blake reclaims his hammer and takes the Cobra by surprise, but after some fighting, the villain escapes to a nearby doctor's office. It happens to be the office of Dr. Bruce "Basil" Andrews, and the Cobra commands Dr. Andrews to do his bidding and put together serums from his medicine cabinet. His easy cowing in front of the villain does not impress Jane Foster in the least, who accuses him of being unmanly. She notices Thor flying by the window, and throws a beaker outside to get his attention. The Cobra sees her duplicity and tries to kill her with a cobra dart, but Thor knocks the dart out of the way with his hammer.

The Cobra takes Jane hostage and tells Thor to keep away from him, then he crawls out the window with her in tow. Thor uses a sort of "Spider-Man maneuver" to drop out the window and sling over the building to take the Cobra by surprise. He knocks Jane from the Cobra's arms and catches her before she falls. The Cobra falls into the river and escapes. Jane decides to go back to Dr. Don Blake and work for him instead of that loser Dr. Andrews.

--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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